ABSTRACT
On July 5, 1975, two months after the communist victories in Cambodia and Vietnam, Indonesia’s President Suharto visited Washington for his first meeting with U.S. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. The conversation ranged over Southeast Asian affairs. Suharto assessed the U.S. defeat in Vietnam: “It is not the military strength of the Communists but their fanaticism and ideology which is the principal element of their strength” – something he said Vietnam’s anti-communists had not possessed. Suharto continued: “Despite their superiority of arms in fighting the Communists, the human factor was not there. They lacked this national ideology to rally the people to fight Communism.” But Indonesia was different, he said: “We are fortunate we already have this national ideology [Panca Sila]. The question is, is it strong enough?” 1
