American officials are trying to recall a published history of how the United States supported anti-communist moves that brought former president Suharto to power and left as many as one million Indonesians dead.
But historians in Indonesia are unfazed by details that have emerged from the account - a State Department publication mistakenly released before internal and CIA screening.
Jakarta newspapers carried front-page stories yesterday about the US efforts at damage control, but noted the idea of covert US engagement in Indonesia in the mid-1960s is nothing new.
'It happened in the past. We are now looking forward. History is only there to be learned from,' said Foreign Ministry spokesman Sulaiman Abdulmanan, adding he was confident there would be no 'disturbances' in Indonesia's relationship with the US.
The timing of the report adds to Washington's embarrassment. The documents record how the US backed moves against the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) as part of efforts to depose then-president Sukarno, who was disliked for his alleged communist leanings and his strongly anti-Western foreign policy.
Sukarno's daughter, Megawati Sukarnoputri, became Indonesia's fifth president last week.
Efforts to recall the controversial records have only served to focus attention on their content, which has long been obscured by former dictator Suharto's policy of rewriting the past.