Diplomacy, as much as the warfare it is designed to prevent, exacts a heavy toll on the truth. One can only wonder what future generations will learn with disbelief and chagrin when the Freedom of Information Act allows public examination of U.S.-China foreign policy intrigue in recent years.

On July 28, the U.S. State Department announced it had shut down distribution of a book about U.S. intelligence activities in Indonesia in the mid-1960s out of diplomatic considerations. Indonesia¡¯s new leader, Megawati Sukarnoputri, is the daughter of founding President Sukarno, the very man the U.S. helped run out of office in the ¡°year of living dangerously.¡±

According to Reuters, the blockaded book offers evidence that ¡°the U.S. provided massive secret funds to the anti-communists and that ¡°U.S. information contributed to the killing of more than 100,000 PKI.¡±