This book, with a new introduction by the author, is the story of the dramatic events that brought about the downfall of Indonesia's then national hero--Sukarno. In the early morning of I October 1965, six high-ranking generals of the Indonesian army were murdered under grisly circumstances.

This act was to set in motion a chain of events that broke the Indonesian Communist Party amidst the slaughter of hundreds of thousands and ultimately led to Sukarno's eclipse. John Hughes was the first American correspondent into Jakarta after the murders, and one of the few Western correspondents to be an eyewitness to the drama that unfolded in the ensuing months. For his dispatches, Hughes was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. This book has become a classic historical record of those times.