Marshall Green knew the art of diplomacy

By Jusuf Wanandi

United States Ambassador Marshall Green who was posted in Indonesia during the turbulent years of the 1960s died of a heart attack on June 6 in Washington. He was 82 years old. Green also served as assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs from 1969 to 1972.

JAKARTA (JP): Ambassador Marshall Green is one of my heroes in the art of diplomacy and in the practice of international relations. He came to serve in Jakarta as ambassador in August 1965 at a very difficult and sensitive period in the relations between the United States and Indonesia. The Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) was very influential and powerful at that time and was considered close to former president Sukarno.

His arrival in Jakarta in early August was greeted with demonstrations and protests from the PKI and other leftist parties. He was, among other things, accused of having had a hand in the coup by president Park Chung-hee in South Korea when he served there in the early 1960s.

It was not very easy for Ambassador Green to strike a balance in relations with both Gen. Soeharto and president Sukarno. However, he handled the delicate situation very well, not demonstrating too blatantly that he was pro one and against the other. He paid a lot of attention to the importance of assistance, particularly for the common people in the form of food aid and public works, in dealing with the very serious economic downturn.

His influence was not very conspicuous, but felt. And the anecdote making the round at that time was that four "greens" were running Indonesia during those years. They were the Army greens, the Moslem greens, the "greenhorn" students and Marshall Green.

He also assisted acting president Soeharto in giving red carpet treatment to Richard Nixon in early 1967 on his visit to Indonesia as a private citizen. When Nixon became president in early 1969, President Soeharto got every assistance needed, especially when Ambassador Green became Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia.

Marshall Green came back in 1972 in his role as Assistant Secretary after the Nixon visit to China to explain about the visit and to reassure president Soeharto and foreign minister Adam Malik about the visit and the meaning of normalization between China and the U.S., which was received with a lot of apprehension in the region.

In 1987 he came back for the last time to Indonesia as a family planning advisor on behalf of the U.S. Administration.

I remember vividly the dinner that I hosted for him, which was attended by a sizable group of the "greenhorn" student leaders of 1965 from Jakarta and Bandung. Some of them were rumored to become ministers in the 1988 cabinet of president Soeharto, and Ambassador Green was delighted to hear that.

Ambassador Green was one of those exceptional personalities who was wise and bright with wit and a sense of humor, that endeared him to a lot of his colleagues and friends in the U.S. as well as abroad.

He has indeed a lot of friends in Indonesia who appreciate the role he played in those very delicate years of our relations. He was a great help when Indonesia needed it. He was successful because of the way he handled and implemented that role; full of nuance, balance and wisdom.

Indonesia could not have had a better U.S. diplomat during those critical years in its history and in Indonesia's relations with the world, the Asia Pacific region and particularly with the U.S. Anybody who might be interested in those years and Ambassador's Green ideas, evaluation and policies, should read his recollections of those years, Indonesia: Crisis and Transformation.

Ambassador Green could not have been more satisfied with the reforms and changes that have been happening in the last few months in Indonesia. Indonesia is facing a difficult future, but at least another chance has been given to the Indonesian people to decide on their own future.

It may be a dicey situation that Indonesia is facing now, but it is also a challenge for Indonesians to overcome those uncertainties and to make a better, more democratic and just future than the past experienced over the last 30 years.

Marshall, thank you for everything you have done for Indonesia.

The writer is chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Center for International and Strategic Studies.