CASEY AND THE 'FOCUS OF EVIL'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100670021-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 8, 2010
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: June 17, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/08: CIA-
ARTICLE ll~P~
ox PdG1'~
Philip Geyelin
WASHINGTON rOST
17 June 1985
RDP90-008068000100670021-4
and the `Focus of Evil'
Case
"Casey Details Secret Soviet~uban
Strategy," the banner headline trum-
peted on page one of The Washington
Times. "Casey" is William Casey, the
boss of the CIA. The story predicted
breathlessly that on the very next day
he would give to a meeting of the
1Norld Business Council in San Mto-
nio, "the most comprehensive argu-
ment for U.S. assistance to the Nica-
raguan resistance yet put forward by
the Reagan administration."
Casey's remarks in San Mtonio were
actually "off the rernrd." What the
Times was heralding on the supposed
eve of delivery was a speech the C1A
says had been delivered-on the record
-on May 1 to the Metropolitan Club of
I~ew York. It went unnoticed for more
than two weeks, until somebody oblig-
ingly called it to the attention of the
Times, which says something about the
market for the administration's cage.
But the speech itseU says something
of greater concern about the inner
workings of the administration's col-
lective mind. It says that the Soviet
Union as the "focus of all evil" is not
just the president's figure of speech. It
>s an ideological concept, imbedded in
the most sacrosanct branch of the na-
tional security bureaucracy, and in the
person of the director of Central Intel-
ligence whose measured analyses and
assessments are supposed to be the
reinforcing rods of policy.
So you may judge for yourself. here
are some excerpts from Casey's presen-
tation. Note the even tone and balance;
the absence of any hint of hysteria; the
reverence for facts and figures; the fine
bgic d his approach.
The Soviet Union's "subversive
war" against U.S. interests over the
past quarter of a century is neither
"undeclared" nor "bloodless." Nikita
Khrushchev warned us and we didn't
listen. Now look: "Marxist-Leninist
policies and tactics" have unleashed
the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
"Throughout the Thud World we see
famine in Africa, pestilence through
chemical and biological agents in Af-
ghanistan and Indochina, war on three
continents, and death everywhere.
"In the occupied countries-Af-
ghanistan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Mgo-
la, N-caragua-in whuch Marxist re-
gimes have been either imposed or
maintained by external force ...has
occurred a holocaust comparable to
that which Nazi Germany inflicted in
Europe some 40 years ago."
Getting down to the Nicaraguan case,
Casey says "the Soviet Union and Cuba
have established and are consolidating a
beachhead on the American continent . .
. and have begun to use it as a launchutg
pad to carry their style of aggressive
subversion into the rest of Central
America and elsewhere in Latin Amer-
ica.... The Sandinistas have devebped
the bestequipped rruLtary in the region
...Nicaragua catJd ~ through Costa
Rica, which has no army ~ to Panama,
and can threaten our vital sea lanes m
the Caribbean.,,
The Sandinistas have already satisfied
33 0( the 46 "indications of the oonsoG-
dation of power by a Marxist-Luurtisi
regime," as defined by ClA arulysts-
Among those already acrnmplr_shed:
control of the media; censorship of the
press and religion; control of the educa-
tion system, the military and the inter-
nal secret police. "There are Soviet ad-
visers at every level of the secret po-
tice," Casey reports. "Block conunittees
have been established to watch and care
trol the people-?
How a counterrevolutionary effort
at anything like the present or pros
ected levels could displace this Sandin-
ista powerhouse. Casey doesn't say.
But his aim is steady. Regional negoti-
ations would buy time for the Sandinis-
tas to consolidate their hold. Agree-
ments designed to contain Nicaraguan
adventurism are valueless "unless
Nicaragua has implemented a genuine
democracy." For one thing, they could
not be verified; for another, history
shows the communists don't keep
their word. "As long as the Sandinista
regime in Nicaragua remains, that
country will serve as a base for com-
munist expansion in the area," Casey
concludes.
So there you have it, and river
mind that President Reagan, cajoling
Congress (or "contra" aid money last
week, was singing a different tune-
"We do not seek the military over-
throw of the Sandinista government."
The Casey defimuon of the Nicara-
guan threat to U.S. vital urterests
?leaves room for no other U.S. ob~ec-
tive-and no other (final outcome.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/08 :CIA-RDP90-008068000100670021-4