FRANK TALK ABOUT DANGERS AT OUR DOORSTEP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403640035-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 35
• Publication Date: June 6, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403640035-0
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JOHN LENCZOWSKI
WASHINGTON TIMES
6 June 1985
Frank talk about dangers at
our doorstep
J t is often unpleasant to resur-
rect what many think are the'
unpleasant ghosts of the past.
Unfortunately, that is what we
do when we talk frankly about the
forces of "international commu-
nism" at work in our hemisphere.
It has long been politically the
safe thing to do to ridicule any men-
tion of this alleged phenomenon.
Professors and pundits have assured
us for years that "international com-
munism" as such no longer really
exists - which is why it is ridiculed
as a "phantom;' the object of irratio-
nal phobias of extremists, . know-
nothings, or people living in the past.
It has been explained to us that we
can no longer clinically and accu-
rately use this loaded expression
because of the Sino-Soviet split, the
Yugoslav-Soviet split, the Albanian-
Soviet split, and other manifesta-
tions of polycentrism.
Perhaps, indeed, communism is ?
no longer a monolithic force sub-
suming all Marxist-Leninist states
under the Soviet banner. Neverthe-
less, how can one label the presence
today in Nicaragua of Cubans, Bul-
garians, Libyans, Czechs, North
Koreans,. East Germans, Vietnam-
ese, Soviets, and Communist ele-.
ments of the Palestine Liberation
Organization?
If this is not some facsimile of
international communism, then we
are at a loss as to how to explain the
common thread that binds these
forces together. If we must pay our
dues to the gods of polycentrism,
then perhaps we might refine our
terminology by calling this phenom-
enon "Soviet international commu-
nism:' since neither Maoist, Titoist,
or Albanian brands of communism
are at work here.
Since we so rarely discuss the
facts about international commu-,
nism as such, there are a few which
should be remembered in the con-'
text of our current debate on Nica-'
ragua:
? The people do not want
John Lenczowski is director, Euro-
pean and Soviet affairs, at the
National Security Council.
Forces bound by a common thread
communism. Never in history has a
majority of a free electorate demo-
cratically chosen a Communist form
of government. (There is only one
exception: the minuscule state of
San Marino. In the case of Chile, Mr.
Allende, although a Marxist, did not
run for office as a Communist with a
Communist Party in tow, or with an
avowedly Communist political pro-
gram. Neither did he win a majority
of the vote.)
? Communists have always come
to power through violent takeovers.
These takeovers have always
involved seizure of power by a well-;
organized and externally assisted
minority over an unorganized and
unwitting majority. Such takeovers?
?consistently entail the use of a "pop-
ular front" of Communist and non-
Communist elements; the
establishment of a Communist Party
which uses an ideological party line
to enforce internal conformity and
identify and eliminate deviationist;
the use of camouflage to disguise the
party's true intentions and full politi-
cal program; the use of propaganda
and disinformation to manipulate
the international media; the use of
violent and ruthless methods to
eliminate all organized opposition,
including ethnic minorities, organ-
ized religion, non-government-
controlled media and the "class
enemy;" and finally, the use of grad-
ualism in the process of eliminating
opposition and implementing inter-
nal security - so that the people do
not realize what is happening to
them until it is too late.
? No Communist regime that has
consolidated its power has ever been
overthrown and replaced by a non-
Communist order. (The only excep-
tion is Grenada). Every other form
of government offers people the
chance to retain a system of trial and
error. It is easy to overthrow a Shah
or a Somoza after trial has been
granted and error perceived. But
once communism is firmly in place,
the possibility of trial and error is no
more.
A vote against aid to the Freedom
Fighters is a vote to consign Nicara-
gua to an indefinite period of no free-
dom of choice.
? The human cost of communism
wildly exceeds most Americans'.
expectations.
The numbers of people murdered
by Communist regimes (outside of
war deaths) are approximately: low
estimate, 60 million; high estimate
(more accurate in light of recent
scholarship), 150 million.
