David Storey, Washington, May 21 Reuters - The United States went through the final motions of an ungainly diplomatic dance as Indonesia's President Suharto, one of its old guard of allies from the Cold War days, slid reluctantly from power.
It is a dance that has been frequently rehearsed in recent years as time ran out for foreign leaders befriended more for their strategic value than their commitment to traditional American values of democracy and freedom.
Suharto, 76, who ruled for 32 years with hardly a pretence of democracy and with barely disguised nepotism rampant, was a classic example of such allies, recruited in the ideological battles that broke out around the world.
Last year Washington said an embarrassing farewell to Zaire's President Mobutu Sese Seko. One of Africa's most despotic dictators, he had been championed as an anti-Soviet force on a continent riven with proxy Cold War struggles.
Shunned by the United States towards the end of his rule, Mobutu died in exile.
That was the ironic fate of many strongmen. Chosen by the United States because of their iron grip as bulwarks against an ideological enemy, they were eventually ousted by popular forces acting under principles Washington espoused.
Some fell early, like the Shah of Iran, who was ousted 19 years ago after apparently misunderstanding, as Suharto has done, the dissatisfaction brewing among his people.
Others like General Augusto Pinochet in Chile or Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier in Haiti who also employed ruthless secret police control, maintained stability and enjoyed US tolerance saw left-wing movements undermine the old order around them.
A close, at least geographic, parallel to Suharto was President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, who ruled for 20 years until he was ousted in a 1986 "people power" revolt and was accused of stealing billions of dollars from the Treasury.
The delicacy of relations with such regimes was reflected in the US diplomatic dance with Suharto yesterday when officials gave contradictory interpretations of a speech by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Albright said in a speech that Suharto "now has the opportunity for an historic act of statesmanship, one that will preserve his legacy as a man who not only led his country but who provided for its democratic transition."
Reporters were briefed by one State Department official before the speech who said this was an implicit call for the president to quit. Another State Department official later gave what he called the "authoritative" interpretation that it was not a call for his resignation.
After Suharto announced his resignation, President Bill Clinton said he welcomed the move, saying it provided an opportunity to "begin a process leading to a real democratic transition for Indonesia".
Sidney Jones, a veteran Indonesia-watcher now with Human Rights Watch in New York, said there were similarities between the Suharto and Marcos situations "both cases of the US holding on too long".
"There is the same kind of harping on about stability and then you get to a point close to the end where the only way of regaining stability is for him to go," she said.
Suharto is a classic case of the close US ally whose friendship became awkward. An army general, he was strongly backed by the United States when he took power after what the government said was a communist-inspired coup attempt in 1965.
It was a time when Washington was becoming increasingly embroiled in Vietnam, across the South China Sea from the sprawling Indonesian archipelago. One of Suharto's first acts was to eliminate the Communist Party of Indonesia.
The United States turned a blind eye to the invasion by Indonesian troops in 1975 of the former Portuguese colony of East Timor and its incorporation as an Indonesian province. Washington strategists were, and remain, concerned that Fretilin, the main resistance movement, is a communist group that could provide a Marxist foothold.
In the 1970s and 1980s, when Suharto encouraged foreign investment and helped create rapid development, US concerns focused on security issues including maintaining regional shipping lanes and vital Indonesian oil supplies for Japan.
By the 1990s the United States was protecting big financial investments in Suharto's Indonesia and was working closely with the Indonesian military. But US concern grew over civil rights abuses and the crackdown in East Timor.