GENERAL ABDUL HARIS NASUTION, who has died in Jakarta aged 81, played a leading role in Indonesia's struggle for independence and the subsequent efforts to contain the spread of Communism; in building up the role of the military in Indonesian politics, however, he helped lay the foundations for decades of authoritarian rule.
Appointed Army Chief of Staff by President Sukarno at independence in 1949, Nasution made Indonesia's army into a force for stability in the archipelago.
In 1959, following a successful military campaign against rebels in Sumatra and the Celebes, he was instrumental in persuading Sukarno to promulgate a new constitution that gave the President powers to rule by decree and allowed the military a direct role in national politics. He became Minister for Defence and National Security the same year.
The new policy set the tone for years of repression that intensified under Sukarno's successor, General Suharto, who took over in 1967 during the period of instability which followed a round of assassinations of senior army generals on September 30 1965.
During these killings (which the army claimed were part of an attempted coup by pro-Communist elements), Nasution was said to have narrowly escaped assassination by dodging snipers' bullets and leaping over a wall into the Iraqi ambassador's residence next door to his home. His six-year old daughter and an aide were killed.
In the days that followed, Nasution and General Suharto moved quickly to crush the rebels. Hundreds of thousands of trade unionists, Communist Party members and others were killed in a military revenge that lasted well into 1966. Nasution and Suharto then moved against President Sukarno, who had been trying to resist domination by the army, and to maintain a precarious balance in the Government between nationalist, Communist and religious elements.
Nasution chaired the People's Consultative Congress - the country's legislature - that in July 1966 approved the transfer of power to General Suharto. Sukarno was officially replaced as President in 1967.
During the early years of Suharto's dictatorship, Nasution remained a close adviser; in 1980, however, after his retirement, he was a prominent signatory to a petition critical of Suharto's rule.
Abdul Haris Nasution was born in northern Sumatra, then in the Dutch East Indies, on December 3 1918 and after school attended the Teacher Training College and the (Dutch) Military Academy in Bandung. He was commissioned a sub-lieutenant in the Netherlands Indies Army in 1941.
During the Japanese occupation of the East Indies in the Second World War, Nasution worked in the civilian administration and as an instructor in a youth organisation. After Japan's defeat and the commencement of the armed, guerrilla campaign for an independent Indonesia, he became chief-of-staff of the 1st Military Command, West Java, with the rank of colonel.
There was then no regular Indonesian army; such fighting units as existed were formed of indigenous people using weapons seized from the defeated Japanese. Nasution developed and organised the scattered units into the coherent force which eventually became the Indonesian National Army.
From 1946 to 1948, with the rank of major-general, Nasution was guerrilla commander of the Siliwangi Division of West Java, where he led resistance to the first wave of Dutch military action in 1947.
In 1948, as deputy commander-in-chief of the rebel army and commander of the Java Division, he led his guerrilla forces during the second campaign by the Netherlands to regain control. The fighting brought about a state of stalemate with the Dutch forces, which culminated in the conclusion of a ceasefire under UN auspices.
With international recognition of Indonesia as an independent republic in December 1949, Nasution became Chief-of Staff of the Indonesian Army, embarking on a successful programme of reorganisation and modernisation. In 1952, though, he was removed from office following a series of demonstrations by members of the armed forces in protest at Government proposals to cut their numbers.
Three years later, however, Sukarno reinstated Nasution as Army Chief-of-Staff in an effort to re-establish his authority over the army, shattered the previous June when senior officers had refused to accept the authority of a government-appointed chief-of-staff.
During the political unrest which erupted in central Sumatra and the northern Celebes in 1958, Nasution organised the highly effective military operation in which paratroops suppressed the rebellion and swiftly reoccupied rebel held areas.
In 1959, after the promulgation of a new constitution, Nasution entered government as Minister of Defence, and led the campaign to eradicate remaining centres of dissidence. He was promoted to general in 1960.
In February 1966, in a doomed attempt to re-establish his authority in the aftermath of the abortive coup, Sukarno sacked Nasution and other military men from his cabinet. The sackings provoked a wave of army-orchestrated demonstrations and protests which culminated in Sukarno's removal from office the next year.
General Nasution is survived by his wife and a daughter.