On 1 October 1965 a group of army officers made an unsuccessful attempt to seize power in Jakarta, but the uprising was ruthlessly crushed by troops loyal to Major-General Suharto. This event heralded a major transformation in Indonesian politics.
The British responded to Confrontation in a two-pronged manner. In order to deter the Indonesians from mounting an open attack on Malaysia, substantial air and naval forces were deployed in and around Singapore.
Confrontation was a conflict which developed in 1963 between Indonesia and the new state of Malaysia backed by Commonwealth allies. Its origins lay in Great Britain's plans to divest itself of formal empire in South-east Asia.
In 1964 New Zealand began helping Malaysia to fight Indonesia's attempt to wrestle control of the North Borneo territories in what was known as the Confrontation Campaign.
