Suharto

Soeharto or also spelled as Suharto (June 8, 1921 – January 27, 2008) was an Indonesia military leader, and the second President of Indonesia, holding the office from 1967 to 1998. Suharto was born in a small village near Yogyakarta, during the era of Dutch colonial control. His ethnic Javanese peasant parents divorced not long after his birth, and he was passed around several foster parents for much of his childhood. After a brief and an unsuccessful stint as a village bank clerk, Suharto joined the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army in 1940. During the Japanese occupation of Indonesia, Suharto served in various Japanese-organised Indonesian security forces. He joined the newly formed Indonesian army during Indonesia's independence struggle where he rose through the ranks to command a garrison against Dutch offensives at the Republican capital of Yogyakarta. Following Indonesian independence, Suharto rose to the rank of Major General. An attempted coup on 30 September 1965 was... full article at wikipedia