Not even the most optimistic of the 20 men of UNTEA, the Temporary Executive Authority at W.N. Guinea, expected that they could accomplish much during their seven caretaker months.

The first Europeans to sight New Guinea were two 16th century Portuguese sea captains who were so unimpressed that they did not even bother to claim it for their King. Second largest island in the world (after Greenland), it was a tangle of tropical jungle inhabited by mosquitoes, crocodiles, and…

At the United Nations Security Council conference hall in Manhattan, The Netherlands and Indonesia last week formally ended 13 years a bitter wrangling and spasmodic war.

Over a horseshoe-shaped table at the United Nations Security Council conference hall in Manhattan, The Netherlands and Indonesia last week formally ended 13 years of bitter wrangling and spasmodic war for possession of the steaming archipelago called New Guinea.

Broadest smile was on the face of Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Subandrio,…

After 4½ months negotiators shook hands. The Dutch will turn West Irian over to U.N. stewardship until next May 1, at which time administrative control of the territory will pass to Indonesia.

Over the roads near Middleburg, Va., a convoy of limousines daily moved into a lavish colonial estate called Huntlands, only three miles from President Kennedy’s winter weekend spot, Glen Ora.* Shielded from prying eyes by a high, cream-colored brick wall, diplomats from The Netherlands and Indonesia met with U.S. Mediato…

A murder attempt on Sukarno was organized by the fanatically anti-Sukarno Darul Islam sect. Sukarno blamed the Dutch.

Like Gilbert & Sullivan’s John Wellington (The Sorcerer) Wells, Indonesia’s President Sukarno is a believer In magic and spells, In blessings and curses And ever-filled purses, In prophecies, witches, and knells.

At a Djakarta diplomatic reception last year, Bung Karno (meaning Brother Karno) showed up in a beautifully tailored white…

Indonesian guerrillas crept through the dense jungles of Dutch New Guinea last week, forcing the Dutch to spread out their meager defenses (5,800 combat troops).

Indonesian guerrillas crept through the dense jungles of Dutch New Guinea last week, and it became clear that Indonesia’s President Sukarno was at last going to do more than talk about grabbing the disputed territory that he calls West Irian. He also adroitly deployed psychological warfare: Indonesia broadcast reports of …

Just as Indonesia and The Netherlands got to the conference table for negotiation of their dispute over Dutch New Guinea, warfare flared again along the coast of the island.

ust as Indonesia and The Netherlands got to the conference table for some quiet negotiation of their dispute over Dutch New Guinea, warfare flared again along the coast of the humid Pacific island.

Dutch marines discovered a band of 30 In donesians on Waigeo Island off New Guin ea’s western…

U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy was in Indonesia persuading them to settle peacefully its bitter dispute with The Netherlands about sovereignty over West New Guinea.

Planning their itineraries for world tours, U.S. officials are fond of omitting Indonesia, the touchy, swarming island nation whose government professes neutralism while practicing anti-Americanism.

To this rule, U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy was no exception— and last week he and his wife Ethel flew into Indonesia only at the…

The U.S., a nervous fence-sitter in the Dutch-Indonesian dispute, last week found its perch painfully uncomfortable. By trying to avoid offending anybody, it offended everybody.

The U.S., a nervous fence-sitter in the Dutch-Indonesian dispute over Netherlands New Guinea, last week found its perch painfully uncomfortable. By trying to avoid offending anybody, it offended everybody.

The U.S. troubles began with a quiet Dutch trooplift to West New Guinea aboard KLM commercial flights. As long as the…

Though Sukarno softened his repeated demand for immediate sovereignty over Netherlands New Guinea, Indonesia’s government acted as if the country were already at war.

We don’t want to fight, but by jingo, if we do, We’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men, we’ve got the money, too.*

Indonesia’s President Sukarno, who sorely lacks troopships, trained soldiers and hard cash for his threatened invasion of Netherlands New Guinea, is banking on jingo power to…

Three Indonesian torpedo boats raced at flank speed (40 knots) toward the Dutch New Guinea coast. The Dutch ships sank one of the Indonesian craft and forcing the others to flee.

One moonlit night last week, three blips flashed on the radar screen of a Dutch Neptune patrol bomber some 60 miles southwest of New Guinea. They turned out to be three Indonesian torpedo boats racing at flank speed (40 knots) toward the Dutch New Guinea coast. Just over two hours…

Sukarno was 100 yards away when a grenade exploded near his stalled car and blamed the Dutch. The Dutch blamed U.S. diplomat Jones for shouting an Indonesian’s rebels’ word.

On a barnstorming tour of the boondocks aimed at whipping up enthusiasm for his threatened invasion of Nether lands New Guinea, Indonesia’s President Sukarno took along a star-studded cast: ten admiring foreign ambassadors, including the U.S.’s Howard Palfrey Jones, Soviet Cosmonaut Gherman Titov, a brigade of local beauties. As an…

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…

Foreign minister Luns proposed handing over New Guinea to the U.N., which could then allow the native Papuans to determine their own fate. Sukarno wants to liberate West Irian.

As India’s armed forces rolled into Goa last week, Indonesia’s jaunty President Sukarno tried to hitch a ride. Standing beneath a canopy in the cultural center of Djokjakarta, Sukarno told a wildly cheering crowd of 100,000 to prepare “for the coming general mobilization of all the Indonesian people soon to…

The Kennedy Admin. refused to send a U.S. representative to ceremonies of the installation of The Netherlands New Guinea’s first elected council, to show itself neutral in the controversy.

President Sukarno of Indonesia is probably the most footloose head of state since Richard the Lionhearted. Last week, as is his yearly wont, he took leave from his Djakarta palace and his lesser palace at Bogor, with its surrounding park stocked with small white deer, to fly off on a…

Indonesia’s Defense Minister was promised 450 million in military aid from Moscow. The Dutch are reluctant to abandon W.N. Guinea until the Papuans are ready for self-government.

Three weeks ago, Indonesia’s Defense Minister Abdul Haris Nasution set off for Moscow on what he called his “West Irian mission.” Last week he returned to Djakarta in triumph. His trophy was a promise of $450 million in military aid and equipment, enough to double the fighting potential of Indonesia’s…