HAWKING DEMOCRACY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000200700030-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 21, 2010
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: August 5, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/21 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000200700030-9
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE C_-, / ?1 WASHINGTON POST
August 1984
Hawking
Democracy:;
Y OU WONDER WHY we have a =
deficit? Greedy welfare moth-
ers?
Shiftless seniors? Not entirely. - .
Let me explain -i and I'm .not_,
even going to mention the Pentagon,_
which once again this week demon-
strated why it will never give up the::
trophy for shameless profligacy.'( ur
bold warriors paid $2,043 for a
"common hexagon-sided threaded
nut," which is available at Heching- ;
er's Home Improvement -store for 13
cents. No, I speak of a much more mod-.
est assault on our common sense and
our pocket books, the National En-
dowment for Democracy, which last
year got an appropriation of. "only"..,
$3lmillion.
And what is NED? One of its ene-
mies, Sen. Warren Rudman (R-N.H.)
calls it "a slush fund for political
hacks who like to travel to warm cli-
mates in cold weather."
And why, when we are $200 bil-
lion in the. red, do we have a taxpay-.
er-supported Club Med? Who's to
blame?
It turns out that it is just every-
body'who counts in Washington: the
president, the Congress, the Demo-
cratic Party, the Republican Party,
the Chamber of Commerce and the
labor unions. '
The range of its sponsorship is,.of
course, the explanation for its-sur-
vival. Reagan loyalists, to begin
with, wish to nurture NED because
it was his idea - floated in a Lon-
don speech two years ago as an ef-
fort "to foster the infrastructure of
democracy" in other countries.'. ' '
This simply reflects a deeply held
conservative conviction that the su-
perior merit of de mocracy is a truth
hidden from the rest of the world'
Never mind the track record; which
so copiously attests to the contrary
- has anyone seen a German
storming the Berlin Wall from the
western side?
LS UND
But just as the right is convinced
that the Soviet Union is leagues
ahead in armaments, it is sure that
the Russians have the drop on us in
the field of "winning hearts and
minds."
Those not 'anxious ' to support the
president have to fend off other sup-
plicants in behalf of NED: the chair-
men of both parties, lobbyists for the
'Chamber and the AFL-CIO, and i
such influential board members as
Dante Fascell of Florida, Chairman,
of the House Foreign-Affairs Com-
mittee, from whom every colleague
is bound to seek a favor sooner or
later.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a lead-
ing right light, is chairman of NED's
board. He says that "if the NED
never gets off the ground, the big-
gest round of applause will come
from the Kremlin.".
One House member Dan Mica
(D-Fla.) in artless and chilling fash-
ion, presented NED as a peaceful
substitute to the M,_ythose_current_
wof "fostering the infrastructure
of democracy" is on view-in-Nicara-
------ ----
pa. where U.S. surrogates_ and
mercenaries are shooting peasants
and-b urmng_thejLhQuses_down in a
?`.coyertwar."
Granted that it's better. to .send
clipboards instead of guns,'. don't we
have agencies like the State Depart-
ment and the USIA to spread the
word about our excellent way of life?
NED reflects the attitude held by
many in both parties that the U.S.
has a God-given right to interfere in
the internal affairs of other',coun
tries.
And, to the mortification of NED's
friends, it turned out that that was
just what NED was doing. It is not
easy to find out about its activities
NED is exempt from the Free-
dom of Information Act, and, despite
a recently proclaimed policy of
"openness," closes its meetings to
the public.'
But, thanks to a leaked cablegram .
from our ambassador to-Panama
,
Everett Briggs, we learn that the
labor institute of the AFL-CIO,
using $20,000 from its NED kitty,
intervened in the recent, close elec-
tion in Panama. The military-sup-
ported candidate, with U.S. labor
sponsorship, won by 1,700 votes.
Ambassador Briggs, who doubt-
less spends much of his time assur-
ing the Panamanians that the United
States would never meddle in its
electoral process, cabled an urgent
appeal to Washington to suspend
such operations "before the U.S.
government is further compromised
in Panama."
The House was sufficiently stirred
to vote to kill NED on May 31.'.
But it was revived by the Senate,
which was sufficiently embarrassed
to authorize the _cut of $10 million
granted to the Republican and
Democratic parties, but not enough
to put the Endowment out of its mis-
erable mischief.
Sen. Paul Laxalt (R-Nev.), . who
doesn't think NED has the right to
exist, nonetheless voted to save it,
because of "the president's commit-
ment."
Rep. Hank Brown (R-Colo.), who
with Rep. Richard Ottinger (D-N.Y.)
led the succcessful House fight,
wants to turn all its money over to
Fulbright scholarships.
"People around the world don't
need to be sold on the virtues of our
democracy," he says. "They can't
wait to find out how you do it."
But NED proves that once you
have funded a foolish notion And,
given enough gravy to enough peo-'
pie, it will live forever, and hang the
-deficit.
Mary McGrory is a columnist for
The Post.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/21 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000200700030-9