in the early morning of october 1, 1965, a group of soldiers claiming to be supported by the indonesian communist party killed six generals in the army and one assistant because they thought he was a seventh. many friends and supporters of suharto claimed they were members of the communist party itself. the people of indonesia then started killing anybody they thought was communist with suharto's tacit approvement. estimates range around half a million. suharto then seized power from his predecessor, the first president of indonesia sukarno. for this, he used some force, but also took some political maneuvers. at the time, there was instability and unrest inside and outside of indonesia. this helped him come to power. he took three decades to change the regime to work along militarist lines, with a strong central government. his movement was known as "orde baru". as he took an anti-communist position which he could defend, several western governments supported him both in economic and political matters. this was during an era that is known as cold war. for most of his three-decade rule, indonesia experienced significant economic growth and industrialization. his rule, however, led to political purges and the deaths of about half a million of suspected indonesian communists; many of them chinese-indonesians. he also made some laws against communist parties and ethnic chinese.