In which case, WI the USA (and NATO) supported the Dutch, with the Indonesians openly declaring their allegiance to communism in response?
Now this is pretty difficult. First of all, the relationship between Indonesia and communism was very complicated. It was one of the earliest actors in the Indonesian national movement, as such it has made many enemies and disappointed so many people.
There were two brands of Communism in Indonesia around this time. First was that of Tan Malaka and the Young Indonesians, or the
Pemuda under the Murba party. It was popular among native Indonesians, mainly because they were the first to take a non-cooperative stance and they were open about the status of religion. The downside is that they do not have the support of the Soviets, Tan Malaka was especially hated by the Soviets. The second brand was that of Musso, under the Communist Party of Indonesia. It was also non-cooperative, but it openly rejected religion, which made them unappealing to most Indonesians.
It is important to understand that the Indonesian nationalist movement comprised of some very diverse ideologies, some contradicted with each other. Soekarno actually played a really good job making sure none of them got too powerful in the republic's early days. You see, the Dutch
did have the support of the allies earlier in the revolution, but it did not see Indonesia becoming communist.
Now, for argument's sake, let's say at some point they did. Say the communists took over and went on with anti-western rhetoric. Depends on which brand of communism is up there, you have two different recipes for disaster. If it was Murba, you would have a government that had some legitimacy, with a number of loyal armed forces, but with no friends in the outside world. The other is a government with no support of the people, no army, and a LOT of enemies. It's easy to see the Islamists allying with the Dutch (especially if van Mook was still in charge) and topple this fragile government.
Thanks for your response, cool to see the perspective of an Indonesian as a Dutchman.
You're welcome. But I don't know if mine counts as a purely Indonesian perspective. I lived in the Netherlands for almost two years now, and most of the history books I read are in Dutch. The thing is, a lot of Indonesian "history sources" such as children's books and even school textbooks are littered by propaganda. A lot of Indonesians who read history sadly see it as a black and white battle of good vs evil, where our side is morally perfect and we wouldn't hurt a fly, and our enemies did all they did because they were evil. I'm glad that I manage to get another point of view. It helps making a better picture.