West New Guinea: Pacific Trouble Spot

Archive Report

Threat to Peace in Southwest Pacific

Prospects for peaceful settlement of the long-standing controversy between Indonesia and the Netherlands over West New Guinea have been improved perceptibly by the recent acceptance in principie of proposals advanced by Ellsworth Bunker, a former United States diplomat who has been endeavoring to mediate the dispute. Conversations between the parties may be reopened soon at the undiselosed location near Washington where brief preliminary talks were held a few months ago.1 But hard bargaining no doubt lies ahead. The hope will be that it is not interrupted by expansion into full-scale military action of the probing by Indonesian paratroopers that has been going on for months in the Dutch East Indian territory.

West New Guinea is the last remnant of the ...

locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles