Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World

Born and raised in Indonesia, this book is a slap in the face for what I've known in the classroom was never the whole truth of history.
(Sure, I'm not that naive to believe that it's true TRUE, but the EXTENT of what actually happened scared the f out of me.)

Frustrating and sad for it was always the powerless who were killed, raped, and slaughtered. And in the name of what?
Who get the most benefits out of this? For whose purpose do my people had to suffer this much?

It left me utterly devastated.
(bcs in the end my country is still a corruption plague, overpopulated nation with unsolved trauma)

Taking the international approach, this book told a neat chronological order of what's happening around the world during 1960s. It helped me to understand the pattern, the agenda, and in the end the propaganda to eliminate communism.
It talked about what happened in Brazil, Guatemala, Philippines, and Chiles. Since this kind of book is out of my comfort zone, I thought it would be hard for me to digest its content, but IT ACTUALLY MAKES SO MUCH SENSE. How the culture shaped the nation and took part of its violence.

This war of ideology took too much out of everything and everyone.

It also revealed the people and organization responsible behind those inhumane acts. ~~Spoiler: it's US~~

The 'method' revealed made me nauseous. Never once I thought that the city in my country could be the blueprint for wanton slaughters in other parts of the world.

Wishing the reconsolidation could be done in the most justifiable way.

Disclaimer: I'm very new on this left right discourse, so this book served its novelty brilliantly. Eye opening for me~

The most frightening part: I used to believe those lies. Hating PKI and thinking they deserved to be eliminated. Even after more than 20+ years, the story was ingrained and the horrors and paradigm never really left.

Idk Im just so glad that I read it. Hearing the others side of the story, not matter how frustrating it turned out in the end. At least for me, now I know better.

Content Warnings