Like the British vis-à-vis the French, an influential current in Indonesian opinion remains convinced that the outside world is determined to destroy it with naughtiness. Some believe that, far from being innate or Islamic, the current bout of banning can be traced back to paranoia generated by the CIA’s attempts round 1960 to bring down Megawati’s dad, dictator Sukarno, using faked pornography. Re this, the Federation of American Scientists says that:
Based on reports that President Sukarno had been seen in the company of a Soviet stewardess, [CIA operative Joseph Burkholder Smith] wrote [in Portrait of a Cold Warrior (1976)], “our special Sukarno committee was formed to accomplish … the production of a film, or at least some still photos, [purportedly] showing Sukarno and his Russian girlfriend engaged in his favorite activity.”
“Exploiting Sukarno’s sexual appetite in this way was a tricky theme. His conquests didn’t disturb Indonesians too much…. However, what we were saying was that a woman had gotten the better of Sukarno. Being tricked, deceived, or otherwise outsmarted by one of the creatures God has provided for man’s pleasure cannot be condoned,” as the CIA understood Indonesian culture.
“Also,” Smith continued, “we were interested in the impact of this theme outside Indonesia, for our purpose was to present Sukarno in as unfavorable and unsympathetic light as possible. If he were deposed by our friends the colonels, we wanted the world to agree with us that Indonesia would be better off.”
First, the CIA attempted to find a Sukarno lookalike in the existing repertoire of pornographic films. “Los Angeles’s supply of blue films suited our purpose, we thought, because they included dark male subjects … who might be made to look like Sukarno with a little touching up.”
When that didn’t work out, “we decided that we would try to develop a full-face mask of Sukarno. We planned to ship this out to Los Angeles and ask the police to pay some blue film star to wear it during his big scene.”
Smith writes that in the end, he “never tried” to make use of the product of CIA’s secret pornography initiative. But author John Ranelagh reports in his book “The Agency” that the resulting anti-Sukarno porno film was entitled “Happy Days,” and that “still photographs were taken for distribution in the Far East.”
I heard this story originally from someone who knew some of the generals who received the photos. Instead of deploring their leader’s weakness, they were apparently deeply impressed at his ability to seduce such large numbers of attractive Westerners.
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