THE REAL STAKES IN SOUTH AFRICA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP87M00539R001501950008-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 16, 2009
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: August 2, 1985
• Content Type: MEMO

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/16: CIA-RDP87M00539R001501950008-0
SECRET
NIC #03888-85
2 August 1985
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
Deputy Director of Central Intelligence
FROM: Herbert E. Meyer
Vice Chairman, National Intelligence Council
1. As we go about the business of reviewing our policy toward South
Africa, it will be vital to perceive that country not merely as an
isolated hot-spot or even as the lynchpin of our diplomatic efforts in
that region of the world, but rather as part of a larger, globe-girdling
phenomenon: as one bead in the necklace of countries whose governments
are non-communist but authoritarian, each in its own way embarked on a
course of internal reform leading toward democracy. In addition to South
Africa, beads in this necklace include the Philippines, South Korea,
Chile, and Pakistan. Some would add Taiwan and Mexico.
2. The struggle over this necklace is a major element of the
US-Soviet competition. Our goal in each country is true democracy; our
strategy is to offer each government our full support--moral even more
than material--while simultaneously using the influence this support
brings us to pressure each government to continue along its power-sharing
course. In contrast, the Soviet goal is to destabilize each country in
hopes of bringing to power Marxist governments; the Soviet strategy is to
force each government toward political repression--for example in
response to domestic violence--in hopes that when the road closes toward
evolution the road will open toward revolution. The key to this strategy
is to drive a wedge between the US and the target government, and by
doing so to remove US influence on the theory that when left to its
natural instincts, an authoritarian government will revert to
repression. It's a bit like cutting off a reformed alcoholic from his AA
meetings, in hopes the poor devil will weaken and take just one little
nip.
3. Without in any way getting tangled in the question of whether the
whole thing has been masterminded by some genius in Moscow, it is an
observable and irrefutable fact that in South Africa the Soviet strategy
All portions Secret
The Director of Central Intelligence
Washington, D.C. 20505
Cl By Signer
Decl OADR
Derived from Mul ti
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