CIA activities in Indonesia

Prior to WWII, Indonesia had been one of the most lucrative colonies for the Netherlands. The Dutch took control of the islands in the early 17th century and called it the Dutch East Indies. The Dutch held control over Indonesia's lucrative amount of materials until 1942, when the Japanese took control of the region. The Japanese controlled the region until 1945. In 1945, the Indonesians declared their independence from the Japanese empire. It took 4 years of rebellion and negotiations with the United Nations before the Netherlands finally recognized the independent status of Indonesia. The Dutch saw the US as a block to their attempts to regain control of the region, and the U.S. had to play a large mediating role in Indonesia as they needed to appease the Dutch, the British, and the Indonesians themselves. This would prove difficult as the region became increasingly unstable during the period.

Operation ICEBERG

After World War II, the Office of Strategic Services(OSS) which was dismantled by an executive order signed by President Truman on October 1, 1945 and temporarily gave the War Department control of the OSS branches that were still operational. Thus, departments were renamed to incorporate these new branches resulting in the Strategic Services Unit (SSU) and the Interim Research Intelligence Service (IRIS). These departments, along with military intelligence agencies, were put on the mission of collecting surrendering Japanese troops, and recovering military POWs and civilian internees. One recovery mission known as Recovery of Allied Prisoners of War and Internees (RAPWI) had major complications because of the different approaches of the U.S., British, and Dutch allies. The caring nature of these "rescue" missions was a nice cover for the CIA's real objective. The true objective of these missions was to create a place to perform espionage in what would turn into the nation of Indonesia. The US did this out of the fear of further communist expansion in South East Asia (as it had already taken hold in Mao's China). As Asia became a focal point for many conflicts the native people of this country came to realize that they are not helpless and their enemies are not invincible. Moreover, the US needed a "postwar central intelligence agency." According to the CIA online library, "a secret foreign intelligence service that preserved OSS's capacity to report 'information as seen through American eyes' and 'to analyze and evaluate the material for policymakers.'" At the time when operation ICEBERG was put into motion, Indonesia was still under the control of the Dutch. Indonesians were understandably "violently" anti-Dutch" as they had declared their independence in 1945. The U.S. had sympathy for the people of Indonesia. During this time, there was a violent 4 year revolution in Indonesia that would eventually end with Indonesia free from Dutch Rule. In Batavia the ICEBERG mission provided policymakers with information of the beginning of the revolution and how it evolved over the four-year battle.

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Wikipedia