Thread by @Americas_Crimes

On this day in 1965, the U.S. backed Gen. Suharto as he began a campaign of genocide against Indonesian communists, peasants & ethnic minorities, massacring over 1 million people.

After crushing the small, weak military uprising, Gen. Suharto launched a full propaganda campaign wrongfully claiming the communists had attempted to take power, which he himself used to launch a coup against current President Sukarno.

The US and British gov records show they wanted "to liquidate Sukarno". Pres. Sukarno offered some protection and support for Indonesia's Communists, adopted some anti-imperialist policies, and had warm relations with the USSR and China.

With the West's backing, Gen. Suharto deposed Pres. Sukarno and launched a total purge of alleged communists and then began a massive campaign of genocide.

A top-secret CIA report stated Gen. Suharto's massacres "rank as one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century", along with the Nazi crimes. Estimates of the number killed range from 1 to 3 million.

As the Indonesian military death squads were carrying out the genocide, the U.S. provided, weapons, communication equipment, money, medical aid and intelligence to assist them.

The U.S. even provided the Indonesian military extensive lists of communist party members.

Most of the victims of the massacres were not major political figures, but were instead poor and lower-middle class farmers, plantation laborers, factory workers, students, teachers, artists and civil servants.

The death squad's methods of killing included shooting, dismembering alive, stabbing, disembowelment, castration, impaling, strangling and beheading with Japanese-style samurai swords.

Accused communists were lined up, their throats were slit, then the corpses were thrown into rivers. Rows of severed penises were often left behind as a reminder to the rest. The killings left whole villages empty. The victim's houses were looted and handed over to the military.

News of the massacre was carefully controlled by Western intelligence agencies. Journalists were prevented from entering Indonesia and relied on the official statements from Western embassies.

The US press celebrated the genocide. A headline on the massacres in U.S. News & World Report read: "Indonesia: Hope... where there was once none"

Time Magazine described the genocide as "The West's best news for years in Asia," and praised Suharto's regime.