Refer to the handouts you have on "Nike in Indonesia."

NOTE, SEPTEMBER 16: Hear an interview on the subject of "Nike in Indonesia", in conjunction with the massacres in East Timor this month, here.

     Go to the following essays, from FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting) and from Noam Chomsky:

•      "U.S. ROLE MISSING FROM EAST TIMOR COVERAGE", from FAIR;
•      "Why Americans should care about East Timor", by Noam Chomsky.

     Chomsky is a major scholar and commentator on the Vietnam War as well -- we will read other material by him in this course. You may also wish to read, for background, these two essays by Joe Nunes: "Indonesia: The Final Solution", about the huge massacres in Indonesia in 1965 and thereafter; "East Timor: Acceptable Slaughters".

NOTE, SEPTEMBER 9: See now the editorial in The Nation, on-line, by Allan Nairn, a long-time international investigative journalist who has been to Timor many times (Nairn also exposed American support for the Haitian military fascist dictatorship in the early '90s).

NOTE, SEPTEMBER 13: See now Noam Chomsky's recent essay "East Timor: Comments On the Occasion of the Forthcoming APEC Summit" (Friday, September 10 1999), at the Z Magazine site.

Both essays deal with US responsibility for these huge massacres, overwhelmingly of trade union leaders and members, worker, student and farmer activists.

     After studying and reviewing all this material, please write an essay of 300 words discussing the issue of Indonesia; Nike; East Timor; and the American government's role.

     Conclude with 50-100 words (or more, but not less) on what you think this may have to do with the Vietnam War.

     Email to me by 9 a.m. the day of class.

Streaming Audio:

• Here is a good, thorough discussion of the horrendous situation in East Timor, recorded at M.I.T. on April 11, 1995. Here is Part 1; Part 2; the Q&A session. (I got it from Radio4All, and converted the MP3 files to WAV and then to RM).
• Here is a talk by Noam Chomsky on the situation in Indonesia, and U.S. responsibility for it. Just click on the title, "CHOMSKY DISCUSSES RECENT EVENTS IN INDONESIA." Not required, but you might be interested.
• Here is a program on the massacres in Timor in 1991, and on the situation in general.

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  HERE is a telling remark by Chomsky from 1994. I got it off the Usenet Newsgroup alt.fan.noam-chomsky today (9.9.99):

  (From a Red Pepper Forum, London, 1994) HAROLD PINTER: Can you say something about the relationship between the US and the UN? NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, it is like the relationship between the Chairman of the Board of General Motors and the guy who cleans his car.