Suharto crushed Indonesia's Communist Party and suppressed Islamic extremists, forcing the most militant clerics into exile.
During his rule, Suharto is credited with stimulating economic growth, cutting the annual inflation rate from 600 percent to 6.5 percent and raising personal income from an average of $70 a year to $1,300. The number of Indonesians living in dire poverty fell from 56 percent to 12 percent, and literacy rates and average life spans rose.
At the same time, he divided up the nation's wealth among his six children and his cronies, amassing a family fortune estimated at $40 billion.
Suharto's son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, was sent to prison for embezzling millions of dollars and orchestrating the murder of a supreme court justice, but Suharto was never prosecuted. Neither did the government ever seize any of his allegedly ill-gotten assets.
In 2000, the government charged him with embezzling $571 million. But the courts eventually ruled that Suharto, who had suffered strokes after resigning the presidency, was too ill to face charges.
Critics said his claim of illness was a ploy.
In May 2006, Yudhoyono's government reviewed the charges against Suharto and reached the same conclusion as the judges: He was too ill to be taken to court.
Suharto's wife, Siti Hartinah, died in 1996. Suharto is survived by three sons and three daughters.
Richard C. Paddock and Paul Watson write for the Los Angeles Times.
