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IP: On the importance of making presidential records public
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2001 09:03:54 -0500
Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2001 09:13:04 -0500 From: tim finin <finin () cs umbc edu> To: farber () cis upenn edu This Reuters story which appears in today's papers (e.g. http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-indonesia-usa.html) is a good example of why many in government would like to keep presidential records secret forever. Some of the original documents discussed in this article are available on line at http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB62/. -- US OK'd Indonesian '75 East Timor Invasion - Documents REUTERS, December 7, 2001 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gave then Indonesian strongman Suharto the green light for the 1975 invasion of East Timor that left perhaps 200,000 dead, according to previously secret documents made available on Thursday. Kissinger has maintained that he only learned of the plan at the airport as he and Ford prepared to fly home after meeting Suharto in Jakarta on the eve of the Dec. 7 thrust into East Timor, a former Portuguese colony. Kissinger also has argued that any U.S. nod for the action should be seen in its Cold War context -- on the heels of the communist victory in Vietnam and amid U.S. fears that other ''dominoes'' might fall in Southeast Asia. The incursion led to a bloody occupation that ended only after an international peacekeeping force took charge in 1999 and East Timor achieved independence. At the time of the 1975 invasion, the United States supplied as much as 90 percent of Indonesia's weapons on condition that they be used only for defense and internal security. Ford and Kissinger appear to have gone to considerable lengths to assure Suharto, a staunch anti-communist, that they would not oppose the invasion, which was designed to keep East Timor from breaking away from Indonesia. ``We want your understanding if we deem it necessary to take rapid or drastic action,'' Suharto told them during a stopover on their way home from meetings with Chinese leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping in Beijing, according to a newly declassified Dec. 6, 1975, document. ``We will understand and will not press you on the issue,'' Ford replied, according to the State Department record of the conversation declassified by Ford's presidential library. Kissinger pointed out that ``the use of U.S.-made arms could create problems,'' but added: ``It depends on how we construe it; whether it is in self-defense or is a foreign operation,'' according to the same document. The private National Security Archive, a Washington-based research group that obtained the document under the Freedom of Information Act, said it showed that Kissinger's concern was not that U.S. weapons would be used offensively -- hence illegally -- but about how he might manipulate public opinion. ``It is important that whatever you do succeeds quickly,'' Kissinger told Suharto, according to the document. ``We would be able to influence the reaction in America if whatever happens, happens after we return.'' ``We understand your problem and the need to move quickly but I am only saying that it would be better if it were done after we returned'' to Washington, Kissinger said, according to the document. ...
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