The Communist-oriented putsch developed on the night of September 30, 1965, when the Indonesian Communist Partythe oldest in Asiahad attained the zenith of its power and influence as the biggest Communist movement in the world after China and Russia. When Sukarno, the Communists, and a group of progressive, revolutionary officer struck, the Anglo-American allies were standing back to back on the rim of the South China Sea. In Vietnam, to the north, the Americans and their Asian allies were trying to hold the tide; in Malaysia, to the south, the British and their Pacific allies were trying to contain Sukarno. Both sought to blunt the Jakarta-Peking axis.This book is the first analysis-in-depth of the collapse of the Indonesian Communist movement in 1965 within the context of world affairs. The murder of the Indonesian general staff and the mass murders that followed are sculptured in fascinating detail against the background of the mephitic, torchlight era of the Sukarno regime at that time.