7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7

After “dreaming” in late 1956 of “burying” the feuding
political parties in Indonesia and thus achieving national
consensus and prosperity, Sukarno dismantled parlia-
mentary democracy and destroyed free enterprise. He
ordained “Guided Democracy” and “Guided Economy”
for the achievement of Manipol-Usdek and Resopim-
Nasakom—arcane acronyms symbolizing policies but
signifying dictatorship. Sukarno narrowly escaped recur-
rent attempts at assassination, the first in 1957. Regional
insurrections broke out in Sumatra and Sulawesi in 1958.
In 1965, still popular with the people, Sukarno was
implicated in the murder of six army officers by Communist
conspirators. The commander of the Jakarta garrison,
General Suharto, put down a Communist insurrection. The
public now demanded an end to Sukarno’s rule. On March
11, 1966, he was forced to delegate wide powers to Suharto,
who subsequently became acting president (March 1967)
and then president (March 1968), as Sukarno sank into
disgrace, dying at the age of 69 of a chronic kidney ailment
and numerous complications.

Deng Xiaoping

(b. Aug. 22, 1904, Guang’an, Sichuan Province, China—d. Feb. 19,
1997, Beijing)

T

he Chinese Communist leader Deng Xiaoping was
the most powerful figure in the People’s Republic of
China from the late 1970s until his death in 1997. He aban-
doned many orthodox Communist doctrines and attempted
to incorporate elements of the free-enterprise system into
the Chinese economy.
Deng was the son of a landowner and studied in France
from 1920 to 1924—where he became active in the
Communist movement—and in the Soviet Union in