- Gilchrist Document
The Gilchrist Document is a much cited letter from 1965 often used to support arguments for Western involvement in the overthrow of
Sukarno inIndonesia .However the letter is most likely a forgery. The document purports to be a letter from the British ambassador to Jakarta,Andrew Gilchrist , addressed to the British Foreign Office. The letter refers to a joint US-UK plan for military intervention in Indonesia. Aandstad, Stig A: Surrendering to Symbols - US policy towards Indonesia 1961-65. Oslo, Norway. Cand.philol dissertation, University of Oslo, 1999.] Gardner, Paul F. Shared Hopes, Separate Fears: Fifty Years of U.S.-Indonesian Relations. Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1997: pp. 205–206] The letter was first made public by the Indonesian Foreign MinisterSubandrio on a trip to Cairo. The U.S. embassy in Cairo was soon after able to get a photographic copy of the letter. The embassy concluded that it was a fake, and the "Gilchrist-letter" was subsequently referred to as a forgery in the U.S. administration. An internal discussion in the U.S. administration on who was behind the forgery followed, and the U.S. settled on a Subandrio-controlled intelligence agency.Airgram A-32, Cairo to State, 10 July 1965, (Photo of Gilchrist-letter attached), POL 23–9, "INDON, REBELLION & COUPS", 1/1/65, Box 2317, NARA; Airgram A-35, Djakarta to State, July 28 1965, POL 23–9, "INDON, REBELLION & COUPS", 1/1/65, Box 2317, National Archives - College Park, Maryland, US]The Czech agent Vladislav Bittman who defected in 1968 claimed that his agency forged the letter. Bittman also claimed responsibility for the campaign against U.S. citizen and movie distributor Bill Palmer.
The papers of the British ambassador Sir
Andrew Gilchrist are held in the Churchill Archive at Churchill College, Cambridge University. Some of them are still classified. Speculation about a possible British role in the overthrow of Sukarno continues, although British defence secretary in 1965, Denis Healey, stated in 2000 that Britain was not involved, though Healey would have supported involvement had it been possible.Text of the Document
Sources
* [http://aga.nvg.org/oppgaver/conclusion.html Surrendering to Symbols - US policy towards Indonesia 1961-65, Conclusions]
* Airgram A-32, Cairo to State, 10 July 1965, (Photo of Gilchrist-letter attached), POL 23–9, "INDON, REBELLION & COUPS", 1/1/65, Box 2317, NARA; Airgram A-35, Djakarta to State, July 28 1965, POL 23–9, "INDON, REBELLION & COUPS", 1/1/65, Box 2317, National Archives - College Park, Maryland, US
* Gardner, Paul F. Shared Hopes, Separate Fears: Fifty Years of U.S.-Indonesian Relations. Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1997: pp. 205–206Notes
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