The milieu is a fascinating one and Bevins paints the broad strokes of the anticommunist campaign effectively. The book is at its best when highlighting the CIA’s specific initiatives and is particularly entertaining when highlighting their failures. For instance, Bevins describes some especially embarrassing plans for the CIA to kill Fidel Castro: exploding seashells, spore-infused scuba gear, and so on. Strangely, the CIA also strove to paint communists as hypersexualized or sexually deviant (e.g. making use of sex workers, faking sex tapes with poorly disguised body doubles, etc.). It seemed that the CIA often misunderstood the cultures they were working to subvert, and you almost get the impression that they blundered their way into success.
That being said, the anticommunist campaign in general was extraordinarily effective. Bevins essentially makes the case that the violence and mass murder of civilians is what ultimately won the day. Early in the book, Bevins makes the claim that this process found its foothold in Indonesia. The mass murder of communists in Indonesia serves as a template for future initiatives, say, in Chile or Brazil.
An area that I find the book not particularly effective is in drawing that connection explicitly. There are parallels, but I think Bevins hasn’t yet fully expounded to highlight the true importance of Indonesia. Perhaps making more frequent reference to the parallels might have been the way to go, or perhaps structuring the book differently might have helped. In many ways, the text reads like a history book, outlining events and dates and names of note. In turn, the data sheet, at times, lacks the narrative thread that would string it all together. I could imagine the book reading differently by structuring the chapters around core concepts and tactics, like Disinformation, Propaganda, Violence, and so on.
Alternatively, taking a more narrative approach might have helped me connect with the material more thoroughly. In the final chapter to the book, Bevins refers to his follow-up interviews with prevalent communist figures and victims in the war against it. The format had a compelling, more personable approach that was a great way to humanize the history book. It framed the discussions in terms of what their hopes for a new world had been and how things had actually turned out. That allowed Bevins to explore the human impact on individuals and avoid delving into the facts and figures of the anonymous dead. My central concern with the book is that it reads like a straight-up history book, where names are essentially empty referents, and this final chapter is an effective contrast. Seeing that thread throughout would have been a nice way of discussing the more tangible impact of the CIA’s crusade.
Despite the fact that I enjoyed the final chapter, there’s somewhat of a disappointing ambivalence in Bevins’ assessment of the successes and failures of the communism dream. One would anticipate that, given the abuses of the world’s biggest capitalist enterprise against the majority of the globe, it would be easy to choose sides. I think Bevins’ feelings on the subject can largely be inferred, but he seems to aim for a sense of balance at the end that feels somewhat unwarranted.
However, perhaps I’m falling prey to the same impulse for extremity displayed by the anticommunists. The fascist campaigns against communism were explained as follows: first, kill the communists; then, kill those who expressed sadness over those deaths; then, kill those who mention it; finally, those who aren’t adamant enough in supporting it. To Bevins’ credit, he largely demonstrates the inner logic of ideological crusades and draws from a variety of voices—both perpetrator and victim.
Despite The Jakarta Method being a good, informative book, there are still so many stories to tell. At one point, Bevins alludes to General Electric’s interference in countries and then continues to the larger narrative. The moment passed and I felt a sense of something akin to intellectual FOMO: what do you mean General Electric interfered in other countries? Tell me more!
I suppose that’s the structure of historical research in general: there is always more to unearth and more to explore. When you consider the global impact, every person in every country has a story. I feel like Thanks to Bevins’ book, I think I’ve got a good handle on the broad strokes of the war against communism—but each country needs (at least) one book to document how it all played out, and it would take an extraordinarily long book to document the far-reaching impact of capitalism’s global takeover.
And in the hopes that that might be reversed, happy reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment