MOYERS' COMMENTARY ON GUATEMALA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000100440003-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 21, 2007
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: November 10, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/05/21: CIA-RDP88-01070R000100440003-4
RADIO TV REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 656-4068
CBS Evening News STATION WDVM TV
CBS Network
DATE November 10, 1982 7:00 PM CITY Washington, DC
Moyers' Commentary on Guatemala
DAN RATHER: A growing U.S. military involvement in
Central America, especially in Guatemala, bring to mind for many
people memories of Vietnam. That is the subject tonight of Bill
Moyers commentary.
BILL MOYERS: You saw this man on the news last evening.
He's a Green Beret Captain in the U.S. Army and he is teaching
future officers of the Guatemalan Army how to fight guerrillas.
The guerrillas are not the Army's only target there.
Thousands of people, including the innocent, have been killed in
the long campaign of Guatemala's right-wing dictators to
exterminate any opoosition.
The presence of this Green Beret makes it clear to whomm
the United States has committed our know-how and prestige. He's
symbolic of our growing military involvement in Central America,
our government's response to leftist movements, like the Marxist
rulers of Nicaragua who've proven to be as repressive as the
right-wing dictator Somozo had been in his time.
Because Castro has been helping them to supply
guerrillas in El Salvador, President Reagan has authorized the
CIA to conduct a secret war against the Nicaraguan regime. It's
escalated so far beyond its original intentions that one U.S.
official is saying the campaign is out of hand and threatens to
become a new Bay of Pigs.
That's one problem with covert adventrues by a democrtic
society. Our actual control is less then we think. On the
slippery slopes of secrecy, the dirty tricks tend to backfire.
Who was hurt most by the campaign to overthrow and assassinate
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Approved For Release 2007/05/21: CIA-RDP88-010708000100440003-4
 Approved For Release 2007/05/21: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000100440003-4
The other problem is that our partners in intrigue are
often no better champions of justice than the enemies we oppose.
That secret war against Nicaragua has put us on the side again of
Somoza's old crowd, remnants of his National Guard thirsty for
revenge. And our Ambassador in El Salvdor admitted last week
that right-wing abuses by our side are as great a threat to that
country's security as those guerrillas in the hills.
We seem to think that to oppose despotism on th left, we
must wink at it on the right. But in Central America today we
are doing the cause of human dignity no service by putting
ourselves in the hands of rogues mascarading as friends.
Approved For Release 2007/05/21: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000100440003-4