Suharto had a checkered past within the Indonesian military. He had been caught smuggling in the late 1950s, and was fired by Nasution himself. According to Subandrio, Suharto’s flagrant corruption so angered Yani and Nasution that Yani personally gave him a beating, and Nasution almost put him on trial.55 During Konfrontasi, Suharto had made sure that troops along the border with Malaysia were understaffed and underequipped, using his power to minimize Indonesia’s conflict with the UK (and the US) at the time.
