of the British Confederation of Malaya. Part of Sukarno's blocking manuever was the deployment
of pro-Indonenorthern Bornesian guerillas into the Malaccan peninsula above Singapore, and into certain areas ofo, including Sarawak and Sabah. From there, these guerillas were causing problems (^)
for Bush's business partner in the oil trade, the Sultan of Brunei. Bush targetted Indonesia and
Sukarno personally for a series of violent and abusive attacks.
In April, Sukarno told the US Ambassador Howard P. Jones that "there is one country threateningto stop its foreign aid to Indonesia. That country thinks it can scare Indonesia. I say go to hell with (^)
your aid." Bush, from Big Spring, commented in an April 23 statement: "It's easy for President
Sukarno of Indonesia to tell us to 'got to hell' with our foreign aid-- now that he has already
received $894 million worth." Bush explained that he had been in Borneo during 1963, during the
time that the Malysian Federation was coming into existence "in favor of the Free World." "That,"said Bush, "was the mistake the Malaysian Federation made; coming into the world of nations in
favor of America and the free world. The very next day Sukarno, whom we've tried to buy with
$894 million in aid, turned on Malaysia and announced he would destroy the new Federation."
Bush's release notes that "Bush, who was President of Zapata Off-Shore, said one of the firm's
drilling rigs was at that time, and is today, working off the coast of Borneinterest? o." Was this a conflict of
With accents that provide an eerie presentiment of the 1990-1991 Gulf crisis, Bush went on: "Today
the borders of the Malaysian Federation are lined with Indonesian troops, bearing Russian-made
arms, purchased with American dollars. The Indonesians are still poised to crush Malaysia. Andwhat have we done? We gently slapped Sukarno on the wrist, then loaned him another $20 million, (^)
which he used to buy a couple of jet aircraft, one of which he uses to fly his foul assignations
around the far east. What we should have done, and still should do, is tell Sukarno: 'You violate the
sanctity of the Malysian border and you have to deal with the force of the entire free world!'"
Shortly thereafter, Texas GOP Senator John Tower sponsored a cutoff of US aid to Sukarno, which
passed, although Yarborough voted to maintain the aid. Bush made this the occasion for a new
onslaught. In a contorted argument, Bush pointed out that Yarborough's vote for aid to Indonesia
had come one day after Sukarno had extended "the friendly hand of recognition to the communist
government of North Viet Nam. This country, Sukarno's friend, is waging a war in which scarcely aday before Yarborough's vote, communist bullets slammed through the body of a young helicopter
pilot from Texas. Yarborough voted to give US aid to a country that is friends with a mob that is
killing young Americans and Texans...He votes to aid the friends of a mob that is killing Texas
boys." Yarborough rejected this "wild criticism," and said that the charges illustrated Bush's lack of
comprehension of the "delicate balance of power in foreign affairs, and his lack of knowstate of affairs in Southeast Asia." Yarborough's point was that the important thing was to preventledge of the
any war between Indonesia and Malaysia, and that this task must override any desire to humiliate
Sukarno.
Bush's remarks in this campaign mesh perfectly with the US buildup for td'etat in Indonesia, in which more than 200,000 persons were killed, primarily during the course ofhe 1965 military coup (^)
anti- communist massacres carried out by the army with the encouragement of US advisors.
In economic policy, Bush's starting point was always "unbridled free enterprise," as he stressed in a
statement on unemployment on March 16: "Only unbridled free enterprise can cure unemployment.But, I don't believe the federal government has given the private sector of our economy a genuine
opportunity to relieve this unemployment. For example, the [Johnson war on poverty program]
contains a new version of the CCC, a Domestic Peace Corps, and various and sundry half-baked
pies in the sky." Bush's printed campaign literature stated under the heading of "federal economy"
that "the free enterprise system must be unfettered. A strong economy means jobs, opportunity, and