Suharto was a close ally of the United States during the [[Cold War]]. As a result, he became a bête noire of the far left, who compared his crimes to those of Cambodia's [[Pol Pot]]--though relative to population size and percent killed, Pol Pot's were about 300 times worse.<ref>http://www.fair.org/extra/9809/suharto.html</ref><ref>Assuming that Suharto killed .5% of all Indonesians during his reign, divide that figure by 32 to get his "annual percent killed." Then divide this by Pol Pot's 7.5% killed annually. Suharto was about 325 times less murderous.</ref> In the wake of US defeat in the [[Vietnam War]], President Ford saw Indonesia as a vital American ally in Asia needed to preserve America's waning influence in that part of the world.
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Suharto was a close ally of the United States during the [[Cold War]]. As a result, he became a bête noire of the far left, who compared his crimes to those of Cambodia's [[Pol Pot]]--though relative to population size and percent killed, Pol Pot's were about 300 times worse.<ref>http://www.fair.org/extra/9809/suharto.html</ref><ref>Assuming that Suharto killed .75% of all Indonesians during his reign, divide that figure by 32 to get his "annual percent killed": 0 .0234375%. Then compare this to Pol Pot's 7.5% killed annually.</ref> In the wake of US defeat in the [[Vietnam War]], President Ford saw Indonesia as a vital American ally in Asia needed to preserve America's waning influence in that part of the world.