Joop J. de Jong
Evening shot, How the Netherlands withdrew from her Asian Imperium
(Dutch title: Avondschot, Hoe Nederland zich terugtrok uit zijn Aziatisch imperium)
Boom, 2011
786 pp. ISBN 978-94-6105-270-4
Synopsis
In 1949, after four years of conflict, the Netherlands granted Indonesia independence. The loss of the Netherlands Indies was perceived by the Dutch as a national trauma and was felt as a dictate ‘by the whole world’ to surrender sovereignty. The author describes in detail the extremely complex period in which competing parties (Indonesian Republicans, Dutch, and Americans) acted. He surprises the reader with remarkable conclusions on the basis of abundant new archive material. One of his findings is the proposition that the Netherlands was able to deliver itself from this ‘Indonesian swamp’ against the initial conceptions of the international community. De Jong’s views on the Dutch military are quite surprising. Although they failed in the short run, their actions proved to be instrumental to the successes in the final consultations.
