Business: Sproul's Brass and Gold

A retired two-star general in the National Guard, Archibald ("Arch") Sproul, 56, meets plenty of important military men at home and abroad. For example, General Suharto, President of Indonesia. Two months after Suharto won control of the government in 1966, Sproul organized Virginia International Co. (VICO) and went to Indonesia in search of "business opportunities." He met Suharto in 1967, and now he has more ventures than his company can handle alone. He operates a rubber plant and has a lease on 67,000 acres of land—obtained for about a cent an acre—that he plans to use for cattle grazing. He is...

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