US Embassy Despatches on PKI Tactics and the SOBSI Women's Labour Seminar, May 1961
US Embassy Djakarta despatches to the State Department, May 1961. One reports conservative views (Mohammad Roem) that the PKI won a limited victory by gaining legal recognition. The other reports the SOBSI National Seminar on Labouring Women (Jakarta, 11-14 May 1961), attended by Djuanda and Gerwani central board membe
US Embassy Reports on Women's Organizations and Friendship-Society Regulation, Oct 1961
US Embassy Djakarta despatches, Oct 1961: transmittal of the July 1961 war-administrator regulation on international friendship societies, and the report 'Role of Women in Indonesia: Women's Organizations' with a memorandum of conversation with Maria Ulfah Santoso (8 March 1961) and biographic notes. It describes Gerwa
US Embassy Weekly Situation Telegrams, April 1962
Two US Embassy Djakarta weekly situation telegrams (JOINT WEEKA 14 and 15), 6 and 13 April 1962, on the West New Guinea dispute, PKI-Sukarno friction, Partindo, wage demands and military matters. Gerwani appears only once: it joined SOBSI and others in protesting the 'undemocratic' draft election bill providing for pop
Letter to Edwin L. Fox from Sjafruddin Prawiranegara, 5 August 1965
US Embassy copy of a 5 August 1965 letter from Sjafruddin Prawiranegara to Edwin Fox defending the US in Vietnam and warning of Chinese and Indonesian communist aggression. Pre-coup anti-communist voice; no Gerwani content.
Telegram 542A to US Embassy Jakarta, 15 Sep 1965
US Embassy telegram, 15 Sep 1965: a Dutch missionary reports on West Irian, including detained missionaries and a Papuan rebellion. Pre-coup West Papua context; no Gerwani content.
Telegram 971 to Secretary of State, 12 Oct 1965
US Embassy telegram 971, 12 Oct 1965: a German embassy source says the Army is considering overthrowing Sukarno and signalling Western embassies; Sukarno refused to read PKI-complicity papers. High-politics context; no Gerwani content.
Letter from CINCPAC to Marshall Green, 23 October 1965
Secret letter, 23 October 1965, from CINCPAC political adviser Norman Hannah to Ambassador Marshall Green asking for contingency thinking on US covert or material help if the Army fought the PKI. Shows early US planning for support to the anti-PKI campaign.
Telegram 1168 to Secretary of State, 23 Oct 1965
US Embassy telegram 1168, 23 Oct 1965: anti-communist unions demand dissolution of the PKI and SOBSI from Labour Minister Sutomo, who hesitates; Army liaison approached. Labour-front context; no Gerwani content.
Telegram 1290 to Department of State, 1 Nov 1965
US Embassy telegram 1290, 1 Nov 1965: labour attache's Palembang visit finds 600 communists jailed, SOBSI officials at Shell, Stanvac and PUSRI arrested, and concern for American oil staff. Context on arrests in the oil sector.
Telegram 1516 to Secretary of State, 20 Nov 1965
US Embassy telegram 1516, 20 Nov 1965, relaying Yugoslav and Australian secondhand accounts that PKI activists relied on Sukarno, claimed no foreknowledge of the 30 September Movement and expected the party to vanish for years. Context on PKI grassroots confusion.
Telegram 1025A (1591) to Secretary of State, 30 Nov 1965
US Embassy telegram, 30 Nov 1965, recording a Polish diplomat's claim that a PKI Central Committee member was 'elated' on 1 October and that only an Aidit-led 'special group' knew of the plot. Secondhand diplomatic evidence on PKI involvement.
Airgram A-398: List of PKI Leaders and Their Whereabouts, 17 Dec 1965
US Embassy airgram A-398, 17 Dec 1965, listing PKI leadership bodies after May 1965 and fugitive leaders' whereabouts. Places Suharti (Gerwani chair, head of the PKI women's department), Umi Sardjono, Setiati Surasto and Mudjiatun in PKI organs; no women in the whereabouts list.
Airgram A-408: Joint Weeka no. 48, 21 Dec 1965
US Embassy Joint Weeka no. 48 (airgram A-408), 21 Dec 1965: estimates 100,000 PKI deaths and 10,000 on Bali; notes Sukarno addressing the 20th anniversary of Perwari. Only women-related scene is a non-communist women's group used as a stage.
US Embassy Singapore cable, 6 Oct 1977: was Dr Sutanti Aidit a PKI Central Committee member?
Confidential cable from the US Embassy Singapore (Ingraham) to State, 6 Oct 1977, declassified 2009. It debates whether Dr Sutanti Aidit was a PKI Central Committee member, prompted by Congressman Koch's queries. He recalls a 1974-75 Jakarta message saying she was a Class A prisoner whom the Indonesian government claim
US Embassy Singapore cable, 6 Oct 1977: was Dr Sutanti Aidit a PKI Central Committee member?
Confidential cable from the US Embassy Singapore (Ingraham) to State, 6 Oct 1977, declassified 2009. It debates whether Dr Sutanti Aidit was a PKI Central Committee member, prompted by Congressman Koch's queries. He recalls a 1974-75 Jakarta message saying she was a Class A prisoner whom the Indonesian government claim
TAPOL Bulletin no. 101 (London, Oct 1990), covering West Papuan border raids, Suharto's 'de-Suharto-ization', new litsus screening rules, Petisi 50 and East Timor at the UN. A page on US embassy collusion reproduces Kathy Kadane's May 1990 interview with ex-deputy chief Jack Lydman about embassy-compiled PKI name lists