EDGS Graduate Student Lecture Series
Brandon Kirk Williams
PhD Candidate, History
UC Berkeley
On June 1, 1970, Indonesian authoritarian Suharto toured the Port of Oakland at the end of a whirlwind state visit that ran from Washington D.C. to Disneyland. Suharto returned to Jakarta with a restored confidence in the survival of his regime, the New Order, after a successful trip that included Richard Nixon’s vow to preserve high aid flows. Drawing on records from the National Archives of Indonesia and archives from the United States, I argue that the restoration of close ties between the United States and Indonesia does not follow a simple Cold War narrative. Richard Nixon, I argue, cemented the new relationship that simultaneously created regime stability in Indonesia and heralded a new era for the United States in Asia and the trajectory of development. My paper concludes by gesturing to another conclusion: in post-Vietnam War Asia, Indonesia’s post-1965 path becomes a central way to reconsider the Cold War in Asia and the emergence of globalization in Asia.