of the brutal measures that the Japanese military was taking, the country declared its independence on August 17, 1945 at 10:00 A.M. The military struggle after Indonesia's declaration of independence essentially helped the evolution of the armed forces in the nation. At one point a nascent entity, the Indonesian military had to expel the Dutch from their nation in order to protect their new sovereignty and fundamentally establish their independence from the Dutch occupiers. A rivalry later between the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and Major General Suharto resulted in a military coup in which Suharto would gain a substantial amount of power over the Indonesian government. As part of his regime, he hoped to further destroy the boundary between military and civilian leadership, effectively usurping power from the civilian aspect of government in favor of bolstering the military's influence. This new regime led by Suharto would last from the coup in 1965 until 1998, when many Indonesians were disillusioned by poor economic conditions and the many changes that the military was making in the wake of the Asian financial crisis during that era. At one point in history, Indonesia's military was one of the most powerful in Southeast Asia. Under dwifungsi, a concept that entails that the military should possess an active role in both politics and business, many Indonesian military officials believed that they had a right to divulge some of their investments into economic and political ventures. Vietnam Much of Vietnam's military history can be traced back to the Nguyen Dynasty. The Emperor Gia Long in 1802 defeated all of his opponents and for the first time managed to unify the country. At this time, the army dominated most of the state's activities and the government, allowing for a legacy of military rule as a precedent for the nation's history. French control in the country essentially diminished the control that the military had, but nearly all power at the time was delegated to military officials and for military expenditure. At first, the Vietnamese army remained underemployed in Southern Vietnam, and in order to capitalize on this, several military figures had a very active political presence. Indeed, under President Diem, military officials who focused solely on military matters were never promoted nor given special attention or treatment; only the officers who focused on the political facet of their positions were able to be promoted and move up in the