Indonesia vs Australia

This seems to be a pretty popular alternate history concept, and there are POD's from WWII all the way to present Australia. I believe I have a really good one. Check this LINK for the Point of Divergence.

The Point of Divergence

So the link above should tell you about it, and for some reason you can't copy and paste information from the site without it screwing up. Long story short, Murdoch interviewed JFK on December 1, 1961 - and JFK said a LOT of crazy things. (Obviously an error with off/on the record information)

He said that:
(A) Laos is indefensible
(B) That the United States wishes the Dutch would get out of West New Guinea and,
(C) That the President is indifferent to results of the Australian elections.”

A major story was made, but was killed just before publication. It was the week before the 1961 Australian election, and this could/would have probably seen the slight margin of Menzies win cut, and Calwell becoming the new leader.

Where to from here?

There are many ways you can take it from here, whether it be a more racist Australia under Calwell, strained US-Australia relations after that third revelation that JFK doesn't care, and even possibly problems between the NATO aligned Dutch-US groups. Also worth to note that Sukarno is in power at the moment, and from what I've read he relied a lot on the PKI (Commies)

Questions that could be asked

  • Under Calwell would Australia not attend the Vietnam War
  • The biggoted Calwell would change Australian society
  • Menzies would most likely retire from politics
  • Indo-American relations and the threat of communism
  • JFK publicly wanted the Dutch to win, would this be a major blunder?
  • Would Whitlam rise against Calwell like in OTL
  • How imminent would a conflict be in Indonesia.

Could Indonesia become the new Vietnam?

Please discuss, and maybe we can make a group effort of a timeline as to what happens.
 
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TIMELINE

1 December, 1961 - The Interview is made in America

2 December, 1961 - The Interview is published in The Sydney Morning Herald

9 December, 1961 - Calwell wins the election against Menzies. Whitlam DPM

???
 

cumbria

Banned
Would be interesting with the type of Australia he wanted.

"I am proud of my white skin, just as a Chinese is proud of his yellow skin, a Japanese of his brown skin, and the Indians of their various hues from black to coffee-coloured. Anybody who is not proud of his race is not a man at all. And any man who tries to stigmatize the Australian community as racist because they want to preserve this country for the white race is doing our nation great harm... I reject, in conscience, the idea that Australia should or ever can become a multi-racial society and survive."

Calwell.
 
He was an anti-war man, and even faced assassination in 1966 because of this. Would he be passive against the hostile Indonesians, and would the war attitude of his DPM Gough change?

(Let me remind you that when Whitlam talked about "ending conscription" it was in 1972, the equivalent of ending conscription to WWII in 1945.)
 
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