When a reluctant President Sukarno gave Lt Gen Soeharto full executive authority in March 1966 Indonesia was a deeply divided nation fractured along ideological class religious and ethnic lines. Soeharto took a country in chaos the largest in Southeast Asia and transformed it into one of the Asian miracle economiesonly to leave it back on the brink of ruin when he was forced from office thirtytwo years later.ampampnbspDrawing on his astonishing range of interviews with leading Indonesian generals former Imperial Japanese Army officers and men who served in the Dutch colonial army as well as years of patient research in Dutch Japanese British Indonesian and US archives David Jenkins brings vividly to life the story of how a socially reticent but exceptionally determined young man from rural Java began his rise to poweran ascent which would be capped by thirty years 196898 as President of Indonesia the fourth most populous nation on earth. Soeharto was one of Asias most brutal most durable most avaricious and most successful dictators.