“Riveting….As a polemic, The Jakarta Method is never anything less than conscientious and persuasive, but Bevins’s book truly takes flight as a work of narrative journalism, tracing the history of America’s violent meddling in Southeast Asia and Latin America through the stories of those it brutalized.”—Jacobin 

“A perfectly executed account, in which the real lives of many individuals who lived through the events are set within a strong reconstruction of the larger history.” —Le Monde Diplomatique (Italy)

“A shocking portrait that few readers will forget….[Bevins’s] research is solid and his conclusions convincing. A well-delineated excavation of yet another dark corner of American history.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Bevins is well-positioned to trace the lineage of suppression across the world aided and abetted by the U.S., which provided material support and intelligence, including lists of communists and alleged communists, to client governments….Interwoven among the politics in the books are testimonies from former communists Bevins interviewed in several countries, which he relays with novelistic brio.”—The Irish Times

“Bevins has created a powerful record of the often-muddled events in Indonesia….The Jakarta Method offers an easily digestible chronology of this bloody period of Indonesian and world history.”—South China Morning Post

“One of the best, most informative and most illuminating histories yet of [the CIA] and the way it has shaped the actual, rather than the propagandistic, U.S. role in the world.”—Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept

“Essential and devastating.”
– Joshua Oppenheimer, director of The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence

“This, for my money, may be the must-read book about the Cold War. There have been quite a few, but this one is current, it’s sweeping, and it’s an absolute must-read, if you’re only going to read one book to think about what that –maybe the most eventful period in human history – was all about….You cannot dismiss this book.”—Robert Scheer, KCRW

“Well-researched and documented….The Jakarta Method traces the efforts of the Central Intelligence Agency during the Cold War to ensure that developing nations did not stray from an American-dominated capitalist model, an effort that cost millions of lives.”—America: The Jesuit Review

“Gripping…[Bevins]’s analysis of these events is lucid and judicious, and his narrative is driven by effective use of interview material.”—Asian Affairs

“The Jakarta Method recasts the Cold War battle for the Third World as a series of mass-killing events, carried out by the U.S. or its proxies — a pattern much of the world witnessed but could do little to stop. It sounds like a grim read, and it is, but it’s also a gripping one.”—Talking Points Memo (Favorite Non-Fiction List)

“Not only does Bevins show how the US funded and supported the army that directed the [Indonesian] massacres, he also reveals how the methods of murder used across the archipelago were imitated by right-wing governments in Latin America during the 1970s. Bevins’s book is a brilliant history of the Cold War told through global anti-communist violence.”—New Statesman

“This is an indispensable book for all those interested in the Third World during the era of the Cold War, and in the links between various operations of ‘the Anti-Communist International’, a subject whose importance will I think only increase. It might in effect emerge that the decisive global changes were not the ones that we currently see as such (the fall of the Berlin Wall), but rather what happened in countries like China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil.”—Branko Milanovic, Brave New Europe

“Well-researched, packed with information, and very well-written.”—O Estado de S. Paulo (Brazil), Best Books of 2020

“An exceptionally well-written narrative…. In a fascinating and disturbing journey around the world, Bevins documents the effects of Washington’s virulent anticommunist crusade across several continents.”—Tribune (UK)

“Through this transnational perspective, Bevins finds connections between unexpected locations…. [He] takes a broader approach, situating the violence within the global context of the Cold War, but the story he tells is still grounded in deep on-the-ground investigation and extraordinary personal narratives.”—North American Congress on Latin America

“The book’s most important achievement is in explaining how Washington’s policies from more than 50 years ago shape the world we live in today.”–The News Lens (Taiwan)

“Bevins has written a well-researched history of how the American campaign against Third World democracy shaped the geopolitics of our world today, with echoes still felt through Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro’s virulent anti-communism; the childhood experiences of Barack Obama’s Jakarta upbringing; and the dominating proliferation of neoliberal globalization.”—Canadian Dimension

*****

Description:

The hidden story of the wanton slaughter — in Indonesia, Latin America, and around the world — backed by the United States.

In 1965, the U.S. government helped the Indonesian military kill approximately one million innocent civilians. This was one of the most important turning points of the twentieth century, eliminating the largest communist party outside China and the Soviet Union and inspiring copycat terror programs in faraway countries like Brazil and Chile. But these events remain widely overlooked, precisely because the CIA’s secret interventions were so successful.

In this bold and comprehensive new history, Vincent Bevins builds on his incisive reporting for the Washington Post, using recently declassified documents, archival research and eye-witness testimony collected across twelve countries to reveal a shocking legacy that spans the globe. For decades, it’s been believed that parts of the developing world passed peacefully into the U.S.-led capitalist system. The Jakarta Method demonstrates that the brutal extermination of unarmed leftists was a fundamental part of Washington’s final triumph in the Cold War.

*****

Errors and Revisions

In the spirit of full transparency, I’ve published a record of the small mistakes we have corrected since the first printing. This may be of interest to those using a very early copy as a reference or assigned text.

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Editions in languages other than English

We are still looking for partners to translate The Jakarta Method, and sell it in as many territories as possible. We have already closed deals for Spanish, Japanese, Italian, Swedish, Vietnamese, German, Russian, Iberian Portuguese, Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Complex Chinese, Turkish, Persian and Indonesian but if you are a publisher interested in acquiring rights in another region (any region at all), please get in touch.

*****

Reviews / Media / Events

If you need a review copy, would like to discuss media appearances, podcasts, etc., do not hesitate to contact me at vbevins@gmail.com.

Thank you, and stay safe