HMS Victorious as a signal of resolve

After President Sukarno proclaimed 1964 the 'Year of Living Dangerously,' about one hundred Indonesian infiltrators landed near Pontian Besar in western Johor. Britain combined diplomatic action with a conspicuous naval deployment, sending HMS Victorious and her destroyers through the Sunda Strait in August 1964. Indonesian officials may not initially have understood that the vaguely notified transit would include an aircraft carrier. The deployment did not stop Indonesian spoiling attacks or the wider guerrilla war, so it shaped the confrontation without compelling complete compliance. The display of resolve also risked being read as a provocation or an attempt to create a second Gulf of Tonkin incident.