WHY IS THE WORLD SO DANGEROUS?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88T00528R000100020008-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 5, 2009
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: November 30, 1983
• Content Type: MEMO

Approved For Release 2009/08/05: CIA-RDP88T00528R000100020008-2
a 4P
THE DIRECTOR OF
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE
National Intelligence Council
18 April 1984
Center for the Study of
Intelligence
FROM: Herbert E. Meyer
Vice Chairman, NIC
Attached memo forwarded as
requested.
Herbert E. Meyer
Approved For Release 2009/08/05: CIA-RDP88T00528R000100020008-2
 Approved For Release 2009/08/05: CIA-RDP88T00528R000100020008-2
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NIC# 8640-83
30 November 1983
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
Deputy Director of Central Intelligence
FROM : Herbert E. Meyer
Vice Chairman, National Intelligence Council
SUBJECT . Why Is the World So Dangerous?
1. The level of global violence has risen as sharply and as suddenly as
a child's temperature. In just the last several months we have seen the
shoot-down of KAL Flight 007, the assassination of Benigno Aquino, the
murderous decapitation of South Korea's-leadership in Rangoon, the terrorist
bombings of US, French, and Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, the Libyan invasion
of Chad, and the anti-Bishop coup in Grenada that ultimately triggered our own
successful action on that island. What makes these acts of violence so
especially disturbing is their common denominator: each has hurt the
citizens, governments, or interests of the Free World.
2. Clearly, the world has become a much more dangerous place. We need
to know why. Are these acts of violence somehow linked, or traceable to the
same malevolent source? Or should we dismiss the present trend as a series of
frightening, tragic, but unconnected events whose one-after-another timing is
mere coincidence?
3. I believe the current outbreak of violence is more than coincidence.
More precisely, I believe it signals the beginning of a new stage in the
global struggle between the Free World and the Soviet Union. My contention
rests on a perception that present US policies have fundamentally changed the
course of history in a direction favorable to the interests and security of
ourselves and our allies. What we are seeing now is a Soviet-led effort to
fight back, in the same sense that the Mafia fights back when law enforcement
agencies launch an effective crime-busting program. Let me concede right now
that I cannot prove this -- if your definition of proof is restricted to
intercepts, photographs, and p loined documents. Of course these things
matter. They matter hugely. ut to truly understand an alien phenomenon like
the Soviet Union, one needs to go beyond a listing of facts; one needs also to
make a leap of imagination:
4. If four years ago the Soviet leadership had asked my counterpart --
call him Vice Chairman of the Soviet National Intelligence Council -- for his
evaluation of the global struggle, I believe my counterpart would have
Approved For Release 2009/08/05: CIA-RDP88T00528R000100020008-2