The greatest tide of refugees in
world history flows from Commu-
nist states to non-Communist ones:
today it comes from Ethiopia,
Afghanistan, Indochina, East
Europe, and Nicaragua. (During the
entire Vietnam War there was nary,
a refugee fleeing from Indochina. It
was not until communism tri-
umphed that life became so unbear-
able that people who could
withstand decades of war fled to the
seas).
Communism invented the concen-
tration camp. Millions have been
imprisoned, executed, or worked
and.starved to death in these camps.
Communist regimes will not permit
enterprising Western reporters any-
where near these camps, so you
don't hear about them on the evening
news.
Communist regimes recognize no
restraint on their absolute power.
From this they establish ideological
falsehoods as the standards of right
and wrong and the standards by
which deviationism is measured;
from this stems the systematic
denial of all individual human
rights.
The quality of life always deterio-
rates under communism: the milita-
rization of society; the destruction
of the consumer economy; the
rationing of food; the deterioration
of existing housing and insufficient
new construction to meet population
growth; the destruction of medical
care through lack of medicine and
medical supplies (despite all the pro-
paganda about free universal medi-
cal care in the U.S.S.R., for example,
a 900-bed hospital in Moscow gets an
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403640035-0
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403640035-0
allocation of 250 hypodermic nee-
dles they are told on the iden-
for per year- a supply insufficient everything
guided tours in Moscow,
Havana, one day in a Western hospital - Havana, East Germany, North Korea
with instructions on how to or any other totalitarian state.
straighten them, clean them and de- Congress must decide whether it
rust them); the destruction of reli- will resist international communism
gion (in Russia in 1914 there were on our continent or let it prosper.
77,000 Orthodox churches, whereas Isolationists in the Congress may
today in the entire U.S.S.R. there are base their opposition to the adminis-
only some 7,000); the destruction tration on the principle that other
and political control of education. countries should be allowed self-
and culture; the rewriting of history, determination.
and the destruction of monuments to today
the national heritage; and the Unfortunately, in Nicaragua
assault on family life and parental there f the reality of min
reign
jurisdiction over children. force determination" The foreign
? Soviet-style communism invam- force is the Soviet_ Union and x1its
eably means the export of terrorism, proxies, otherwise known
violence, and revolution to other, forces of international communism.
countries. Soviet proxy states par- Will the Nicaraguan people be
ticipate in an efficient division of given enough assistance so that they
labor in this sphere: Cubans as. will be able to determine their future
troops, Bulgarians and Vietnamese on the basis of a balance of foreign
as arms suppliers, East Germans as forces, or will Congress permit an
secret police trainers and military imbalance, an imbalance against
advisers, etc. democracy, an imbalance against
Since it is Soviet and not Albanian any system of trial and error?
proxies who are present on our con- If Congress chooses to deny the
tinent today, it is not an accident that Nicaraguan friends of democracy a
the Communist Sandinista regime is chance for self-determination, it will
an active collaborator in this divi- be voting in favor of the first victory
sion of labor. of the Soviet strategic offensive on
? The Sandinistas are Commu- our own continent.
nists. As Defense Minister Ortega
said: "Marxism-Leninism is the sci-
entific doctrine that guides our rev-
olution ... without Sandinismo we
cannot be Marxist-Leninist and San-
dinismo without Marxism-Leninism
cannot be revolutionary."
The identical pattern of Commu-
nist takeover methods, internal poli-
cies, and external behavior is
repeating itself in Nicaragua. There
can be no doubt, given the vast evi-
dence we have accumulated, that
Nicaragua is becoming another
Cuba.
? Communist regimes, including
the Nicaragua regime, spend vast
resources on disinformation - to
deceive the ecision makers.
foreign political
A principal goal is to disseminate
false information about the nature of
their own system: the principal dis-
information theme of all Communist
regimes is to convince others that
they are not really Communist.
This is done in many ways by the
Sandinistas but most prominently
by the "guided tour.' Countless
American visitors are taken on this
guided tour and see nice things and
talk to "average citizens" who tell
them what the regime wants them to
hear.
Nobody wants to believe that he
has been or can be fooled. But if Con-
gress is to believe the testimony of
constituents and reporters who base
their information on the "guided
tour;' Congress may as well believe
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403640035-0