CASEY DETAILS SECRET SOVIET-CUBAN STRATEGY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000402650033-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 21, 2012
• Sequence Number: 33
• Publication Date: May 17, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/22
WASHINGTON TIMES
17 May 1985
Casey details seer
-Cuban strafe
By John Holmes
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The Soviet Union and Cuba "have established and are
consolidating a beachhead on the American continent"
as a launching pad to subvert the rest of Central and
Latin America, William Casey, the directorof the Central
Intelligence Agency, will tell the World Business Council
in San Antonio, Texas, tomorrow.
At stake, he will tell the organization of chief execu-
tive officers of major U.S. corporations, is control of the
Panama Canal and, ultimately, the oil fields of the Middle
East.
An advance copy of the speech was obtained yester-
day by The Washington Times.
Mr. Casey's hard-hitting description of the American
stakes in Central America is the most comprehensive
argument for U.S. assistance to the Nicaraguan resis-
tance yet put forward by the Reagan administration.
It sets out, in stark and simple terms, the geopolitical
stakes in Nicaragua - the administration's view of why
Americans should consider its vital interests threatened
by a Marxist government in a small nation in Central
America.
The threat, the CIA director says, is to the Panama
Canal in the short term, to Mexico in "a somewhat longer
term:' and first consequences of the expansion of Soviet
power and influence there will be "a tidal wave" of ref-
ugees into the United States.
Nicaragua, he says, is but one element in the Soviet
design. Developments there should not be viewed in
isolation, he says, but as part of "a worldwide process"
that has worked in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin
America.
"This campaign of aggressive subversion has nibbled
away at friendly governments and our vital interests
until today our national security is impaired in our
immediate neighborhood as well as in Europe, Asia,
Africa and Latin America:' Mr. Casey says.
The two primary targets of "all this carnage. this
creeping imperialism" are "the oil fields of the :Middle
East, which are the lifeline of the Western Alliance, and
the isthmus between North and South America;' he says.
"Afghanistan, South Yemen, Ethiopia, as well as Cam
Ranh Bay in Vietnam, and Mozambique and Angola in
southern Africa, bring Soviet power astride the sea lanes
which carry those resources to America, Europe and
Japan. Capabilities to threaten the
Panama Canal in the short term and
Mexico in a somewhat longer term
are being developed in Nicaragua,
where the Sandinista revolution is
the first successful Castroite sei-
zure of power on the American main-
land:' he says.
"They have worked quietly and
steadily toward their objectives of
building the power of the state secu-
rity apparatus, building the
strongest armed forces in Central
America, and becoming a center for
exporting subversion to Nicaragua's
neighbors:'
This lengthy Soviet campaign has
unleashed "the four horses of the
Apocalypse - famine, pestilence,
war and death :' He cites, as evi-
dence, widespread famine in Marx-
ist governments in Africa;
pestilence through chemical and
biological agents in Afghanistan and
Indochina, "war on three continents,
and death everywhere:'
The unanimous evaluation of
"four. national estimates" of the U.S.
intelligence community lead the
United States to believe that "the
Soviet Union and Cuba have estab-
lished and are consolidating a
beachhead on the American conti-
nent, are putting hundreds of mil-
lions of dollars worth of military
equipment into it, and have begun to
use it as a launching pad to carry
their style of aggressive subversion
into the rest of Central America and
elsewhere in Latin America:' Mr.
Casey says.
Nicaragua will become to Latin
America as Beirut is to the Middle
East, he says, a "focal point for inter-
national and regional terrorists:'
Managua's support for training of
Central American subversives is
well documented, he says.
"The [Sandinistas] support Salva-
doran communists, Guatemalan
communists, radical leftists in Costa
Rica, and are attempting to increase
the number of radical leftist terror-
ists in Honduras. More recent evi-
dence indicates Nicaraguan support
for some South American terrorist
groups and growing contacts with
other international terrorist
groups."
CIA analysts have identified "46
indicators of the consolidation of
power by a Marxist-Leninist
regime:' he says, and since it came
e& 30viet
to power in 1979 the Sandinistas have
accomplished 33 of these indicators.
The indicators measure the move-
ment toward one-party government;
control of the military, security ser-
vices, media, education, the econ-
omy; the forming or takeover of
labor unions and other- mass organi-
zations; the exertion of population
control; the curbing of religious
influence, and support for aligning
the government with the Soviet
Union.
He cites the establishment of a
Directorate of State Security to mon-
itor the behavior of the Nicaraguan
press, the churches and public insti-
tutions. According to CIA estimates,
he says, the directorate is staffed by,
among others, 400 Cubans, 70 Sovi-
ets, 40 to 50 East Germans and 20 to
25 Bulgarians. "There are Soviet
advisers at every level of the secret
police:' he says.
Already, the Sandinistas have
developed the best equipped mili-
tary in the region, with an active
strength of. 65,000 and almost an
equal number of reserves, he says.
These forces are equipped with
Soviet tanks, armored vehicles,
state-of-the-art helicopters, patrol
boats and an increasingly compre-
hensive air defense system that
gives the Sandinistas a military cap-
ability greater than the other Cen-
tral American nations combined.
As many as 6,000 to 7,500 Cuban
advisers and several hundred other
communists and radical personnel
are at work in Nicaragua, he says.
With help of Soviet capabilities,
contacts and communications chan-
nels, the Sandinistas have mounted a
worldwide propaganda campaign
that shows "remarkable ingenuity
and skill in projecting disinfor-
mation into the United States itself:'
he says. "Perhaps the best example
of this is the systematic campaign to
deceive well-intentioned members
of the Western media and of Western
religious institutions."
The CIA believes the Sandinistas'
"main objectives in regional nego-
tiations are to buy time to further
consolidate the regime:' Mr. Casey
says.
Oja4irde4
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/22 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000402650033-2
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/22 CIA-RDP90-00965R000402650033-2
Beyond that, he argues, me ins-
tory of agreements forged to end ?
wars in Korea and Indochina are
persuasive evidence that agree-
ments with Marxist governments
'don't mean much.
"We believe that Cuba has assured
the Salvadoran Communists that it
might take as long as five to 10 years,
but as long as the Sandinista regime
in Nicaragua remains, that country
will serve as a base for Communist
expansion in the area and the Salva-
doran insurgency will be renewed
once the Sandinistas have been able
to eliminate the armed resistance"
The major obstacle to Sandinista
consolidation - and the establish-
ment of the Marxist base in Central
America - is the Nicaraguan resis-
tance, he says. The resistance
"encourages the erosion of active
support for the Sandinistas by creat-
ing uncertainties about the future of
the regime; by challenging its
claims of political legitimacy, and by
giving hope to the leaders of the
political opposition:'
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/22 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000402650033-2