'CRISIS IN CENTRAL AMERICA,' ON PBS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201300003-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 19, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: April 8, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201300003-6
ARMLYU-
PA .
NEW YORK TIMES
S April, 1985
`Crisis in Central-America, ' on PBS
"
is ad-
.-Crisis in Central America
Eisenhower Ad- dressing another foreign policy con-
By JOHN CORRY
tern here. It is implicit and unspoken,
but it is there: no more Vietnams; no
!it RISIS IN CE more Cubes, either. Tomorrow
CO trai Intelliaeruoe -says is an laser- I night's episode, "Castro's Chal-
on ERI it does not ex, view that there" is abed no rem- IMP." looks at the problem.
V cLu
e
to witness p
t
e
came ~ was actually 150 r- Cuba. Hence we
,. -
Tne arm t= into another
Peace. = e 'I Uuatemalans a few trucks and eta- should oPPcee? the Sandinistas.
The series, using old film and inter tion wagons. Michael D. Barnes a liberal_
views, is evenhanded, determinedly As coups go' this wagr't much. i Rea-
Views, Dalsoemocrats an from
na t the Aammis-
so. For example, a former Marine, for rtthee United States to inter-1 m
u
a
i
turn another dictators p
mate .. oppose the S We not. More than one million Cubans
Tomorrow night's program deals get Michael D. Barnes, a Ii have fled their country. Does this
with the Cuban revolution and its af- The dominant actor was prefftnn _ mean the United States should sup-
port rio
termath. Nicaragua is examined on ably Mr. Dulles's obsession with t_wing dictators? This is an
Thursday, and El Salvador on Fri- Soviet expansionism. Whatever it unpalatable proposition, and "Crisis
day The final image in the series, a was, however, :was incidental. - is Central America" is cautious.
freeze frame, is "a crowd of Salvado-cou fabled toda was carried out Therefore, we get Fred C. Ickla, an
rams," the narrator tells us, -`who ear--ei-, a IA radio station tb Uromry of Defense, raising
ability' that Nicaragua may
ro~ of broa cast news a `liberation"
th
h
nave Dean vaivus,
film: it is 1868; United states troops r---- --P- e --
land " 1978. Batista may
begun. in The Cuba. interventionism has unpalatable itlon, and Crisis in Central to is cautious. but he did not export violence.
Panama Canal is dug. Therefore C. Ickle, an Moreover, right-wing dictatorships
I United Fruit reaps its harvests. Ma- Under of emse, raising such as Batista's sometimes evolve
runes are sent to Nicaragua. The Carl- the duty' that Ni May into democracies, while left-wing
such as Mr. Castro's do
s
In C
b
we h
01
should sup- dispatched 30,000 troops to Angola in
The episode Might, -'Tire Yankee ! mean nlted Sta
YA&rn_ beams with flickering old _ 1975 and 10.000 troops to Ethiopia in
Channel 13 at 9 t ght, continues not. 14pre than -one mum L uDans that Mr. Castro's ascension led to the 20 - Des this have their cotmtry Cuban missile crisis, and that Cuba
.1 selves We can althouafl we muse as nausus-5 suUJVUWW ' Challenge" does not argue oval wurau
work at it nerhahs harder thaw we democracies, while 1 !o once would have been better served
hover 13uww. ?O ?aa.. V......~ , 1'i.aoa vwrw- ---------- -
States + .. Batista, a thug. American moderates
four-part' rontline" series provides 'role" ~a ree$'i the deddan. rejoiced, but too quickly. Cuba soon
ini~tstntxhisie l ___-- _ n.-3 _. ta~..a? iiraa{`wB~Y
p
only for good intentions; than penal- trans 1961 invasion at the nay of rigs
ize it for insensitivity or something in Cuba. Meanwhile, Josh Figueres
worse. There is balance. Ferrer, the former President of Costa
ore "Crisis in
ca Rica, notes that "the leftists have
Am "
critics as n nor as bertevalent as that t teemalan ma tion
. provided the left with a cause.
"I think the natives really favored the
Marines." A Nicaraguan says, "We
wanted to shoot them, and run them
through with machetes." Thus the
format: credit the United States, if
seQueloce m the vise Oaks at an orious eroL the- NThe Yankee Years" suffers from fairly, be compared. But it does give
a..neerats that Central ... a .....m of nhmnlexity. In an age in
ublit television series with
the
--Crisis in Central America as
produced for "Frontline" by WGBH
in Boston in association the
independ-
Blackwell Corporation.
ent production company. The ne
tion of 80 percent of the um uwuea uy - - -
United Fruit. Secretary of State John was a Y ! .oration is Neal B. Fieemaa;
I Foster Dulles, alarmed, dispatched then, Fidel Castro bad landed in
an envoy, who demanded that Mr. Ar- Oriente Province in Cuba. Two years
berm remove Communist labor lead- later, he entered: Havana. - -
i era. Mr. Arbenz refused.
save is .vitt to tlti ~L~SieS
and is allies against us.
It is possible that Mr. Ickle and Mr.
Barnes both share a part of the truth-
--Crisis in Central America" is often
plodding, and sometimes repetitious.
Visually, it is not nearly as gripping
as '-Vietnam: A Television History,"
wau4aa --------
that's an accomplishment of note.
that nvercnrew r acooo Ar- I - American history began around --
'???~?? of Wars, revo-
whichignores 300years
The Arbenz Government, demo- lutlans, European adveatum and
cratlcally elected, was influenced, local politics. But certainly unrest did
but apparently rat led, by Comma- grow after Guatemala In 1954. Anae-
mists. Mr. Arbenz began labor and taslo Sonoma Garcia was as alms
was unintended. Mr. Bisseu nmh an is way to own wove .aw. -- - -
deu;^ately- -"In other situations, in vo vemen With-
other countries, too much reliance
was placed an the method that had
been successful." - ,.
, Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201300003-6