He was a prominent leader of Indonesia's nationalist movement during the colonial period and spent over a decade under Dutch detention until released by the invading Japanese forces in World War II.

This was followed by repression of real and perceived leftists, including executions of Communist party members and suspected sympathisers in several massacres with support from the CIA[7] and British intelligence services,[8] resulting in an estimated 500,000 to over 1,000,000 deaths.

Coming soon after the disintegration of Sarekat Islam in the early 1920s and the crushing of the Indonesian Communist Party after its failed rebellion of 1926, the PNI began to attract a large number of followers, particularly among the new university-educated youths eager for broader freedoms and opportunities denied to them in the racist and constrictive political system of Dutch colonialism.

His speech, however, received extensive coverage by the press, and due to strong pressure from the liberal elements in both the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies, Sukarno was released early on 31 December 1931.

The original PNI was disbanded by the Dutch, and its former members formed two different parties; the Indonesia Party (Partindo) under Sukarno's associate Sartono who were promoting mass agitation, and the Indonesian Nationalist Education (New PNI) under Mohammad Hatta and Sutan Sjahrir, two nationalists who recently returned from studies in the Netherlands, and who were promoting a long-term strategy of providing modern education to the uneducated Indonesian populace to develop an intellectual elite able to offer effective resistance to Dutch rule.

Additionally, the Japanese requisitioned rice and other food produced by Indonesian peasants to supply their troops, while forcing the peasantry to cultivate castor oil plants to be used as aviation fuel and lubricants.

In March 1943, the Japanese formed a new organization called Poesat Tenaga Rakjat (POETERA/Center of People's Power) under Sukarno, Hatta, Ki Hadjar Dewantara, and KH Mas Mansjoer.

[30][31] He also was involved with the formation of Defenders of the Homeland (Pembela Tanah Air; PETA) and Heiho (Indonesian volunteer army troops) via speeches broadcast on the Japanese radio and loudspeaker networks across Java and Sumatra.

[37] On 29 April 1945, when the Philippines were liberated by American forces, the Japanese allowed for the establishment of the Investigating Committee for Preparatory Work for Independence (Badan Penyelidik Usaha-Usaha Persiapan Kemerdekaan, BPUPK), a quasi-legislature consisting of 67 representatives from most ethnic groups in Indonesia.

On 9 August, the top leaders of PPKI (Sukarno, Hatta and KRT Radjiman Wediodiningrat), were summoned by the commander-in-chief of Japan's Southern Expeditionary Forces, Field Marshal Hisaichi Terauchi, to Da Lat, 100 km from Saigon.

On the afternoon of that day, Sukarno received this information from leaders of youth groups and members of PETA Chairul Saleh, Soekarni, and Wikana, who had been listening to Western radio broadcasts.

That night, the youths drove Sukarno back to the house of Admiral Tadashi Maeda, the Japanese naval liaison officer in the Menteng area of Jakarta, who sympathised with Indonesian independence.

[41] On the following day, 18 August, the PPKI declared the basic governmental structure of the new Republic of Indonesia: Sukarno's vision for the 1945 Indonesian constitution comprised the Pancasila (five principles).

On 19 September, Sukarno addressed a crowd of one million people at the Ikada Field of Jakarta (now part of Merdeka Square) to commemorate one month of independence, indicating the strong level of popular support for the new Republic, at least on Java and Sumatra.

The most serious cases were the Social Revolutions in Aceh and North Sumatera, where large numbers of Acehnese and Malay aristocrats were killed, and the "Three Regions Affair" in northwestern coast of Central Java.

Sukarno's government initially postponed the formation of a national army, for fear of antagonizing the Allied occupation forces and their doubt over whether they would have been able to form an adequate military apparatus to maintain control of seized territory.

Although the newly reconstituted TNI was unable to offer significant military resistance, the blatant violation by the Dutch of an internationally brokered agreement outraged world opinion.

Leftist political elements, led by resurgent Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) under Musso took advantage of public disaffections by launching a rebellion in Madiun, East Java, on 18 September 1948.

As a reconciliatory move, Sukarno invited the leaders of the regional councils to Jakarta on 10–14 September 1957, to attend a National Conference (Musjawarah Nasional), which failed to bring a solution to the crisis.

On the security front, the military started a series of effective campaigns which ended the long-festering Darul Islam rebellion in West Java (1962), Aceh (1962), and South Sulawesi (1965).

To make amends for CIA involvement in the PRRI-Permesta rebellion, Kennedy invited Sukarno to Washington, D.C., and provided Indonesia with billions of dollars in civilian and military aid.

NAM was intended to provide political unity and influence for nations who wished to maintain independence from the American and Soviet superpower blocs, which were engaged in Cold War competition.

However, the situation calmed by mid-September at the culmination of the Sunda Straits Crisis, and after the disastrous Battle of Plaman Mapu in April 1965, Indonesian raids into Sarawak became fewer and weaker.

Elements of the military disagreed with Sukarno's policy of confrontation with Malaysia, which in their view only benefited communists, and sent several officers (including future armed forces Chief Leonardus Benjamin Moerdani) to spread secret peace-feelers to the Malaysian government.

However, Army Chief Ahmad Yani and Defense Minister Nasution procrastinated in implementing this idea, as this was tantamount to allowing the PKI to establish its own armed forces.

The Czechoslovakian agent Ladislav Bittman, who defected in 1968, claimed that his agency (StB) forged the letter on request from PKI via the Soviet Union to smear anti-communist generals.

On his independence day speech of 17 August 1965, Sukarno declared his intention to commit Indonesia to an anti-imperialist alliance with China and other communist regimes and warned the army not to interfere.

On 22 June 1966, Sukarno made his Nawaksara speech in front of the MPRS, now purged of communist and pro-Sukarno elements, in an unsuccessful last-ditch attempt to defend himself and his guided democracy system.

Her younger brother Guruh Sukarnoputra (born 1953) has inherited Sukarno's artistic bent and is a choreographer and songwriter, who made a movie Untukmu, Indonesiaku (For You, My Indonesia) about Indonesian culture.

Afghanistan: Argentina: Australia: Bolivia: Brazil: Bulgaria: Czechoslovakia: Germany: Holy See: Hungary: Japan: Morocco: Philippines: Portugal: South Africa: Soviet Union: Thailand: Vietnam: Yugoslavia: