CARIBBEAN SECURITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404030068-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 68
• Publication Date: June 8, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000404030068-8
two
IRTIGLE APPEARED
ON PAGE
BALTIMORE SUIT
E. June 198'
Caribbean Security
More's Involved than Nutmeg and Tourism
Washington.
C AN GRENADA, ,a poor island of 110,000
people whose only products are cocoa
and spice, a country with no navy, no air
force, only a motley people's militia, threaten
the vital security interests of the mighty
united States? It seems hard to believe. Yet,
consider the following facts.-
: a major speech on -the defense
budget, President Reagan showed a photo-
By Thomas H. Moorer
and Jay La Monica
giaph of the airstrip under construction in
Grenada and the press had a field day, while
Maurice Bishop, who recently seized Grena-
de by force, immediately disclaimed any
threat emanating from Grenada and justified
the airfield simply on the basis of tourism.
Someone should have asked him: If that is
the purpose of the airfield, why is the refuel-
ing capacity so far in excess of that necessary
for commercial aircraft to transport tourists?
All the furor resulting from the president's
address, of course, has made for a great deal
oflengaging copy in the press. It has also
tended to obscure important developments in
the region during recent years. As Mr. Rea-
gan pointed out in an earlier speech, what is
attstake in the Caribbean is not nutmeg, nor
-tourist transportation facilities for that mat-
ter. It is the mandatory requirement for safe
,transit through a strategically vital waterway
'in our own backyard.
Nearly half of America's oil imports and
over-all foreign trade originates in or passes
through the Caribbean. The Galleons Pas-
sage, the favored thoroughfare for much of
this traffic, lies just to the south of Grenada,
making it a key lifeline for the American
economy.
A significant change is the 'recent evolu-
tion of Cuban naval capabilities. Until re-
cently, the Cuban Navy was composed main-
ly of small patrol craft operating in coastal
waters where American surveillance had a
relatively easy time keeping tabs on them. In
the .past few years the Soviet Union has pro-
vided its Cuban allies with a custom-made
Koni-class destroyer and two Foxtrot diesel-
powered attack subs. Last July a pair of am-
phibious ships, each capable of carrying 180
troops and five tanks, was delivered. Train-
ing and experience with these larger ships
have advanced to the point where Cuba is on
the verge of acquiring a blue-water naval
capability. The ships already in its inventory
can roam throughout the Caribbean and up
and down the Eastern Seaboard. American
intelligence believes that up to four more,
Foxtrot subs are under construction for de-
livery to Cuba.
It is often forgotten that during the first
six months of 1942, when German U-boats
wreaked havoc on U.S. shipping in the Carib-
bean, there were never more than three in the
area at a time.
The Cuban potential for sustained long-
range naval operations appears even more
threatening when one looks at a basing struc-
ture developing among its allies in Nicaragua,
Grenada and now Surinam. Cuba's modern
fleet of MiG fighters as well as Soviet surveil-
lance and combat aircraft rapidly flown into-
the Caribbean could deploy to the Nicara-
guan airfields where aircraft shelters and
revetments are under construction and to
Grenada when that airstrip is completed.
Nicaragua is developing naval and air bases
on both coasts when it has no air force or
navy to speak of. Who do you think will use
these bases?
All this in an area where the primary U.S.
naval facility at Roosevelt Roads, Puerto
Rico, has no ships or aircraft permanently as-
signed.
NATO's area of responsibility is north of
the Tropic of Cancer and thus excludes not
only the land mass of Cuba, but the entire
Caribbean area, although a significant pro-
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portion of NATO's supply of oil as well as protect themselves from potential aggression.
much of the combat supplies for forces in Eu- Their leaders carefully insist their defense
rope come out of Gulf ports and pass through force, a rather pathetic fleet of five small pa-
the narrow straits between Florida and Cuba. trol craft including two converted shrimp-
If unopposed, Cuba now has the capacity to boats, is not directed against Grenada or
interdict this channel and the Yucatan pas- Cuba. But there is great concern over the re-
sage to the west. In the event of war in Eu- gional effects of Mr. Bishop's sharp move to-
rope, it will be the' responsibility of the Unit- wards the Soviet bloc.
ed States to maintain the security of the The United States should carefully pro-
shipping lanes in the Caribbean now progres- mote this kind of regional arrangement with
sively threatened by a growing Soviet pres- money and training administered in a care-
ence and proxies such as Cuba and Nicara- ful, unobtrusive manner.
gua. American forces presently required for While sufficient military aid must be pro-
important NATO tasks elsewhere would have vided to ensure security and protection of the
to be diverted to deal with Cuba. infrastructure, it must also be considered
The more immediate peacetime threat that the inherent weakness of the economies
from Cuba comes from its support, through of these tiny states creates openings for sub-
Nicaragua, of leftist insurgents -throughout versive activities. The Reagan administra-
Latin America. Grenada, whose leader Mau- tion, often attacked for taking a one-dimen-
rice Bishop has just returned from-meetings sional approach stressing military solutions,
with his ideological soulmates in Moscow and last year offered a broad regional economic
Pyongyang, is believed to be undertaking and political package known as the Carib-
similar joint efforts with Cuba in the eastern bean Basin Initiative. The program became
Caribbean. Colonial flotsam of four Europe- bogged down by congressional wrangling over
an empires forms the island chain arcing be- trade concessions. In the eyes of regional
tween Cuba and Grenada. They are for the leaders this economic aid is paramount to
most part tiny, newly independent states preserving stability.
with lively parliamentary governments and The United States should also move to
fragile economies dependent on tourism and heighten its visibility in the Caribbean on a
agricultural exports. Leaders of the other is- regular and permanent basis. Consideration
land nations resent the intrusion of Soviet, should be given to basing a destroyer squad-
and Cuban influence and ideology into the ron permanently in Puerto Rico and Key
eastern Caribbean through Grenada. There _ West to shadow Cuban naval movements as
have been allegations that training of left- they begin to range more widely across stra-
wing groups from these struggling democra- tegic sealanes.
cies.is underway in Grenada and at a base in American intelligence capabilities in the
southwestern Cuba. Remember that Mr.. Caribbean basin, once excellent, have been
Bishop took power in Grenada in a coup in- largely dismantled over the last decade. In
volving only a few dozen Cuban-trained sup- this area of the world electronic intercepts
porters. and satellite photography are not very useful.
Late last year, the five islands north of The necessary intelligence functions have
Grenada formed a regional security group to not much changed since the time of Sir Fran-
cis Drake. A better knowledge of political and
-economic developments in the Caribbean is
essential.
Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, USN (Ret.)
was chief of naval operations and chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Jay La Monica,
a research associate at the Georgetown Cen-
ter for Strategic and International Studies,
recently returned from a trip to the Carib-
bean.
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