THIRD WORLD IS TRAMPLED AS GIANTS FIGHT FOR MORE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000707360003-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 12, 2011
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: February 24, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000707360003-7
AR ; I CLE AP}... ?.g- WASHINGTON STAR
ON PAGE_ 24 F BP,UARY 1980
1 1111 11 .1 V-i L u ? OF-A.,,-.., ?.. .--. - . v. v.. -.I
in the United States. American
policy-makers cannot' understand
why the Arabs are not running into
their arms for protection against the
atheist Russians. Why aren't the.
non-aligned countries unanimously.-.
opposed to Russia's naked aggres
sion against an independent Third:
,'World nation?'.,,,'.
an old African adage: When two ele- have 'used Third World surrogates in
phants fight, it is the grass that suf.
.Third World regions like Korea, the
fers. Middle East, Indochina, Angola, the
Still, the Russians are perplexed Horn of Africa. These wars - fi
by the Third `'World's reaction to nanced, er ieered and fueled b
their intervention in Afghanistan. the superpowers - have taken the !
After all, only a few months earlier, lives of millions and have caused im-
the Third World leaders praised the ense suffering.
Soviet Union as their natural ally. in In Vietnam the United States per
Why, then, when the issue of Soviet fected some of'the most lethal in-
troops in Afghanistan came up in struments of "destruction the world
the U.N. General Assembly did over has ever known. The So-iiet's ability two-thirds of the Third World na- to move men and materiel quickly in
tions vote with the imperialist West combat was tested in the Ethiopia-
for
the immediate and uncondi Somalia war of 1978 and later put to
uonai withdrawal of Soviet troops? use in the December 1979 Soviet
The Kremlin's confusion about ,, ?~ ,r? Af.h~r :otn Ttio c .,;,t=
The Soviets and the Americans are
both puzzled by the Third World's
evaluation of events in Iran and Af-
ghanistan because each sees the rest
NAIROBI - The two superpowers
do not challenge each other in Eu-
rope where the armies of the War-
saw Pact and the NATO alliance
stare down the barrels of each
other's guns. No, the challenge
and the bloodshed - takes place in
the bushes of Africa, the deserts of
the Middle East, the jungles of South-
east Asia and the mountains of Paki-
By Hilary Ng'weno
cle will appear in the next- cuted by the soldiers they had
r issue of WorldPaper. invited into their country. (The Chi-
In the accompanying two nese were more honest when they
articles, American and Soviet:-+. invaded Tibet. They told the world
-spokesmen debate, who's, to ?, that Tibet had -always beden part of
h
l
h
h
h
l
of the world only in terms of its own
national interest. They have divided
the world not as it is, but as they
wish it to be, and in the process they
have misjudged the magnitude of -
-the Third World's-mistrust of them
both.
That mistrust comes from three
decades of bitter experience. In the
-years?since World War Ii, the only
wars'that have been fought between
also successfully tested their ability
to coordinate global operations
when they ferried thousands of
troops from Cuba to Angola..
The sense of mistrust is not helped
by the blatant propaganda the super-
powers pour out to justify their rape
of the Third World. When Russian
troops overthrew the Afghan gov-
ernment of-Hafizullah Amin and in-
stalled their-hand-picked man;-.Br-
Hilary Ng'weno, a Kenyan `brak Karmal,'.their line was that
-who is one of Africa's most-re-?'-.. they had been invited by the Af
spected journalists, Js an. as gnans in accordance with a mutual
sociate editor of the newinter ;.L defense pact. The propaganda ma-
chinery forgot to explain why Amin
plement WorldPaper.Thisarti and his family were summarily exe-
ave
e wor
may
t
oug
t
blame for the upheaval in Af-: China. A
ghanistan. Marshall Shulman,' been shocked by China's aggression,
leave as head of Columbia = Nothing` remotely similar can be
the U.S. secretary of state, is on, -I honesty in its statea intentions.
Oil vs. Fre
The cur
Asia stem from American duplicity
in Iran. It was in the name of free-
dom that Washington encouraged or
condoned the shah in his tyrannical
ways. What did it matter that his
dreaded SAVAK detained, jailed and
tortured thousands of Iranians so
long as the oil flowed freely and the
Russians were kept at bay? While it
may be true that the Iranians have
always had an interest in checking
Russia's southward expansion, what
motivated the Americans to give
military and economic assistance to
the shah's regime had to do with
American national interests, not Ira-
nian interests. However great the
cost to the people of Iran in freedom
and political stability, Iran was to be
the local guarantor of American ac-
cess to cheap oil from the Middle
East and Gulf countries. It is little
wonder that, even with the Russians
breathing down their necks, the Ira-
nians still hold the United States to
be the No. 1 Villain. And they do not
need a cantankerous old imam to
egg them on.
Then there is the economic plight
of the Third World. Year after year
Third World people see the eco-
nomic gap widening between them-
selves and the superpowers. It makes
no difference whether the relations
are between the Soviet Union and
her socialist Third World client
states or between the United States,
and her capitalist Third World client
states..Nearly.two decades of trade
.between Cuba and the Soviet Union
have led to the same kind of depend-
ency for.Cuba asthat between, say,
the United States and Somoza's
Nicaragua.
While the.Russians shout against
imperialism, they do next to nothing
to help its victims get out of the mess
in which colonialism left them.
Countries that opt for -a Marxist-
Leninist way of life.do get some as-
sistance. " But as " Angola, Mozam-
bique, Somalia and Ethiopia in
Africa, Cuba in America, Syria and
Iraq in the Middle East and Cambo-
dia in Southeast-Asia have found out,
Soviet assistance is more likely to be
in tanks and armaments than in
productive or useful commodities. ?
America may give more economic.
aid'tb its Third World partners, but
-determined ' b
-- by its own strategic COTTIT +D
press agency Novosti. Both -
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000707360003-7