TIME: He gave unity to Indonesia 08/23/1999 He united his
country and set it free. He liberated his people from a sense of
inferiority and made them feel proud to be Indonesian--no small
achievement, coming after 350 years of Dutch colonial rule and
three-and-a-half years of Japanese occupation. What Sukarno did
on Aug. 17, 1945 was no different from what Thomas Jefferson had
done for Americans on July 4, 1776. Perhaps even more: Sukarno
was the only Asian leader of the modern era able to unify people
of such differing ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds
without shedding a drop of blood.