DIRECTOR CASEY/EL SALVADOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000100600007-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 18, 2007
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: March 7, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/05/21: CIA-RDP88-01070R000100600007-2
RADIO TV REPORTS, INC.
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All Things Considered STATION WETA Radio
NPR Network
DATE March 7, 1983 5:00 P.M. CITY Washington, D.C.
Director Casey/El Salvador
SUSAN STAMBERG: CIA Director William Casey said today
that Americans have been brainwashed by the Soviets and their
Third World allies about events in Central America and disarma-
ment in Europe. In an address to business executives here in
Washington, Casey called on the private sector to help set the
record straight.
NPR's Alan Berlow reports.
ALAN BERLOW: Casey pointed specifically to leftist
gains in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. He said part of
the blame for the success of the Soviets and their allies has
been the failure of the U.S. to counter Communist propaganda,
propaganda the CIA Director said has brainwashed large numbers of
Americans.
DIRECTOR WILLIAM CASEY: These tiny little countries in
Central America are able to mount a propaganda program, they're
able to gather in Havana or Mexico City and lay out a program of
propaganda that has a large part of the American public brain-
washed into believing that what's happening down there is just
innocent peasants seeking their rights; and do the same thing in
Europe, where although the wea -- the Soviets have the weapons
deployed and they've carried out their military buildup, they
manage to put the West in the posture of being a threat to the
peace.
BERLOW: Casey's last reference was to Soviet efforts
designed to stop deployment of U.S. missiles in Europe. Casey
said part of the problem in dealing with Soviet propaganda has
been the inability of our government officials to offer an
alternative view.
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Approved For Release 2007/05/21: CIA-RDP88-01070R000100600007-2
 Approved For Release 2007/05/21: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000100600007-2
CASEY: We just don't know how to talk back. We don't
know how to go out and explain what's happening and explain the
situation from our viewpoint. And the government is a little
clumsy at that, and that's putting it quite charitably. On top
of being clumsy, it doesn't have much credibility. The public is
inclined to think that anything they hear from government has
some hidden motive in it.
BERLOW: But if the government has allowed Americans to
be brainwashed by Communists, Casey believes the primary respon-
sibility for countering Soviet subversion and propaganda lies not
with the government, but with the private sector.
CASEY: The word has to be passed through all the
channels that exist, including employer communications and
employee communications and stockholder communications. You have
to use your judgment on it. But that's what I was referring to,
that we just don't know how to contest these propaganda battle-
fields.
BERLOW: CIA Director William Casey.
Approved For Release 2007/05/21: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000100600007-2