The Kennedys brokered the transfer of West Irian/Irian Jaya/West Papua to Indonesia as a way to avoid Dutch colonization, and as a way to open the door to more peaceful relations with the Indonesians. It was the UN that mandated a 1969 vote, not a 1968 vote. The Kennedys were supportive of eventual vote for independence, but few involved believed the Papuans would be capable of self-governance. They were, at that time, a very "primitive" people, by Western definition.

The problem is the gold mine. West Papua contains the world's largest goldmine. It was initially buried under a mountain called 'Copper Mountain' because it was so rich in copper and nickel. It was already valuable when Freeport Sulphur, now Freeport McMoRan bought it. But the gold made it so much more valuable.

Even Megawati Sukarno, daughter of the Indonesian leader Sukarno, refused to give West Papua a vote for independence. In 2000, separatists declared their own independence, but it was short lived. Today and for years, the Indonesian military is heavily enmeshed with Freeports efforts. The company provides funding, the military protects the property. No one protects the people. It's a horrible state of affairs, but the Kennedys are not the ones to blame for this fiasco.

While the Kennedys reached out to attempt an accommodation with Sukarno, the CIA had been trying to kill him. They eventually helped rig his ouster through a "countercoup" - a fake coup was staged against Sukarno, which Suharto then came in and put down to "protect" Sukarno. But in reality, that was just Suharto's road to power, and he quickly displaced Sukarno.

Really tragic history there.

"If you look for the social economic motive, you will not have to wait for history to tell you what was propaganda and what was truth." - George Seldes