Featured Vintage USN Peacoat

I lived in Sydney, Australia, which is warmer than Mexico City. We never needed winter clothes, so we didn't have them. Plus I just flew in from Fiji, making it even more of a contrast.

 

Sydney & Fiji-wow ! Us North Cal hippies weren't even sharp enough to dream of that part of the world back then. Driving to Tijuana and scoring a pair of huaraches was a big deal (and Baja was like Paris).
A pal of mine lived in Jakarta, Indonesia in the 60's.He and his family had to flee in 1966- his Dad was a U.S. intelligence operative. He met The Beatles at Manila Airport while flying back to the U.S. Yep-He got their autographs.

 

I'm glad they got out alive. The situation was extremely dangerous in Indonesia at the time.

 

Especially for CIA. Later, My pal's Dad was assigned to Saigon-he used a bicycle to get around because it was tougher to hide a bomb on a bike. Next time you pick a vacation destination-call your local CIA HQ first !

 

In those days every foreigner or local white person was regarded as a foreign agent out to destroy the Indonesian Republic. The Netherlands sent in ships and planes to evacuate Dutch citizens and Dutch-Indonesians who had the right papers to be eligible for Dutch citizenship. Those without the right papers had to fear for their lives, because Dutch-Indonesians were just as suspect to the Indonesian authorities and the killing gangs as white people. As were Peranakans and Chinese, who were also prime targets of the killing gangs.

If you can stomach it, watch "The Act of Killing" about the people who perpetrated the mass murders of 1965-66. About 100 times more scary than "The Year of Living Dangerously" about the same period, but an absolute masterpiece in every aspect.

 

Loved that film. (The Year of Living Dangerously.) And what a performance by Linda Hunt as Billy Kwan. Gutsy casting by the filmmakers too.

Debora

 

I've read about that movie-it sounds like very strong stuff indeed ! I guess the closest documentary I've seen to it is Resnais 'Night and Fog'. Haven't seen 'Shoah' yet either.

 

So did I, excellent film. It was shot in the Philippines, for obvious reasons.