Hesitation Waltz

To match the dreamlike quality of the Indonesian civil war. in which battles often seem more like ballets, Indonesia's diplomacy last week went into a hesitation waltz.

Things began, dashingly enough, with a deal signed with Communist Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia for small arms, jet fighters and bombers. In Djakarta. Communist and left-wing newspapers interrupted their anti-American, anti-SEATO tirades long enough to cheer wildly President Sukarno's new link with the Reds. Bands of young toughs smeared anti-U.S. slogans on the walls of the American embassy in Djakarta; Red-run delegations streamed up the embassy steps to present resolutions telling the U.S. to keep its hands off Indonesia.

In Washington, the State Department tartly regretted Sukarno's buying of Communist arms "for possible use in killing Indonesians who openly oppose the growing influence of Communism in Indonesia." But Secretary of State John Foster Dulles conceded that Sukarno had also requested military aid ($700 million worth) from the U.S. last summer and had been coldly ignored. Dulles reaffirmed the U.S. intention to sell arms to neither side in the civil war.

All at once, diplomacy did a new quickstep in Djakarta. As if anxious not to get too tied to the Communists or too detached from the U.S., Premier Djuanda honored U.S. Ambassador Howard P. Jones with a dinner at his official residence; Speaker of Parliament Sartono expressed his gratitude for U.S. economic and technical aid, and Sukarno's chief of staff, Major General Nasution, curtly put a stop to all anti-American parades and demonstrations, ordered everyone, in and out of government, to "respect the sound mutual relationships between all countries and peoples."

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