Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • The Jakarta Method

  • Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World
  • By: Vincent Bevins
  • Narrated by: Tim Paige
  • Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (270 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Jakarta Method cover art

The Jakarta Method

By: Vincent Bevins
Narrated by: Tim Paige
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £13.00

Buy Now for £13.00

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Blackshirts and Reds cover art
The Hidden History of Burma cover art
Debt - Updated and Expanded cover art
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa cover art
Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism cover art
Fully Automated Luxury Communism cover art
State and Revolution cover art
Washington Bullets cover art
The Management of Savagery cover art
Open Veins of Latin America cover art
The CIA as Organized Crime cover art
Prequel cover art
Cuba (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize) cover art
The Fate of Abraham cover art
Inside Syria: The Backstory of Their Civil War and What the World Can Expect cover art
American Marxism cover art

Summary

Named One of the Best Books of 2020 by NPR, The Financial Times, and GQ

The hidden story of the wanton slaughter - in Indonesia, Latin America, and around the world - backed by the United States.

In 1965, the US government helped the Indonesian military kill approximately one million innocent civilians. This was one of the most important turning points of the 20th century, eliminating the largest communist party outside China and the Soviet Union and inspiring copycat terror programs in faraway countries like Brazil and Chile. But these events remain widely overlooked, precisely because the CIA's secret interventions were so successful.

In this bold and comprehensive new history, Vincent Bevins builds on his incisive reporting for the Washington Post, using recently declassified documents, archival research, and eye-witness testimony collected across 12 countries to reveal a shocking legacy that spans the globe. For decades, it's been believed that parts of the developing world passed peacefully into the US-led capitalist system. The Jakarta Method demonstrates that the brutal extermination of unarmed leftists was a fundamental part of Washington's final triumph in the Cold War.

©2020 Vincent Bevins (P)2020 Hachette Audio
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

"This fascinating book is a meticulous and shocking analysis of a little-known and horrifically bloody battle of the Cold War, but it is also something more. It places the Indonesia massacre of 1965 in its global context, showing how the United States both supported it and used it as a model for repression in other countries." (Stephen Kinzer, author of Overthrow, All the Shah's Men, Poisoner in Chief)

"In The Jakarta Method, Vincent Bevins argues persuasively that during the Cold War, the U.S. approved of mass murder campaigns to roll back communism in the Third World. This is a provocative, necessary book, an essential guide to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of our imperfect world. Highly recommended." (Jon Lee Anderson, New Yorker staff writer, author of Che Guevara and Inside the League)

"The Jakarta Method is a gripping, thoroughly original exploration into the global covert Cold War, the passions it provoked, and the corpses it left in its wake. A full tally of the body count of the transnational counterinsurgency Washington has been waging since the early 1960s is impossible. But Bevins' excellent book offers a different kind of reckoning, of moral costs and ongoing political consequences. 'Jakarta is coming' was spray-painted on the walls of Santiago Chile in 1972, just before that country's CIA-backed coup, a way for that nation's rich to let the poor know the fate that would befall them were they to continue to fight for a more just society. 'Jakarta' did come, leaving hundreds of thousands of dead throughout Latin America. And, in a way, it never left." (Greg Grandin, Yale University, author of Fordlandia and The End of the Myth)

More from the same

What listeners say about The Jakarta Method

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    233
  • 4 Stars
    28
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    178
  • 4 Stars
    35
  • 3 Stars
    12
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    205
  • 4 Stars
    19
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Eye-opening!

This is an incredible book that exposes the lie of a benevolent West/USA. The world we have now is shaped by horrific events that require a lot more attention and acknowledgement. Highly recommend this book, you'll rewind often as it has multiple double-take instances.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A powerful listen

An essential, devastating account of US interventionism in the 20th century. The narrator does a great job too.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The recording is jumping

The recording is jumping words. This certainly a Good book and very messy and bad recording

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A remarkable book

A depressing and important read. A round-the-world journey of tragedy told through the eyes of those who experienced it first hand. This book brings a personal humanity to the tragedies of mass murder perpetrated by the US government that few other historical accounts manage to capture.

It delivers the humanity and tragedy of Patricio Guzmán's 'Nostalgia for the Light' and the historical incisiveness of Christopher Hitchens' 'The Trial of Henry Kissinger'. A remarkable book, and a must read for those interested in 20th Century history.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

One of the most important books.

This is a critical work, completely engrossing and must be listened to. Vincent Bevins research is presented in a powerful and eye-opening style. I truly feel this book has altered my world view. I only wish I read it 10 years ago.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Mindblowing

This is simply the best book on the impact of US covert interventionism that I have even encountered. It is an emotional rollercoaster that pulls no punches and demonstrates clearly how a bunch of racist old white men led our planet down the path we are still on today. Wow.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Missed out Sri Lanka

They missed out Sri Lanka in the book.

Taking the angle of various people throughout history was very interesting. Their stories come together nicely to paint a timeline of events.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Gripping, eye-opening & applicable.

Emotionally gripping at a interpersonal level and entirely revelatory on a global political level, this is the most important non-fiction I’ve read since ... The Shock Doctrine in 2007?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Facts, many people didn't know

This is a factual book that details how the US changed the 3rd world

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent book

I've listened to over 200 audio books in the last 18 months and this one definitely comes in at the top 10%. I was born in 1976 in Australia and knew some of the history of south east asia from the television news but never really had a chance to get a proper understanding of the history of indonesia and the brutality and massacres that were sponsored by the American government. I knew the CIA was involved in deposing democratically elected governments in latin america but I never knew it all began in Indonesia.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful