#261 | Jakarta Is Coming: The Third World & Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade w/ Vincent Bevins

Intro: 13:47 | Outro: 1:27:22

In this interview, I speak with journalist and author Vincent Bevins, author of ‘The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World.’

The events that have shaped our world, particularly in the post-Cold War era, are often unexamined and under-appreciated. This is especially true in a time of rising right wing populism and reactionary violence in nations around the globe, with the rise of such far-right leaders as Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Donald Trump in the United States, as well as the growing concentration of wealth by the global capitalist elite, facilitated by decades of neoliberal economic policies and austerity. How did we get to this point?

Vincent Bevins, in his truly important work ‘The Jakarta Method,’ provides something of a gift of insight into the events, often unexamined in the so-called First World, that have shaped the socioeconomic order that emerged out of decades of Cold War violence enacted and influenced largely by the United States. Paying careful attention and respect to the nations of the Third World (having just emerged from centuries of colonialism in the post-WWII era), Bevins examines the often successful efforts made by the United States in "battling communism" (a euphemism, as he explains in this interview) by any means necessary. The impacts of these programs of mass murder, fully backed and facilitated by the US and put to deadly effect in the newly liberated nations of the Third World, have yet to be fully reckoned with in any meaningful way. By laying out this intricate and complex history of anticommunist violence, from Asia to Latin America to Africa, Bevins provides insight into the nature of some of the most shocking and important political events unfolding in the world today.

Vincent Bevins is an American journalist and writer. From 2011 to 2016, he worked as a foreign correspondent based in Brazil for the Los Angeles Times, after working previously in London for the Financial Times. In 2017, he moved to Jakarta and began covering Southeast Asia for the Washington Post, and in 2018 began writing ‘The Jakarta Method,’ a book about Cold War violence in Indonesia and Latin America. His work has mostly focused on international politics, the world economy, and global culture.

Episode Notes:

- Learn more about ‘The Jakarta Method’ and purchase a copy: https://bit.ly/3hOs1qF

- Learn more about Vincent and his work: https://vincentbevins.com

- Follow him on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/vinncent

- The song featured in this episode is “meh.” by Playboi Carti and remixed by llusion: https://soundcloud.com/akinariistrash/meh