US Aid to Indonesia Sparked Genocide in East Timor

In the year 1975, East Timor was a tiny half-island off the coast of Australia looking forward to its long-awaited freedom from Portuguese rule. Unfortunately, Indonesia had other plans for its neighbor, and called upon the United States for help. To support its own interests, the United States supplied considerable amounts of military aid to Indonesia, which ultimately ignited the genocide in East Timor. Media coverage misled U.S. citizens of the United States’ role in …

…the knowledge that it was being illegally used to invade East Timor. Media coverage of the United States’ alliance with Indonesia was nonexistent after the invasion, and it was kept hidden from the public eye for years. The actions of the United States over the past 30 years have revealed its intentions to keep an alliance with Indonesia for its own benefit and its conscious choice to ignore the genocide it ultimately caused in East Timor.