FO 371/180320: Gilchrist Despatch of 8 October 1965 on the Coup and Counter-Coup
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180320 (Oct-Nov 1965): Gilchrist's despatch no. 13 of 8 Oct 1965 on the coup and counter-coup, plus telegrams, NATO and Commonwealth reports and Chinese/Soviet/Hanoi reactions. The despatch lists GERWANI among 'chief suspects' (p. 11) and says members of PKI youth and women's groups took p
FO 371/180324: Attempted Coup against Sukarno [15] (Nov 1965)
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180324 (1965), 'Attempted coup against Sukarno [15]': telegrams and letters from Djakarta, Washington and Peking, November 1965, plus appended US and Canadian reports. It records Sukarno's Heroes Day speech, Adam Malik's view of the Sukarno-generals stalemate and accounts of 30 September.
LBJ National Security File: Indonesia, Communists and Internal Politics (Oct-Nov 1965)
Compilation from the LBJ National Security File (ProQuest), Oct-Nov 1965: State Department memos, CIA intelligence memoranda and Indonesia Working Group situation reports on the 30 September Movement and army counter-moves. Gerwani appears only in passing: arrests of Gerwani and Pemuda Rakyat members (6 Oct), CIA claim
LBJ National Security File: Indonesian Military Coups, Oct-Nov 1965 (Airgram A-300 'The September 30 Affair')
Supplement to the LBJ National Security File (cables, Oct-Nov 1965), centred on the long Djakarta embassy airgram A-300 'The September 30 Affair' plus telegrams. A-300 repeats the Lubang Buaya account that the generals were 'taunted and humiliated' by Gerwani women before being killed, and says Gerwani members were pla
FBIS-monitored Jakarta radio text (5 Oct 1965) of the Nahdlatul Ulama executive board and affiliates' statement. It cites authorities' 'fact' that Pemuda Rakjat and Gerwani members were brought from afar to be trained at Lubang Buaya where the generals' bodies were found, and asks Sukarno to disband PKI, Pemuda Rakjat,
Anger mounts against the PKI over the killings (Berita Harian, 1965)
Berita Harian, 7 October 1965, p. 1: Sukarno's first cabinet meeting after 30 September; Nahdlatul Ulama demands a PKI ban and claims rebels armed Pemuda Rakyat, Gerwani and SOBSI, and that Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwani members trained at 'Sarang Buaya' (Lubang Buaya). Also press and rally restrictions in Sumatra and an ar
Mass arrests in Jakarta: anti-Communist drive (The Times, 11 October 1965)
The Times, 11 Oct 1965, p.9, whole page scan; only the first article, 'Mass arrests in Jakarta: anti-Communist drive', concerns Indonesia (other items cover Aden, Cuba, Bulgaria, etc.). It reports 1,500 detained, the burning of PKI headquarters, Muslim demands that Aidit be hanged, and that arrested Communists include
Torture squads in Djakarta: how Indonesian generals died (South China Morning Post, 15 October 1965)
South China Morning Post, 15 Oct 1965, p.12, 'Torture squads in Djakarta: how Indonesian generals died', by a special correspondent. A lurid account of the 1 October killings: it says 'frenzied members of the Gerwani women's organisation' chanted insults and danced naked while Pemuda Rakjat youths emasculated six gener
Jakarta women danced as generals were murdered (The Hindustan Times, 15 October 1965)
The Hindustan Times, 15 Oct 1965: report of a police witness's account at Lubang Buaya that Communist women danced naked in a circle while six generals and a lieutenant (mistaken for Nasution) were tortured to death, with torn-out fingernails and faces mutilated. Gerwani is not named, but this is an early instance of t
Demonstration against Subandrio
Leeuwarder Courant, 19 October 1965, p. 3: per Radio Jakarta the garrison commander Umar Wirahadikusumah temporarily banned the PKI in Jakarta and its allied organisations, including Sobsi and Gerwani, the latter accused of taking part in the torture and murder of six generals. Army 'cleansing operations' continue; Sub
