The Third World War

South Sea Chiaroscuro

We probably don’t have the right mental categories for understanding exactly what is going on in Indonesia. To a Western observer, Sukarno’s leisurely six weeks of foreign travel while his regime was falling apart at home just don’t make sense. But maybe it was very smart in terms of Melanesian psychology. Maybe Sukarno put across the idea that he was a being of a higher order than politicians and soldiers, above their petty squabbles, and immune to their attacks.