The common tendency is to be positive and laudatory about the life of
someone recently deceased - so the news about two recent deaths is quite a
contrast. Joseph Nevins spent many years trying to open the eyes of the
world to the devastation of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, and
he continues to remind us of the double standard used to judge that period
of mass murder and human rights atrocities compared to similar crimes
committed by those who are not 'one of us.'

Mary Anne


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2007 07:24:47 -0500
From: John M Miller <fbp@...>
To: east-timor@...
Subject: Joseph Nevins: A Single Standard for Gerald Ford and Saddam Hussein

AntiWar.com (Redwood City, CA)
Friday, January 5, 2007

A Single Standard for Gerald Ford and Saddam Hussein

by Joseph Nevins

During the same week that former U.S. president Gerald Ford passed away, Iraqi
authorities executed Saddam Hussein. As one might expect, official Washington's
reactions to the two events were radically different.

President Bush expressed sadness in the wake of Ford's death, calling the
former president a "great man" while Representative Nancy Pelosi voiced respect
for Ford's "fair and reliable leadership." By contrast, George Bush welcomed
Hussein's execution, characterizing it as "an important milestone on Iraq's
course to becoming a democracy," and Senator Joseph Biden, incoming chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declared with satisfaction that "Iraq
has . . . rid the world of a tyrant."

On the surface, it makes sense to judge the two men in such divergent ways.
After all, an Iraqi court convicted Hussein of a crime against humanity for
ordering the killing of 148 Shi'ite villagers, only one of many atrocities he
oversaw while ruling Iraq. Gerald Ford, to the contrary, was never even
indicted for any such crime. But it turns out that this distinction reflects a
double standard for judging similar conduct. Ford, too, was responsible for
mass murder ­ in East Timor ­ and basic justice and honesty demands that he be
remembered for it.

On Dec. 6, 1975, Ford and Henry Kissinger, his secretary of state, were in
Jakarta, Indonesia to meet the country's dictator, General Suharto. Ford was
fully cognizant of Indonesia's plans to launch an imminent invasion of the
former Portuguese Timor. According to declassified documents published by the
Washington-based National Security Archive, Ford assured Suharto that with
regard to East Timor, "[We] will not press you on the issue. We understand . .
. the intentions you have."

Suharto needed Washington's green light due to a 1958 agreement that prohibited
Indonesia from using U.S.-origin weaponry, which made up 90% of Jakarta's
arsenal, except for "legitimate national self-defense." For this reason
Kissinger suggested that the invasion be framed as self-defense, thus
circumventing any legal obstacles.

Kissinger then expressed understanding for Indonesia's "need to move quickly"
and advised "that it would be better if it were done after we [he and Ford]
returned [to the United States]." About 14 hours after their departure,
Indonesian forces invaded neighboring East Timor.

While Indonesian forces massacred civilians during the first hours of the Dec.
7 invasion, Ford spoke at the University of Hawaii. There, he declared his
commitment to a "Pacific doctrine of peace with all and hostility toward none,"
and spoke of an Asia "where people are free from the threat of foreign
aggression."

Ford and his White House successors helped make sure that his lofty vision was
not realized in Indonesia-ravaged East Timor. According to the now-independent
country's truth commission report, released late last year, Indonesia's war and
illegal occupation resulted in many tens of thousands of East Timorese deaths,
widespread rape and sexual enslavement of women and girls, and, in the waning
days of Jakarta's presence, systematic destruction of the territory's buildings
and infrastructure. Today, East Timor is one of the world's poorest countries.

Over the almost 24 years of Indonesian rule, Democratic and Republican
administrations alike provided invaluable diplomatic cover and billions of
dollars' worth of weapons, military equipment and training, and economic aid to
Jakarta. For such reasons the truth commission report characterizes U.S.
assistance as "fundamental" to the invasion and occupation, and calls upon
Washington to apologize and pay reparations to East Timor.

Washington's considerable share of the blame for East Timor's plight does not
rest solely at Ford's feet. But it was Gerald Ford that opened the door to this
dreadful chapter in history.

There is little doubt that Ford's authorization was key to Indonesia's
invasion. Intelligence and diplomatic documents reveal that Jakarta was so
worried about how the U.S. would react to its aggression that Suharto had
vetoed earlier plans to invade. His administration had previously warned
Indonesia against using American weaponry in any planned aggression. But any
reservations that the administration may have had about the employment of U.S.
weaponry seem to have disappeared by Dec. 6, 1975, with horrific results for
the people of East Timor.

One week after the meeting in Jakarta, Ford sent Suharto a package of golf
balls as "a personal gift." In the months that followed, his U.N. ambassador
prevented the United Nations from taking effective steps to compel Jakarta to
end its aggression. Later in 1976, Ford's administration shipped a squadron of
U.S. OV-10 "Bronco" ground-attack planes to Indonesia's military, ones ideal
for counterinsurgency of the type it was waging in East Timor.

We in the United States, and people throughout the world, should make these
events a central part of our collective memory of Ford's presidency ­ for the
sake of the victims and the rule of law ­ just as Saddam Hussein will
justifiably be remembered for his role in crimes against humanity.

Joseph Nevins is an assistant professor of geography at Vassar College, and the
author of A Not-So-Distant Horror: Mass Violence in East Timor (Cornell
University Press, 2005).


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