The Netherlands and Indonesia are not even on formal speaking terms, the struggle for New Guinea has fallen to diplomatic “third parties,” largely the U.S.

As usual, the headlines out of Berlin were dramatic—an American commandant held up at the East-West frontier; a Soviet jeep chased by U.S. troops in retaliation. General Lucius Clay, the President’s special representative in Berlin, flew to Washington to demand that the local commander get more freedom to slug…