Battleground Indonesia Part 1: "A Mountain of Gold on the Moon" (feat. Aaron Good)

“It was just like a mountain of gold on the moon…”’

Historian and political scientist Aaron Good joins Mike and Hailey of the Kulture for a juggernaut series on the intertwining fates of Indonesia and the United States. Part 1 introduces Indonesia at the turn of the 20th century; as the twilight of its Dutch colonial occupation gives way to a bloody independence movement and multi-empire tug-of-war over the country’s vast natural resources. One historic treasure, the crux of our story, was hidden from the world for over half a century – but how? All throughout, Allen Dulles, the Rockefeller family, and the CIA are weaving together networks of power and influence to protect and ultimately seize their plunder, in secret from the rest of the government and the American public. At a crucial moment for nation building and political thought at the end of the second World War, what unfolds in Indonesia is a sobering cascade from colonialism to modern empire; unique in its scope and brutality, but just one of many Cold War regime change operations in the newly imagined “Third World”. Using Dr. Greg Poulgrain’s tour de force “JFK vs. Allen Dulles: Battleground Indonesia,” and the work of Professor Peter Dale Scott as a jumping off point, join Aaron, Mike, and Hailey as they break down one of the most dense and thrilling sagas in modern history.

00:00 Intro: Why Indonesia?
6:20 Indonesian geography crash course: “History’s greatest prize”
11:16 Source material: Poulgrain, Peter Dale Scott
17:35 The Dutch East Indies & Colonization of Indonesia
19:44 Rockefeller/Standard Oil & other major players
28:12 The Rise of Allen Dulles, “Master of Spies”
30:53 1934/5: Creation of Netherlands New Guinea Petroleum Company (NNGPM) & competition w/Japan
34:34 Striking Gold! The 1936 Carstensz Expedition
37:47 The beginning of “Concealment”
46:55 By 1940: The clash of empires & wartime maneuvers
52:28 the Rape of Nanjing & Japan in WWII
1:02:09 French Indochina
1:05:38 Japan’s Invasion Spree
1:10:25 Conclusion & Summary

FOLLOW // https://twitter.com/TheKultureDotTV // https://twitter.com/Aaron_Good_ // https://twitter.com/TheMikeOldfield // https://twitter.com/roun_sa_ville

STREAMING // Live on weekdays at https://www.twitch.tv/thekulturedottv

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Preorder “American Exception: Empire and the Deep State”: https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/9781510769137/american-exception/

LEARN MORE // JFK Assassination w/Aaron Good https://youtu.be/MSqcCCoGshY // “The Act of Killing” & “The Look of Silence” documentaries by Joshua Oppenheimer // “The Jakarta Method” by Vincent Bevins // Untold History of the United States Ch. 5 “The ‘50s: Eisenhower, the Bomb & the Third World // Coming to Jakarta: A Poem about Terror by Prof. Peter Dale Scott

Artwork courtesy of Casey Moore. Video “Coveted East Indies” courtesy of Prelinger Archive.