TARGET OF US CRUSADE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000402940008-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 11, 2012
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: March 6, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
` Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/11: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402940008-8
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CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
6 -March 1985
I tt
Target of US crusade
This escalation was justified as self-de-
By Pat Holt fense on the marines' part, just as the Is-
raelis said that their invasion of Lebanon
AS the White House escalates its was defensive, and just as the administra-
rhetoric in an effort to cajole more tion says its anti-Sandinista policy is de-
money out of Congress for the fensive. The administration finds proof of
Nicaraguan contras . fighting the the Sandinistas' aggressive intentions in
Sandinistas, it is also escalating its policy the size of the Nicaraguan armed forces.
Three years ago when the covert ro- Successive US administrations have
am o aid to the contras first came to exaggerated the threat of Moscow's and
light, the o iective was to interdict the Havana's ambitions. The USSR has com-
supp es that were supposedly flowing munized Eastern Europe - or has tried to
from Cuba and the Soviet bloc throw h - because it perceives that area to be vi-
Nicaragua to the guerrillas in El Salvador tal to its national security, mach as the US
- themselves another group of contras. perceives Central America and the Carib-
From the administration's own evidence, bean. In the "infamous" Brezhnev doc-
it appears that the amount of supplies was trine - Shultz's adjective - the Soviet
always exaggerated. In any event, as the Union has said it will not permit commu-
amount - whatever it was - dwindled, nist governments to be overthrown.
US policy became more ambitious. It This is different from a policy of inspir-
sought to pressure the Sandinistas into ing the establishment of such govern-
carrying out internal liberal reforms - ments. The governments of Cuba, Ethio-
elections, freedom of the press, free labor pia, Angola, and Nicaragua have all
organizations, and the like. resulted from indigenous circumstances.
Now the President says that the Castro's revolution went through a
Sandinistas must accept the contras as phase of proselytical fervor in the 1960s,
part of the government. In other words, but ended with the death of Che Guevara
the contras must be allowed to shoot their in Bolivia. Fidel Castro says that revolu-
way into power lion cannot be exported. There is. abun-
But there is more. Aid to the contras is dant evidence that he means it.
merely part of a worldwide crusade - "a The American revolution cannot be ex
moral duty," as Secretary of State George ported. any more readily than can the So-
P. Shultz put it - to promote freedom, viet or the Cuban. The US Constitution
"whether it is in Cambodia or Afghani- was widely copied as Latin American
stan or Nicaragua or whatever." states became independent in the first
This is a very tall order. If taken seri- quarter of the 19th century, and in none of
ously, it would saddle the US with endless them did it work very well. More than 80
and ultimately ruinous entanglements. It years after McKinley set out to "uplift
is a throwback .to Manifest Destiny and and civilize and Christianize" the Philip-
the "white man's burden." pines, that unhappy country is mired in
This new dimension of policy is remi- corruption and insurgency.
niscent of William McKinley's explana- It is characteristic of US governments
lion of how he came to establish US pres- that the amount of high-level attention
ence in the Philippines, a decision he said they give to a country varies inversely
was the result of . divine guidance: with its size and importance. Nicaragua
" .. there was nothing left for us to do and El Salvador, too, for that matter -
but to take them all, and to educate the are merely the latest additions to a list
Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and that includes Cuba, Grenada, Panama,
Christianize them, and by God's grace do and Vietnam, among others. When he was
the very best we could by them .,...." undersecretary of state, George Ball is re-
This is not the first time Mr. Reagan ported to have said, apropos of a coup in
has broadened'a policy in mid-course. The some obscure African country, "God may
original mission of the marines in Leba- notice every sparrow that falls, but the
non was to supervise the withdrawal of United States doesn't have to."
the Palestine Liberation Organization. That remains a sound doctrine,
That accomplished, the marines were sent
back to act as a buffer between the con- Pat Holt, former chief of staff of
tending factions, but it was not long be- the Senate Foreign Relations Com-
fore they moved from being a buffer to mittee, writes on foreign affairs from
taking sides in the civil war. Washington.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/11: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402940008-8