JONES WAS SUKARNO 'S PAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000400240006-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 1998
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: January 17, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

-WASHINGTON POST
AND TIMES HERALD
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U.S. Ambassador Left Imprint
By Using Personal Diplomacy
By JT'arrein Unn:a
Washington Post Staff Wrltor
f post,. Howard Palfrey Jones is re-
signing: as United States Ambassador
to Indonesia.
He is leaving just, as Indonesia has
extended Its "confrontation" against
Malaysia to the whole United Nations.'
by resigning from the world orgamiza-
''tion with contempt.
He is leaving with United States
Indonesian relations back in the same
precarious state he found them when
he went to President Sukarno's volatile
archipelago in 1958.
But the years have definitely wit-
nessed Jones's imprint. His critics look
.'upon this Imprint as that of? a patsy.,
.for, Sukarno.. Those who praise him say
'he accomplished more than the possible
In an impossible situation.. .
This divergence of, opinion naturally.
raises . the question of Just what the
,role .. of a United States 'alnbassadot is
``in the last halt of the _ 20th. century?
f How , does he, represent' his President'
': in ' a - country which "may ? be spinniing
jond"ntirel#?-dtf @ nt lawa d orgvfty?
At first look, Howard Jones would the United Stales was caught red-
not seem to be the ma$ likely ean.di- handed assisting an'Indoneslan Moslem-
date for such a study, The United States military rebellion against President-
Ambassador with the longest tenure in. Sukarno, who was considered too.left-
a single country, Jones, a weary-look- wing.
ing, balding man of 66, frail la build, As Jones set foot on Indonesian soil, .
soft In voice and his facial expression the young United States charge. d'af-
on the initial "How do you do?" seems faires was seeing' Foreign Minister,.
almost angelically naive.; Subandrio with the extraordinary re-
Jones has been a newspaper editor ' quest for permission to land Marines and owner, a Journalism teacher, a Na- on Indonesia's oil-rich island of Sumatra
tional Municipal League executive, an , in order to "protect" American citizens
%also-ran on the Republican ticket for a .there from the,United States-assisted
New York State Assembly seat, a World rebels.
War II Army colonel and later .Govern- A Foreign Miristry official who was o?
ment rehabilitator in Germany, a United present told me later that the charge
States aid, mission chief in Indonesia , d'affaires made his request with his
'and, just before his ambas,;adorial :; . feet up on the office table and while
post, a deputy assistant Secretary of puffing a. cigarette.
'State for Far Eastern, economic `affairs. "Go back to your embassy and send
Mr. Jones' here,".the angry Subandrio
A Time for ` tatesmen was quoted as saying. "I don't care
EARLY IN 1958, Jones was dispatched that he has not yet been officially ac-
to Djakarta as emibassadoi,by the credited. I won't deal with anyone else."
late John Foster` Dulles and told his.Jones knew from his term as United
job would require' "4 It eat effort of States, aid director that. Indonesia's was
statesmanship " a peculiarly personal government. He.,
This was an understatement' Jones i immediately set about restoring PresV
axrlved.in Indonesia's capital i justt.after dent Sukarnoa coif dance In the Amerl-
...
Coritlnued
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000400240006-9
 program was already unde
ur when Djuanda died a
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States. Itself, ndonesian campaign to reel im Dutch ically uninterested Sukarn
This personal relationship reached New Guinea, the present West Irian. immediately jettisoned al
the point where Jones got instant entry But the offic als In - Washi't?.;ton con., thdught$ of economic i
to Sukarno .,while other nations' am, corned with Ir.doncslnn affairs Insist provemOnt and proceeded t
bassadors waited weeks for an appoint-. that Joneg- has furihc.i'ed, not com- get debt-ridden Indonesi
ment with some lesser official. promised, the pisitior.'of United_States even further into debt wit
On at least one occasion, Sukarno Ambassador. camSoviet, millta~ aid for hi
campaign . against Malaysia.
arrived unannounced at Jones's week- His reports are sail :to lie classics of __ _. ..
end cottage in the mountains outside "mood music": they . `.tot only give Su JONES; WHILE correct)
ties, L' Sukarno that the U n i t e
l
Jones is said to have erceived im-1 States could lrovide a re
0
V
r mediately that United States-Indonesian straining hand.
Despite his frail appearance, Jones strategy Judgm{arts. I rfpresenbatives of the Agen
somehow has been able to keep up with Jones is said to have. grasped fully' cy for International Develop
Sukarno in the President's love for the double function of a United States) meat and the United State
song and dance. And sometimes, when Ambassador: Information, Agency u n d e'
Sukarno commandeers, the diplomatic ;, ? To inspire the local leaders with Jones had stepped right out
1 corps to follow him on an out-of-towli enough confidence in himself to insure) of "The Ugly American."
I trip, this gamboling, lasts several days, that they get the correct interpretation But Jones's imprint was ap
of United States policy. parent in heading off at
"Mood Music' ? To have enough sympathetic under 'W est Irian. Hee h iek o e
FEW YEARS ago, Jones aroused standing of a country to be ablelto give ceived that neither. the p
AIn
A the fury of-the Dutch by, echoing Washington the. benefit of a correct donesians nor the D it t c
the word "Merdeka!" (freedom) at a first-hand- interpretation of its activi-; wanted war and persuaded
Djakarta. Finding no entertainment, karno's answers antl ?fone:;'s questions,
Sukarno ordered his entourage to raid but the expression a!' Sukarno's voice;
the kitchen for pots and pans to use and face. Washington Is aware that
in forming an, impromptu traditional Jones is'genuinely ford of Sukarno and
gamelan orchestra. When the party was Indonesia. But, becauise. of the detail
,over In the early morning hours, the of his reports, Administration officials
pots and pans were all beaten through. say they are able to snake independent;
ke ri wit h Sukarno
relations were not operating in a vae- He and the then Unite
i uum. Indonesia has the largest Com. States A t t o r n e y General
monist Party outside the Red bloc and' Robert F..Kennedy, were held
.1. Party enh ..FP~...4inn b
the I
n
y
relations top priority, has 'no
always been the best of house
keepers.
During two months) spent
in Indonesia In 1959, i
seemed to me that the Unite
States Embassy officials an
1JVUbASCU04 nOLR1L RA \.1,Iycsa5Vr
release avia
He made it a habit to treat Sukarno
, the alleged
i with respect, to be utterly, frank and'' had been cc
never to threaten. But he also pointed'; for'" strafin
en L. Pope,
ble consequences" of rash behavior. 1958 Indonesian rebellion.
An example might be Jones's. repeated Jones's sense of personal
reminders to Sukarno that if he pushed'. relations in Indonesia even
.too far in his."confrontation" campaign guided him to announce his
against Malaysia and involved .himself; resignation last November In
in a full-scale war with the Austral-'? such a way - that President
ion and New,Zealand troops there, the
United States, as an ally of those na-
So far, Sukarno has been careful note EVEN NOW, Jones ,is not
a
to wage
n all-out wor against Malay- . taking up his new Job as
sta. But this does not mean, that Jones. i Chancellor of the University
,for instance, Jonea.long . lras been
Sukarno ? would understand n
was the overdue end 'of. an
Ambassador's tour and not
an abrupt change In United
of Hawaii's Center for Cul?
tural and Technical Inter-
change until` his 'sttedessor
j to ,develop; itself 'economically, govern. crat:ion trave beers veteran
would follow;' Ambassador Jacob B. Beam,
mental stabilit
y
j For, many years, Jones- had the sym- 1 USIA Deputy Director Don-
d W i i
Wil
n
id M
so
an
V o n
.
pathetic Help of Indonesia's nonpolit- a
ical, hard-working. First Minister, DJu? I Wyatt, the former. Louisville
ri,anda KartawidjaJa Ai, International m.a y o r, National Housing
~? ,, , ,, :_,;: 1A. g e n c y administrator and
1963 presidential t r o u b l e
shooter in helping to set-,
. tle .-Indonesia's nationalize-
1N 1719s5
relationship that grew bed
a we n Jones `an `Sukarno.
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75_,ft1 WWW01A%
That the Johnson Adminis-
tion Is reconciled to the fact,
CPYRGHT