Born into a Batak Muslim family, in the village of Hutapungkut, Dutch East Indies, he studied teaching and enrolled at a military academy in Bandung.

Nasution's house was attacked, and his daughter was killed, but he managed to escape by scaling a wall and hiding in the Iraqi ambassador's residence.

[3] In 1940, Nazi Germany occupied the Netherlands and the Dutch colonial authorities established an officer reserve corps that admitted pribumi (native Indonesians).

Following the takeover of the city of Madiun in East Java, by former Prime Minister Amir Syarifuddin and Musso of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

[14] With President Sukarno and Vice-President Mohammad Hatta in Dutch captivity, the Emergency Government of the Republic of Indonesia (PDRI) was set up in Sumatra.

In December 1949, Nasution took on his position as army chief of staff,[6] with T. B. Simatupang replacing Sudirman as the commander of the newly dubbed TNI (Armed Forces of the Republic of Indonesia).

Protesting against civilian interference in military affairs, Nasution and Simatupang had their troops surround the Presidential Palace and point their tank turrets at it.

Nasution's third and most important reform was to increase the army's influence and power so that it would be able to take care of itself, instead of relying on civilian decisions.

[21] At the behest of Sukarno himself, the army also began participating in politics, filling in positions that ranged from cabinet ministers to provincial governors and even DPR members.

Nasution was appointed minister of defense and security in Sukarno's Cabinet while continuing to hold the position as army chief of staff.

In July, he met with his top advisors, including Nasution, and it was agreed that Indonesia would pursue a policy of confrontation against the Dutch on the matter of West Papua.

Suharto, now a brigadier general, was commissioned by Nasution to create a strategic force unit that would be on standby, ready to be called into action at any time.

Although he had set Indonesia on a non-aligned course during the Cold War, the revelation that the PRRI was assisted by the United States, caused Sukarno to adopt an anti-American stance.

During the General Session, Nasution had the Indonesian National Party (PNI) as well as the Army members present put forward the motion that Sukarno be appointed president for life.

Although Yani was quick to deny the allegations, the PKI began running a smear campaign, claiming that a Council of Generals was planning to overthrow the president.

On the morning of 1 October 1965, troops calling themselves the 30 September Movement (G30S) attempted to kidnap seven anti-communist Army officers including Nasution.

[29] Lieutenant Arief was the leader of the squad assigned to capture Nasution, and his team in four trucks and two military cars travelled down a deserted Jalan Teuku Umar at 4:00 am.

In a separate cottage, two of Nasution's aides were asleep, a young army lieutenant Pierre Tendean, and assistant police commissioner Hamdan Mansjur.

Mardiah grabbed Nasution's five-year-old daughter, Irma, from her bed, cradling the child protectively in her arms, and tried to run to safety.

Nasution arrived at the Kostrad headquarters at around 6 pm, just as Suharto began deploying Sarwo Edhie Wibowo's troops to secure Jakarta from the G30S Movement.

Martadinata replied that during the afternoon he, Judodiharjo, and Dhani had attended a meeting with Sukarno at Halim to decide who should become the army commander now that Yani was dead.

Although Suharto had been the man of the hour on 1 October, many of the other Army officers still turned to Nasution for leadership and had expected him to take more decisive control of the situation.

A golden opportunity came to Nasution in December 1965 when there was talk of his being appointed as vice president to assist Sukarno in times of uncertainty.

Suharto, whose political momentum was growing, took the initiative in early 1966 by issuing a statement saying that there was no need to fill the vacant vice presidency.

Nevertheless, he continued to be a respected figure as many army officers visited him in the days leading up to the signing of the Supersemar document handing over authority from Sukarno to Suharto.

Nasution set Supersemar (Order of the Eleventh of March) as the first agenda on the list by walking into the assembly hall with the physical document.

Under his Chairmanship, the MPRS took measures such as banning Marxism-Leninism, revoking Sukarno's life presidency, and ordering a legislative election to be held by July 1968.

On 10 January 1967, Nasution and the MPRS assembled again as Sukarno submitted his report (he did not deliver it in person as a speech) which was hoped to finally address the issue of G30S.

It called for Suharto to stop interpreting Pancasila to suit his ends and for ABRI to be neutral in politics instead of favouring Golkar.

[47] Nasution was married to Johanna Sunarti (1 November 1923 – 20 March 2010), a Surabaya-born humanitarian, with whom he had two daughters, Hendriyanti Sahara (1952 – 18 June 2021) and Ade Irma Suryani.