U.S. VOWS TO RESIST DESPOTS OF RIGHT AS WELL AS OF LEFT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505380045-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 12, 2010
• Sequence Number: 45
• Publication Date: March 14, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000505380045-3
AWTKU NEW YORK TIMES thorita
It3rt MM 14 March 1986 ington,
U.S. VOWS TO RESIST
DESPOTS OF RIGHT
AS WELL AS OF LEFT ting vnext ote onmmit meet-.
on
By LESLIE H. GELB in covert at to t e anti anti inista
Special to The New York Times rebels known as contras.
WASHINGTON, March 13 - In a "You cannot underestimate how
major policy statement to be made good the President felt about the reac-
public on Friday, President Reagan tion to his handling of the Philippines
says explicitly for the first time that his and Haiti," a high-ranking Administra-
Administration will oppose dictator- Lion official said.
d h t one needed
no
t
l
ships of the anti-Communist right as
well as the pro-Soviet left.
The core of a message that key Ad-
ministration officials said would be
sent to Congress says, "The American
people believe in human rights and op-
pose tyranny in whatever form,
whether of the left or the right."
This new approach differs in empha-
sis from the one enunciated by Jeane J.
Kirkpatrick, the former chief United
States delegate to the United Nations.
That policy held that "traditional au-
thoritarian" regimes were "less re-
pressive," more susceptible to change
and better for American interests than
Marxist-style rulers.
Left Called Greater Threat
Mr. Reagan's statement still calls
leftist dictatorships the greater and
"unique" threat to world peace. But his
thrust is intended to take advantage of
his recent role in helping to remove
right-wing dictators in the Philippines
and Haiti and to blunt charges that the
Administration follows a double stand-
ard on human rights.
The main purpose of the statement,
according to the Administration offi-
cials, is to lay out a regional security
strategy.
The human rights part of the stral.
egy is said to be intended to increase
Congressional support for covert tnili-
tarv aid to ants-Soviet "freedom fi ht-
ers" in general and Nicaraguan rebels
in particular. This aid, in turn, is in-
tended to convince Moscow that its
policy of backing so-called colonial
agents in Angola, Afghanistan, Cambo-
dia, Ethiopia and Nicaragua cannot
work.
'Soviet Adventurism' Deplored
Soviet leaders are warned not to ex-
pect "fundamental improvement of
Soviet-American relations" while
there is "continuing Soviet adveptur-
ism in the developing world." The mes-
sage goes so far as to tell them that
there is no more likely time than now
for "Soviet policy reviews and reas-
sessments," given Soviet domestic
problems and signs of "democratic
revolution" said to be "visible in Mos-
cow." The text did not explain what
was meant by those terms.
Indones'
The officials said Mr. Reagan had declined
been considering presenting this kind would apply .
of message for some months. The time 'Cases Are More Complicated'
was said to be Propitious because of re-
cent policy successes in the t ippines
anaitt the need to provide context
a
s sat
The officia
to persuade Mr. Reagan to make the
statement and that it was coordinated
with the highest levels of the State De-
partment and the Pentagon.
On the human rights issue, the offi-
cials were careful not to describe the
President's statement as the abandon-
ment of what has been called the Kirk-
patrick doctrine.
'The statement should not be re-
garded as a hunting license to under-
mine friendly states, which often face
external threats, and which can over
time evolve nonviolently to ever-more
democratic forms of government," one
official said.
Nonetheless, the new Reagan ap-
proach is likely to be greeted by some
critics of the Administration as a vindi-
cation of President Carter's human: rights policy, which Mr. Reagan and
his top aides have strongly attacked.
The Administration officials said it
would be wrong to characterize Mr.
Reagan's statement as the adoption of
Mr. Carter's approach, and many
human rights activists are likely to
agree, or at least they are likely toy
argue that while the language may be
favorable, it still has to be put into
practice.
Condemned Chile in Geneva
But the statement does reflect the
fact that the Administration only a few
days ago introduced a resolution at the
United Nations Human Rights Com-
mission meeting in Geneva that con-
demned the human rights situation in
Chile. The Administration decided that
its quiet pressure for change on the
military Government of President Au-
gusto Pinochet had not worked.
But the officials also said Chester A.
Crocker, Assistant Secretary of State
for African Affairs, went too far
Wednesday in proclaiming the Admin-
istration's support for "majority rule"
in South Africa. They said his reference
to members of the African National
Congress as "freedom fighters" had
also been made without White House
approval.
The officials emphasized that the
statement should not be read as setting
the stage for compromise on covert aid
to the contras fighting the Nicaraguan
Government. That aid package is ex-
pected to be voted on in the Senate next
week, and one of the key officials in-
sisted that "the President wanted an
open or down vote, not a compromise."
"The statement is an attempt to say
that the cases are more complicated
than people realize, that we have to use
different instruments in different ways
in dealing with each," one official said.
In the words of the President's mes-
sage, "The drive for national freedom
and popular rule takes different forms
in different countries, for each nation is
the authentic product of a unique his-
tory and culture."
The statement refers to a "global
revolution" for democracy. In this,
"there can be no doubt where America
stands," it says, adding, "The Amer-
ican people believe in human rights
and oppose tyranny in whatever form,
whether of the left or the right."
Then, to make the point about differ-
ent cases, it goes on: "We use our influ-
ence to encourage democratic change,
in careful ways that respect other coun-
tries' traditions and political realities
as well as the security threats that
many of them face from external or in-
ternal forces of totalitarianism."
It talks about the people of Turkey
fighting back "a violent assault on
democracy from both left and right"
several years ago. It says that the Phil-
ippines "are now restoring their demo-
cratic traditions," and that the "people
of Haiti have their first chance in three
decades to direct their own affairs."
Position on South Africa
As for South Africa, it states: "Advo-
cates of peaceful change in South Af-
rica are seeking an alternative to vio-
lence as well as to apartheid. American
support will be ready, in these coun-
tries and elsewhere, to help democracy
succeed."
As for what the statement calls
"Leninist regimes," it argues that "the
assault of such regimes on their own
people inevitably becomes a menace to
their neighbors." Thus, "Soviet-style
dictatorships, in short, are an almost
unique threat to peace, both before and
after they consolidate their rule."
Mr. Reagan argues that the?demo-
cratic revolution is having profound ef-
fects in two ways: on peoples' thinking
in general and in generating resistance
to Soviet-style government.
He states: "Ours is a time of enor-
mous social and technological change
everywhere, and one country after an-
other is discovering that only free peo-
ples can make the most of this change.
Countries that want progress without
pluralism, without freedom, are find-
ing that it cannot be done."
Causing Problems for Moscow
This, the statement contends, has
Caused problems for Moscow. "In re-
cent years, Soviet ambitions in the
developing world have run head on into
a new form of resistance," it says. In
the 1970's "the Soviets overreached,"
and now they and their clients "are
finding it difficult to consolidate" their
gains "mainly because of the coura-
geous forces of indigenous resistance."
Then, as the statement turns toward
Soviet policy, it says, "We did not 1
create this historical phenomenon, but
we must not fail to respond to it."
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