Sukarno: Pro-Soviet Neutral

There is irony in the complaint of neutralist Indonesia that its annual handout this year from the U. S. has been a niggardly $15 million, instead of the expected $35 million. For President Sukarno has repeatedly proclaimed his anti-capitalism—e.g., in a speech during his Russian visit: “Indonesia wants the whole world to be free from capitalism.”

Coming from a head of state Whose government has received some $200 million in direct aid from the capitalistic U.S., in addition to a loan of $100 million through the Import-Export Bank, this statement might have been expected to cause some uneasiness in Washington. But Mr, Sukarno got away with it. He also got away with a further $55 million which his government was permitted to draw on July 31 from the International Monetary Fund, ostensibly to aid the payment of debts due the Netherlands, which he repudiated five days later.

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Francis J. Burke

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There is irony in the complaint of neutralist Indonesia that its annual handout this year from the U. S. has been a niggardly $15 million, instead of the expected $35 million. For President Sukarno has repeatedly proclaimed his anti-capitalism—e.g., in a speech during his Russian visit: “Indonesia wants the whole world to be free from capitalism.”

Coming from a head of state Whose government has received some $200 million in direct aid from the capitalistic U.S., in addition to a loan of $100 million through the Import-Export Bank, this statement might have been expected to cause some uneasiness in Washington. But Mr, Sukarno got away with it. He also got away with a further $55 million which his government was permitted to draw on July 31 from the International Monetary Fund, ostensibly to aid the payment of debts due the Netherlands, which he repudiated five days later.