ABSTRACT
During 1949, the Truman Administration became more and more concerned with Southeast Asia, which, it recognized, might be economically critical, at least for Japan, and the latter's ability to escape being drawn into the Soviet–Chinese orbit. During the early 1950s, belief in the "domino theory" became stronger, and while it came in several versions, it was generally thought that should Indochina fall to Communist control the whole mainland of Southeast Asia, and probably also the islands, would also succumb. Whatever the fallacies of the domino theory, no one doubted the importance of Indonesia. The Indonesians had been the second most numerous people under Western rule. Indonesia was well endowed with natural resources. The American government may have decided in principle to back the rebels in September 1957, but was sluggish in deciding how, and how far, to do so. The Indonesian government was seriously worried about outright American intervention and aware of the covert operations already underway.
