Diplomacy, as much as the warfare it is designed to prevent, exacts a heavy toll on the truth. One can only wonder what future generations will learn with disbelief and chagrin when the Freedom of Information Act allows public examination of U.S.-China foreign policy intrigue in recent years.
On July 28, the U.S. State Department announced it had shut down distribution of a book about U.S. intelligence activities in Indonesia in the mid-1960s out of diplomatic considerations. Indonesia's new leader, Megawati Sukarnoputri, is the daughter of founding President Sukarno, the very man the U.S. helped run out of office in the "year of living dangerously."
According to Reuters, the blockaded book offers evidence that "the U.S. provided massive secret funds to the anti-communists and that "U.S. information contributed to the killing of more than 100,000 PKI."