THE WEB OF POWER OAS: 20 YEARS OF SUBSERVIENCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400130005-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 29, 2004
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: June 1, 1968
• Content Type: NSPR

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TH
E
WEB
OF
POWER
THE GUARDIAN
1 June 1968
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OAS: 20 years of subservience
May 2 marked the 20th anniversary of the Organi-
zation of American States (OAS). As an organization
it was to work for two goals: creating a forum for
peaceful settlement of controversies between American
states and coordinating joint efforts to promote eco-
nomic growth and social progress in this hemisphere.
In practice the ideal of inter-American cooperation is
submerged beneath the interests and power of the
dominant member-the U.S.
While all the treaties and agreements involved in
creating the inter-American system in its present form
hold to the principle of nonintervention and outline-
steps for a machinery to enforce the peace and pre-
vent all forms of aggression, the last. 20 years have
shown a different reality. U.S. cold war diplomacy
and anti-Communism have left the scars of intervention
in Guatemala (where in 1954 a CIA-backed invasion
overthrew the reform government of Jacobo Arbenz),
in Cuba (where a CIA-planned and coordinated in-
vasion at the Bay of Pigs failed in 1961) and in the
Dominican Republic (where in- 1965 the Johnson
Doctrine of send-the-marines defeated, for the time
being, the popular forces.
U.S. ambassador to the OAS at the time of the
Dominican intervention was Ellsworth Bunker, once
president and director of the second largest East Coast
sugar cane refinery, the National Sugar Company. Ile
also had sizable holdings in Cuban, Mexican and
Dominican sugar mills. He headed the administration's
and the OAS's negotiating team in Santo Domingo
after the 1965 invasion. The Dominican invasion
caused an outburst of criticism in Latin America and
the resolution to send an "Inter-American Peace
Force" was passed after heated debate by one. vote,
the vote of the Dominican delegate who represented
the U.S.-backed military junta.
The OAS has often been used as a forum for sharp
attacks on the Cuban revolution. In early 1962 Cuba
was suspended from OAS membership and further.
steps to isolate Cuba included a measure calling for
breaking diplomatic relations with the island (which
was carried out by all the countries except Mexico)
and OAS endorsement of the U.S.-initiated trade and
travel embargo of Cuba.
The OAS Technical Cooperation Program and the
preparation of economic studies were the only eco-
nomic and social development tasks performed by the
OAS in the SOs. With the creation of the Inter-
American Development Bank in 1958 there was a
revival of OAS involvement in the development pro-
cess. The U.S.-sponsored Alliance for Progress has also
proliferated OAS projects. The outgoing OAS secre-
tary general, Dr. Jose A. Mora, has been a staunch
advocate of the role of private enterprise in developing
Latin America. Mora believes business can benefit by
adopting a uniform code for investment in Latin
America and that the Latin American countries can
benefit by receiving foreign capital and know-how.
The Inter-American Committee on the Alliance
for Progress maintains close reciprocal cooperation
with David Rockefeller's Council for Latin America,
which represents a major group of U.S. corporations.
The OAS general secretariat- collaborated in the de-
velopment of the Atlantic Community Development
Association (ADELA), a private investment company -
created to increase the flow of capita from countries
outside the hemisphere.
Since October, 1966, our man in the OAS has been
Sol Myron Linowitz. Before leaving his post as chair-
man of the $500-million Xerox Corporation, his
Xerox holdings were estimated at $9 million. While
Xerox is most famous for its photocopy process, the
company has found new markets in the education
field (which includes publishing such old favorites as
"My Weekly Reader" for elementary school children
and operating University Microfilms, which has the
largest store or original documents on microfilm).
Xerox has also been a prime supplier of "battlefield
night vision devices" for the armed forces in Vietnam.
The company has affiliates in England and Japan,
and at the time Linowitz left Xerox it had rapidly
expanding operations in six Latin American countries.
He left his post as legal and international adviser to
Xerox, turning down an offer to become director of V
the CIA, and took over the dual responsibilities of
"peacekeeping," as ambassador to the OAS, and de-
velopment, as U.S. representative on the Inter-Ameri-
can Committee on ; the. Alliance for Progress. As a
trustee of the American Field Service and the Institute
for International Education, he is in the forefront of
those U.S. internationalists. who understand the value
of using international visitors and foreign students to
win friends and influence future third world leaders.
Among his accomplishments since he assumed of-
fice has been the "quiet diplomacy" Which settled the
deadlock over selection of the new OAS secretary
general. American-educated Galo Plaza Lasso, the man
finally chosen . to take the office, was Ecuador's
ambassador to the U.S. (1944-1946) and later Presi-
dent of Ecuador (1948-1952). In 1958 he co-authored
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a case study of the United Fruit Company for a
National Planning Association series on U.S. Business
Performance Abroad. In this study he and Stacy May
praise the role of the company in the development of
the traditional "banana republics." He believes in
benevolent paternalism, a policy he himself practices
with Indian workers on his several thousand acre
estate in Ecuador. He has been a UN observer in
Lebanon, the Congo and Cyprus. Plaza was installed in
the S32,500-a-year job for a five-year term.
Linowitz has continued to push U.S. vigilance
against Cuban influence in Latin America by advoca-
ing stricter, controls. against subversion. In an effort
to further isolate Cuba from the rest of the hemi-
sphere, he introduced a resolution denying refueling
rights to vessels bound to or from Cuba.
In 1968 there is little reason for celebrating the
inter-American system. While Linowitz says the major
objective of the U.S. is to move toward the unifica-
tion of the hemisphere, to deal with economic, social
and political as well as defense relations, development
plans since World War II have failed. Even among the
foreign ministers sitting on the Inter-American Com-
mittee of the Alliance for Progress there is a growing
realization that the goals of substantially improving
the economy, public health and educational level have
all fallen far short of expectations.
The committee. strongly criticized the outcome of
the Kennedy Round tariff talks and the more recent
New Delhi meeting of the UN Conference on Trade
and Development as having done nothing to open
markets in industrialized countries to goods from the
nonindustrialized world. The Latin nations' external
debt doubled in the 60s. Foreign debt servicing (pay-
ment of interest and principal) absorbs 75% of the
fluid capital of the Latin American nations, a vicious
cycle to which no solution is forthcoming in the
present context.
The spectre of U.S. military might which has been
mounted for use against revolutions in Latin America
and the elaborate counterinsurgency techniques being
developed, prepared and used in Latin America fore-
shadow the conflict of the 70s.
There is little hope that the OAS, in its present
form, will play a constructive role.
This column is prepared exclusively for the Guardian
by the staff of the North American Congress on Latin
America (NACLA).
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