![]() ![]() ![]() East Timor was one example of a territory that initially found its interests subordinated to broader Cold War considerations, yet ultimately succeeded in winning international backing for its quest for independent status. The brutality with which the Indonesian military imposed control and suppressed opposition during these years prompted not just simmering low-level internal insurgency, which continued into the 1980s and 1990s, but also persistent external criticism and concern, expressed in international forums such as the United Nations by East Timorese activists and their allies within the increasingly influential human rights movement. In the later 1970s, the United States and Australia acquiesced in and even encouraged and facilitated Indonesia’s annexation of East Timor. For most of the Cold War it seemed likely that the fate of East Timor, a small territory under some kind of Portuguese rule since at least the eighteenth century, would be decided by larger powers, most notably neighbouring Indonesia and Australia, with the backing of the United States. This chapter explores the shifting fortunes of East Timor during the Cold War and beyond. ![]()
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