President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration and the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation, 1963-1966: A review of the foreign relations of the United States document

This study focuses on the US administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson and its relationship to the Indonesia-Malaysia conflict from 1963 to 1966. The main objective of this research is to clarify issues concerning economic interests and communist threats that influenced President Johnson’s administration’s reaction to the confrontation. The emphasis is on the period from the end of 1964, when President Johnson replaced President John F. Kennedy, to the end of the conflict in 1966. This study employs archival research methods with material obtained from the National Archives of Singapore as well as documents from The National Archive in London. The main reference document is the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) file, which contains the President’s statements, memoranda, and telegrams during the conflict. The primary document has been selected, processed, analysed, and compiled to form a more objective and authoritative argument. Furthermore, secondary sources such as theses, journals, books, and memoirs were used to create a discussion narrative. In the end, this study concluded that economic interests and the communist threat influenced President Johnson’s administration’s reaction to the Indonesia-Malaysia conflict.