FEAR OF SEEMING WIMPY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000201100015-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 29, 2010
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: November 28, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/29: CIA-RDP91-00587R000201100015-4
M"UAPPEARED
ON PAS
WASHINGTON POST
28 November 1985
Fear of Seeming Wimpy
W. people promoting an encore in
Angola ought to get hold of In
Search of Enemle ," the inside
ac"" of the original fiasco A
oo fear they would enrich
a._ e! The CIA was so exercised over
Slodwag Idling the whole appolrg
story of.ths Angolan operation that it
took him to court-and won. His
royaklaa g o. to the government, and his
mosey nagr even now be bang used to'=
Gmd the load of rnsdikees he so
9 recounts.
Butfthose wt t to do it all over
again can't be persuaded to read his
book maybe they would study one
paragraph. Stockwed in describing the
impact of a Washington Poet story in
1975, which revealed the presence of
South African troops fighting with Jonas
Sevimbi, the head of UNITA, the
guerrilla group that would benefit by an
The propaganda and political war
was lost in that stroke. There was
nothing the Lusaka station [CIA
headquarters in Zambia where the war
was run] could invent that would be as
damaging to the other side as our
alliance with the bated South Africans
was to our cause."
But we are poised to renew that
alliance with the South Africans is
Angola. The president artleasly
revealed that he favors covert
operations. Two congressmen, one an
85-year-old Democrat, the other an
undeclared Republican presidential
candidate, want overt aid and have
boldly proposed a bill funding UNITA to
the tune of $27 million.
Rep. Claude Pepper (D-Fla.), the
guardian of senior rituals. is frank at
least, about why be is sponsoring the
return to folly. He never heard of
Angola, he told a House committee,
until his Cuban-American constituents
called it to his attention. The presence
of some 35,000 Cuban troops in Angola
is an affront to the folks who spend
their lives thinking up ways to fod Fidel
Castro. And Pepper responded with an
alacrity that suggests that avidity to
retain tffce is a quality that does not
dhmimah with the passing yearn.
Cosponsor Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.)
denies any political motivation. H.
.
supports:"fift" fighters"
everywhere, he im fists. StiN, Angola
offers him a woknder;7U-
nni chance is mains
up with the far-right of bin pasty, which
was tatraged by his support of the
South African aanctioos. cannot handle the ides that a Matidntc'Ygovernment exists. a world away.
The rabids went into orbit when
Secretary of State George P. Shults
recently advocated holding off an aid
until the United States could wear Its
mediator's hat a little longer. A State
Department official met this week with
a representative of the Angolan
government to give him a last chance to
settle with UNITA.
Rep. Matthew F. McHugh (D-N.Y.)
rounded up 100 sigoatmbs an a letter
to the president in which he said that
either overt or covert aid "would
damage our relations with governments
throughout ? "
The result in Congress is much in
ubt. A Democrat, the late senator
~m-qk exposed the abuses of
CIA, which were, incidentally, being
on Capitol Hill while the-agency
was pressing ahead with its Angolan
intervention and William B. Cob y, die
the agency's directorwg it.
But today's Democrats have been
thoroughly indoctrinated in the horrors
of seeming wimpy on national security.
"Everyone is shopping around for
freedom fighters to support," says Ki t
O'Donnell, counsel to House Speaker
Thomas P. (Tip) O'Neill Jr. (D-Mass.).
McHugh hopes that some who voted
to repeal the Clark Amendment, which
forbade aid to covert operations or
training for any Angolan movement
without authorisation by Congress, will
draw the line on money that will
prolong Angola's civil war. The head of .
the House Permanent Sailed
Committee on Ind, RmLee IL
ongrokknda the presidmt
should not be specifically m
any area of the world--b saying no as
aid.
Everyone know that In Angola the
Nicaraguan formula will be used. That
is, we give enough help to keep the war
going but not enough to win it
How House members from farm
states are going to explain why they
gave $27 million to help somebody in
the African bush when their own
farmers are being foreclooed is not
something they are thinking about.
But the chances that we will do it
again-squander millions of dollars,
hear hundreds of lies and ruin countless
lives-are 50-50. Too many
officeholders these days, when faced
with a problem,, begin by asking
themselves, "What would Rambo do?"
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/29: CIA-RDP91-00587R000201100015-4