Cold Warriors: The Essex Class in the Cold War

February 28, 1959
Jakarta, Indonesia

President Sukarno and General Nasution had the latest reports from General Suharto in front of them. The progress of Operation Trikora was good. The loses to their aviation units had been heavy, but the destruction that had wrought was worth the price. An Americanism crept into Sukarno's mind, "You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs." Well, they had broken their eggs and were making their omelet. The Dutch fighter squadron based on Biak had been decimated and had not even tried to contest their latest bombing mission. The question now was whether the Dutch defenses were sufficiently weakened to allow them to begin landing soldiers on the islands.

General Suharto believed that a few bombing missions should be flown against possible beach defense sites and what he believed to be a Dutch supply depot that had been identified in a reconnaissance photograph. But Suharto did not have all the information that he did. For in addition to the reports from his own military, he had several intelligence reports from their "friends" in the USSR. The Dutch were sending a carrier group to press their claims to the island. The KGB believed that the Dutch would not arrive before the end of March. The reports that had been provided to them suggested that the Dutch would need to stop to refuel in Tenerife, South Africa and Australia. The Soviets promised to do what they could to stir up the dockworker's unions in those countries to delay the ships as much as they could.

Across from him, General Nasution was not overly concerned with the Dutch carrier. "An old ship with outdated planes," was what he called her. Their own fighters and bombers were much more modern. Had they not just demonstrated the ability to target a carrier at sea when they had sent their bombers against the American interloper in the Banda Sea? Should the Dutch prove foolish enough to send their carrier within range of their bombers, they would receive a warm welcome.

Sukarno made his decision. The bombing missions General Suharto wanted would be approved. Due to the small number of aircraft they had, and the small stock of bombs available however, the missions would have to be carried out over the next two weeks. They also couldn't afford to ignore Mokmer Airfield either during that time. Their bomber fleet would be quite busy it seemed.

After a few more hours discussing their options for the planned attack and the logistics involved in it, final approval was sent to General Suharto to begin final preparations for the invasion of West Irian. Baring bad weather, the invasion would begin on March 14th.