Abstract
The impact of American diplomatic pressure on the Indonesian struggle for independence after world war II was controversial. Some Dutch government officials, civil servants, or ordinary residents of the former Dutch East Indies have deplored the American record of ignorance about the particularity of Dutch colonial society in Southeast Asia, and many amongst them have faulted Americans for advocating a capricious and simplistic anti-colonialism that wreaked havoc in post-war Indonesia and elsewhere. A few, in fact, have complained bitterly about the political constraints imposed upon the Dutch nation by the outside world, especially by the US foreign policy establishment and the United Nations, which neither 'trusted nor understood us and forced us to take a course of action which was not of our own choosing'. However, American policies towards the decolonization of Indonesia during the years following the second world war did not emerge in a vacuum. Accordingly, in this essay I wish to explore the evolution of American diplomats' views regarding Dutch colonial rule in Southeast Asia between the early 1920s and 1942, the year the Japanese invaded the Dutch East Indies. Through an examination of the steady stream of reports which US diplomats in Batavia, Medan, and Soerabaya transmitted to the Department of State in Washington DC, one can gain insights into the official perceptions and popular stereotypes that shaped Americans' understanding of Dutch colonial rule. After all, the formulation of US foreign policy — as was true for die diplomatic relations of many other democratic nations — relied not only on 'perceptions of the official mind' but also heeded an array of more nebulous public opinions. Even though the US consuls' dispatches about the social and political situation of the Dutch East Indies had only minimal impact on the actual implementation of US foreign policy in me Pacific, which was crafted primarily in the corridors of power in the White House and the State Department in Washington DC, their reports mirrored fluctuations in both official and popular attitudes. In general, diplomats in the field tried to respond to the issues that most preoccupied their superiors, while their correspondence also echoed changes in public sentiments regarding either Dutch colonialism or European imperialism in general.
Highlights
The impact of American diplomatic pressure on the Indonesian struggle for independence after world war II was controversial
These diplomatic missives served as a kind of barometer of the shifting American interpretations of Dutch East Indies' governance between the 1920s, when they offered praise and admiration, and the 1930s, a decade in which US diplomats became quite critical of the colonial government's repressive policies towards native politicians and condemned its tendency to incarcerate individual Indonesians without a formal judicial hearing
Towards the end of the 1930s and in the early 1940s, when the Japanese threat in the Pacific loomed larger than life, American judgments about Dutch colonial rule altered once again, at this time incorporating both positive and negative evaluations in order to develop a realistic assessment of the Dutch East Indies as a credible American ally in a potential military clash with Japan, while ackowledging the legitimacy and strength of the Indonesian nationalist movement
Summary
The impact of American diplomatic pressure on the Indonesian struggle for independence after world war II was controversial. In this essay I wish to explore the evolution of American diplomats' views regarding Dutch colonial rule in Southeast Asia between the early 1920s and 1942, the year the Japanese invaded the Dutch East Indies. Through an examination of the steady stream of reports which US diplomats in Batavia, Medan, and Soerabaya transmitted to the Department of State in Washington DC, one can gain insights into the official perceptions and popular stereotypes that shaped Americans' understanding of Dutch colonial rule. Even though the US consuls' dispatches about the social and political situation of the Dutch East Indies had only minimal impact on the actual implementation of US foreign policy in me Pacific, which was crafted primarily in the corridors of power in the White House and the State Department in Washington DC, their reports mirrored fluctuations in both official and popular attitudes. Diplomats in the field tried to respond to the issues that most preoccupied their superiors, while their correspondence echoed changes in public sentiments regarding either Dutch colonialism or European imperialism in general
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
