Indonesian Genocide

Global Reaction:
Throughout the duration of the genocide, the Western Governments looked upon the purge and mass killings as a victory over Communism. Occurring at the height of the Cold War between Communist nations and 1st world countries, the presence of the Indonesian massacres in the media was heavily monitored, and most Journalists were unable to enter Indonesian territories. Instead, they were forced to rely upon the official statements made by the Western Governments. In fact, the British embassy went as far as advising the intelligence headquarters in Singapore on ways of presenting information to the public, stating “Suitable propaganda themes might be: PKI brutality in murdering Generals, ... PKI subverting Indonesia as agents of foreign Communists. ... British participation should be carefully concealed.” The reaction of the U.S. was that of excitement and sense of victory, with U.S. Time magazine praising Suharto's regime as "scrupulously constitutional.", as well as “...a triumph for Western propaganda,". Most U.S. news reporting agencies downplayed the Indonesian Army’s role in the mass killings, as
well as the coordinated and systematized fashion in which the extermination of human life took place. Instead, they placed emphasis on the civilian role in the attacks. Some went as far as utilizing stereotypes of Asian behaviors as a way of explaining civilian behavior, stating that the homicides were hardly unanticipated as they ensued in "violent Asia, where life is cheap." Even public American figures openly sanctioned the bloodbaths. State Department intelligence officer Howard Federspiel had declared that "no one cared, as long as they were Communists, that they were being butchered." The US had gone as far as providing targeted names to the Indonesian Army. However, in January 1966, Robert F. Kennedy became one of the only prominent figures to openly convict the annihilation of the Indonesian people, stating “We have spoken out against the inhuman slaughters perpetrated by the Nazis and the Communists. But will we speak out also against the inhuman slaughter in Indonesia, where over 100,000 alleged Communists have not been perpetrators, but victims?", effectively comparing the war crimes of Nazi Germany to the Indonesian purges and mass killings.
Despite the West having such an open pro-genocide view, Eastern countries such as the USSR and China had a categorically negative opinion on the brutal massacres.
The USSR Nuclear Physicist and peace activist Andrei Sakharov had proclaimed the mass killings a “tragic event” as well as “an extreme case of a reaction, racism, and militarism”. The Soviet opinion, however, remained otherwise unexpressed. The Chinese government called the actions of the Indonesian Army “heinous and diabolical crimes ... unprecedented in history.", and North Korea went as far as proclaiming the Suharto government a "military fascist regime" and expressed negative views towards the actions of the Army. The UN, however, avoided commenting on the mass killings, and when Suharto attempted to return to the Indonesian seat in the UN, communist Albania was the only member to
protest.