This was the first time any foreigner had even been given such status without application. In 1971 President Soeharto granted citizenship to Kerry. He became involved in such ventures as the supply of helicopters (Hughes) to the Indonesian government, and flew with Lee Archer on the first successful helicopter flight from Singapore to Jakarta in a Hughes 500. Kerry was sought after as a commercial representative and was appointed by more than twenty major international groups to oversee their interests in Indonesia. This soon became successful due to his access to the Indonesian Military and his former association with the Australian Government. This violent period lasted from October 1965 until the end of 1967 resulting in the death of some half a million Indonesians.Kerry spent almost three years in the Embassy before resigning from the Airforce and then establishing his own business in Indonesia. Immediately upon graduation, and only 22, Kerry was sent to Jakarta as the Assistant Air Attaché and interpreter in the Australian Embassy during the final stages of the time which became known as the Years of Living Dangerously. Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War had just started and there was a growing fear that the threat of an Asian invasion of Australia was becoming a real possibility. At that time President Soekarno's Indonesia boasted the third largest Communist Party in the world. He was later cleared to the highest level of security and sent to the RAAF Airforce Base at Point Cook where he spent one year, along with a select few friends, learning Bahasa Indonesia. Kerry entered the Royal Australian Air Force in 1962.
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