IP: On the importance of making presidential records public

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> 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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