The diminution of economic nationalism in Indonesia in the mid-late
1960s was accompanied by a commensurate abandonment of anti-imperialist
nationalism in the political realm. In 1965 and 1966, Suharto engineered the
de-escalation of Konfrontasi with neighboring Malaysia (derided by Soekarno
as a British-controlled “neo-colony”), and in 1967 he helped to create the
Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), establishing Indonesia’s
newly found eagerness to strengthen relations with neighboring Malaysia,
Singapore (with its British military bases), and the Philippines and Thailand,
both deeply involved in the American war effort in Indochina. In the meantime,
even as Suharto’s lieutenants were orchestrating large-scale anti-communist pogroms in late 1965 and early 1966, he was forging a close Cold War alliance
with the United States.