CIA, Press information relating to insurgency and counterinsurgency: South and East Asia (217), 28 October 1965
CIA Foreign Documents Division compilation of Indonesian, Malaysian, Burmese and Cambodian press, 28 Oct 1965. Djakarta's Angkatan Bersendjata (early Oct) is quoted on the 30 September Movement and the Lubang Buaya killings: bodies found near a bivouac of Gerwani and Pemuda Rakjat volunteers, Suharto's remark about a G
The Anti-Communist Campaign in Indonesia: A Chronology (USIA R-158-65), Nov 1965
USIA Research and Reference Service report R-158-65 (November 1965), a chronology of the anti-Communist campaign in Indonesia, 1-20 October 1965, built on Indonesian and foreign radio and press. Gerwani entries: Suharto's 4 Oct TV statement linking the generals' murders to Pemuda Rakjat and Gerwani training grounds; NU
CIA, Press information relating to insurgency and counterinsurgency: South and East Asia (Summary 6897), 4 November 1965
CIA Foreign Documents Division weekly digest (Summary No. 6897, 4 Nov 1965) of press on insurgency in South and East Asia. Its Indonesia section reproduces Army-controlled press (Angkatan Bersendjata, Duta Masjarakat) on the 30 September Movement, including claims that Gerwani volunteers trained at Lubang Buaja and moc
Army plans to kill P.K.I. for ever (The Scotsman, 8 December 1965)
The Scotsman, 8 Dec 1965, Dennis Bloodworth, 'Army plans to kill PKI for ever': Suharto and Nasution press to destroy the PKI while Sukarno refuses to ban it; the article analyses the PKI's miscalculations. It repeats the slander that six generals were mutilated by 'doe-eyed girls' of the PKI's 'Gerwani' women's moveme
Dossier of the Indonesian Drama (Lucien Rey, New Left Review, 1966)
Article by Lucien Rey (New Left Review no. 36, March 1966) reconstructing the 1 October 1965 events as a plot by dissident Central Java officers, plus a translated Asahi Shimbun interview with PKI deputy chair Njoto. Says People's Youth and Gerwani auxiliaries trained at Halim took part in the generals' executions in r
Interpretations of the 1965 Indonesian Coup: a review of the literature (van der Kroef, 1970)
Review essay by Justus M. van der Kroef (Pacific Affairs, winter 1970) surveying interpretations of the 1965 coup (Wertheim, Rey, the Cornell Report, Utrecht, Pluvier, Hughes, Nugroho/Saleh) from a pro-PKI-complicity standpoint. Several passages mention Gerwani members' role at Halim; he cites 'Mrs Djamilah's' confessi
Youth and the Wane of Soekarno's Government (Paget, 1970)
Roger Paget's 1970 Cornell PhD thesis on how student and youth action groups, culminating in KAMI, emerged after 1 October 1965 and helped undermine Sukarno. Gerwani appears in several passages: action fronts demanded its banning (p. 44) and its offices were ransacked (p. 63); Herlina denounced it for not fighting Mala
The revolution passes Indonesia by: interview with Ernst Utrecht
Second half of a De Volkskrant interview (29 Aug 1970) with Prof. Ernst Utrecht on his book on Indonesia ahead of Suharto's Dutch visit. Utrecht says the Jakarta branches of Gerwani and Pemuda Rakyat "wanted to take part and did take part" in the 1965 coup, that the PKI leadership said these were independent organisati
Dynamics of Tokyo-Djakarta Interactions, 1951-1966 (Nishihara, 1973)
Masashi Nishihara's 1973 Michigan PhD thesis on Japanese-Indonesian relations 1951-1966: war reparations, the Kishi-Sukarno settlement, lobbies, the Malaysia confrontation and the 'Sukarno groups'. Gerwani appears only once (pp. 285-286): the Nasution-Suharto group's claim that Pemuda Rakyat, Gerwani and SOBSI trained
The Cold War in the City of Heroes: US-Indonesian Relations and Anti-Communist Operations in Surabaya (Setiyawan, 2014)
PhD dissertation in History (UCLA, 2014) by Dahlia Gratia Setiyawan on U.S. anti-communist operations and the 1965-66 purge in Surabaya. Gerwani appears in context: as the PKI's women's affiliate (ch. 1), through the Surabaya women's coalition GOWS in the 27 September 1965 Grahadi demonstration (ch. 4), and in the Army