FOREIGN AFFAIRS: FROM MORALIZING TO MILITARIZING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100070020-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: May 21, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Ji
STAT
Viewpoinp
by.Morton M. F1ondracke
X -1,
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22 : CIA-RDP90-01208R000100070020-4
T;?' -1LL S N ST JCU:PJ L
21 -Vay 1981
ForeignAffai
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?,'same: me, -ow veer, we ave p main ai
the arms. the intell! ence assets and the
polit cal and economic?strengt to meet e
competition.
A parallel inconsistency in our policy to-
Ward. the Soviets. governs American atti-
`.: tudes on human rights. In one phase, we
are Wilsonians, out to convert.the world to
`democracy. In another phase, we are hard
line realists,- ready to be friends with our.
friends, even if they torture their own peo-:
pie. We are obviously in this second phase
right now, Secretary of State Haig having
declared. that combating international ter-
rorism (from -the left, he meant). has re-
placed human rights as the chief preoccu-'
pation of the American government.
If foreign leaders wonder whether the
United States knows what it wants in the
world, it's not difficult :to understand why.
From administration to administration
and often within the same administration,.,
"'.We ci htinually bounce from one foreign
policy stance. to an other, and from one
emotional state to another,-with little con-
?f our long-term national inter
ests. In one phase, our Presidents are for
detente a'nd.may. be seen kissing Brezhnev
.or declaring that a "generation. of peace".
is :at hand. In -another phase, the Soviet
Union is posing "the gravest ..threat. to
peace since World War II," detente is a
banned. word at the,White House and we
are said (by Richard Nixoft, author'. of
"generation of peace")-to be In the midst
of World War. III, and losing.
:Somehow, it's Impossible for our politicians to. develop.a consistent policy toward
the Soviets that expresses the obvious:,We
? are adversary systems likely to be in a.
? state of sustained military, political, eco-
nomic and ideological competition, but.. we
have a common interest in not blowing up
the World we live on and are ?sttvggling
over. Hence, the U.S. needs to talk ,to the..
Soviets, , lessen the compe i ion where we
Mill
tar1z1.g
The shift is apparent in many places, that he believes is even handed"application
but. especially in Latin America. Every-, of human _.rights laws and in active,
where that Jimmy Carter moralized, the _
if
Rea9aa administration wants to militarize.
Argentina's military government is respon-
sible for between 3,000 and 20,000 "disap-
!pearances" that are almost certainly mur-
ders. It' is viciously anti-Semitic. It sells
wheat . to the Soviet Union and refused to
condemn the invasion of Afghanistan-' It
has made a botch of its economy and may
go to. war with neighboring Chile. Yet the'
Re bga administratibn urged the liftin of
tarian governments that are - of ~.,
guilty of hu-
man rights . depredations. But the whol
e
world knows that Mr Lefever prev-'ciisly
said-and was appointed after hat
there was little the U.S. "can or should d
"
i
to *advance human rights.-and that he fa
`vored repeat : of :.existing human rights
restrictions on (unneeded) U.S. rnilitaryr One does
aid toArgentina.. not have to be a moralist to be
-offended by administration policy. One can
Chile, meanwhile, is responsible for the be a pragmatist: as well. The 'Lefever ap-
t best-documented foreign .terrorist attack I pointment and "the indiscriminate militari
.:.within the United States in recent history-- zation' of Latin' Ameri ca policy amount in
the Washington car-bomb murder of Marx the political sphere to something this ad
fist former_Ambassador Orlando Letelier-v1 ministration abhors. in the military sphere
and yet. the Reagan administration 'has ".j un lateral disarmament. The American
lifted export-import restrictions aogainst it reputation as a`defender of human r'ehts
and.has let its navy back into 'allied ma was a useful, hard -earned asset. for the.
neuvers. The _ U.S. may- well restore mill United States,- but 'the: Reagan, administra.
`-' tary aid to Chile before long, especially if a lion is in the process of throwing it away.;
threat from Argentina develops. There is no' question * that. the. United..
And in Central America, the adminis "States needs a strong anti-terrorism policy,.
tration seems to be, seriously considering but we don't have to dispense with our hu-
mah .restoration of military aid to Guatemala rights. Policy at the same time,
In i
even though that government (according to o
fact, they ought. to. betw parts of the
Amnesty International) has had .000 peo- " same policy. and we should add to them an a
Apie- killed. within the lastye'ar, including 76 economic dimension, a revived, Alliance for
top leaders of the moderate Christian Dem- . wogs Most of all, we should stick with
ocratic party. Meanwhile, neighboring our policies from one,adminisfration to the I
'.Costa Rica, a. traditional democracy, is in next, so that it's clear to the world how we
a fiscal .and political crisis, but the intend to defend oursystem
Reagan. and compete
administration opposed Congress's move to with the Soviets: -with weapons; where-nec-
grant balance-of-payments assistance 'It- essary; but* also bv' advanrina.
vador, that U.S. economic aid is justified.
The appointment of Ernest Lefever as 1
the State Department's human rights chief
'is the crowning . statement of administra-
tion priorities. He may say now, to a Sen
Fate commi'ttee' considering his noininatxon.
IF Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22 : CIA-RDP90-01208R000100070020-4