The Jakarta Method

Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World

By: Vincent Bevins

Narrated by: Tim Paige

Named One of the Best Books of 2020 by NPR, The Financial Times, and GQ

The hidden story of the wanton slaughter - in Indonesia, Latin America, and around the world - backed by the United States.

In 1965, the US government helped the Indonesian military kill approximately one million innocent civilians. This was one of the most important turning points of the 20th century, eliminating the largest communist party outside China and the Soviet Union and inspiring copycat terror programs in faraway countries like Brazil and Chile. But these events remain widely overlooked, precisely because the CIA's secret interventions were so successful.

In this bold and comprehensive new history, Vincent Bevins builds on his incisive reporting for the Washington Post, using recently declassified documents, archival research, and eye-witness testimony collected across 12 countries to reveal a shocking legacy that spans the globe. For decades, it's been believed that parts of the developing world passed peacefully into the US-led capitalist system. The Jakarta Method demonstrates that the brutal extermination of unarmed leftists was a fundamental part of Washington's final triumph in the Cold War.

©2020 Vincent Bevins (P)2020 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"This fascinating book is a meticulous and shocking analysis of a little-known and horrifically bloody battle of the Cold War, but it is also something more. It places the Indonesia massacre of 1965 in its global context, showing how the United States both supported it and used it as a model for repression in other countries." (Stephen Kinzer, author of Overthrow, All the Shah's Men, Poisoner in Chief)

"In The Jakarta Method, Vincent Bevins argues persuasively that during the Cold War, the U.S. approved of mass murder campaigns to roll back communism in the Third World. This is a provocative, necessary book, an essential guide to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of our imperfect world. Highly recommended." (Jon Lee Anderson, New Yorker staff writer, author of Che Guevara and Inside the League)

"The Jakarta Method is a gripping, thoroughly original exploration into the global covert Cold War, the passions it provoked, and the corpses it left in its wake. A full tally of the body count of the transnational counterinsurgency Washington has been waging since the early 1960s is impossible. But Bevins' excellent book offers a different kind of reckoning, of moral costs and ongoing political consequences. 'Jakarta is coming' was spray-painted on the walls of Santiago Chile in 1972, just before that country's CIA-backed coup, a way for that nation's rich to let the poor know the fate that would befall them were they to continue to fight for a more just society. 'Jakarta' did come, leaving hundreds of thousands of dead throughout Latin America. And, in a way, it never left." (Greg Grandin, Yale University, author of Fordlandia and The End of the Myth)

Concise and informative

Thank you for including how the terror visited in Jakarta affected 'emerging' governments regionally and globally.

Must read for anyone interested in global history!

Without exaggeration this is one of the best books I’ve read all year. Vincent Bevins does an excellent job connecting the complex histories of the US, the USSR, and the global south into a coherent historically accurate narrative. This Book is written such that it will be understandable even if you don’t have a background in world history and will teach you a lot even if you already know a lot about world history. I am now embarrassed to say that I knew nothing about the genocides which took place in Indonesia and their impact on the Third World movement and socialism in the Third World. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the current world order and the bloody truth of American imperialism.

excellent necessary history

a broad history told through those who were there. this is a book of beautiful stories of the lives of people throughout the Third World working towards building their countries, against US led capitalism and western geopolitical project. great narrator as well.

Deep reporting

excellent book. deep, relatable, detailed reporting. Excellent coverage of history including personal accounts previously unreported. a close look at a brutal global campaign to guarantee the subservience of the global south.

Narration was captivating despite occasional pronunciation issues

A book everybody should read

This is a history that is not taught, in fact is constantly denied. Of course, the documents proving it have been classified, and most of the witnesses killed, whereas propaganda to the contrary has been spread by all media and basic education. But now that it is known, it should be known by everybody. Chances are it changes the way you see the world.

very underapreciated perpective

we are conditioned to dislike this type of perspective in the west but I am glad this book gives such a good account of the struggle of the people of the 3rd world.

Thank you

Thank you very much for the effort done in years of research for this book. Loved it!

A must read history of the cold war

a very well written and well researched history of post colonial Indonesia and the less known but more important US cold war proxies.

Tells the story of the history that everyone should know

You’ll be embarrassed and infuriated at how ignorant you were as an American after reading this book. This books gives you a wider understanding of recent world history that you won’t find in mainstream media outlets and exposes the evil doing of the CIA across at least 22 countries.

Essential puzzle pieces for understanding state terror

This book belongs next to ‘Manufacturing Consent’ by Noam Chomsky, ‘The CIA as Organized Crime’ by Douglas Valentine, ‘In Search of Enemies’ by John Stockwell, ‘The Management of Savagery’ by Max Blumenthal, and ‘How to Hide an Empire’ by Daniel Immerwahr.

I came across this book from an interview the author gave on Glenn Greenwald’s “System Update” podcast. I don’t regret it.