The Jakarta Method

The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World is a 2020 political history publication authored by American journalist Vincent Bevins. It explores the U.S. government's role in supporting anti-communist mass killings across the globe from the era of the Cold War to modern times. The book’s title alludes to the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66, during which approximately one million individuals were killed in efforts to suppress the political left and reformist movements.

This work outlines how the approach of systematic mass murder was duplicated against reform initiatives throughout Latin America, Asia, and other regions. The U.S.-endorsed Indonesian exterminations were so influential that "Jakarta" became a shorthand for comparable genocidal tactics employed by authoritarian capitalist governments with American backing.

Reception

Thomas Kingston, writing for the LSE Review of Books, commends The Jakarta Method as a meticulously researched and tightly composed study unveiling the largely unrecognized global consequences of the Indonesian massacres. He emphasizes its importance in reaching audiences beyond scholarly or activist domains and acknowledges Bevins’s challenge in delivering an impartial narrative of these events.

Daniel Larison of The American Conservative describes the book as "exceptional" due to its objective historical examination that connects personal survivor testimonies with broader historical developments, tracing how these methods spread from Indonesia to Latin America and continue to influence social and political dynamics.

In Jacobin, Grace Blakeley praises Bevins for lucidly detailing U.S. complicity in the Indonesian genocide and mapping its replication in subsequent global anticommunist campaigns. Jacob Sugarman regards it as compelling narrative journalism that documents America’s violent interventions in Southeast Asia and Latin America.

Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept underscores the book’s thorough documentation of CIA-orchestrated mass killings, portraying them as a blueprint for covert operations aimed at undermining the Non-Aligned Movement, while highlighting how this history remains largely absent from mainstream U.S. discourse.

Stuart Schrader, writing in the Boston Review, characterizes the book as "trenchant" and "powerful," noting Bevins’s distinctive qualifications as a journalist fluent in Indonesian and Portuguese who skillfully translates complex academic research into accessible language. Leo Schwartz of Los Angeles Review of Books describes it as a "devastating critique" exposing U.S. Cold War duplicity and reflecting on the decline of Third World movements.

Tenny Kristiana from Waseda University highlights Bevins’s dedication to amplifying victims’ voices, challenging a "history written by the victors" and addressing historiographical gaps related to Cold War narratives.

Kirkus Reviews lauds it as "a well-delineated excavation of yet another dark corner of American history." Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times included it among 2020’s top political books.

See also

• CIA activities in Indonesia
• Operation Condor
• United States and state terrorism
• United States atrocity crimes