99 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
99 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
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*[ The World & the CIA ]*
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FD: Let's turn to world affairs for a moment. One of the events
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of recent years that has always puzzled me is United States
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support for the Vanaaka Party in what was once the New
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Hebrides Islands.
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In the late '70s, before the New Hebrides achieved independence,
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there were basically two factions fighting between themselves to
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see who would maintain control when the colonial powers left.
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The British and the French had governed the New Hebrides under
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a concept known as the condominium, and before independence,
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the British and the labor movement in Australia threw their
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support behind the ubiquitous socialist faction, in this case,
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the Vanaaka Party. The French offered some behind-the-scenes
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support to the second faction, which was basically pro-free
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market and pro-West. The U.S. under Jimmy Carter went along
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with the British.
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Do you have any idea why this might have been done?
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Marchetti:
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Offhand, I don't. The CIA has learned over the years that you
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sometimes cannot support the people you would prefer to support,
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because they just do not have the popular power to gain control
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or maintain control without a revolution and things of that sort.
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The classic example is West Berlin. Back in the '50s we were
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contesting with the Russians for influence in Berlin.
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This was at a time when the Russians and East Germans were putting
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tremendous pressure on to have West Berlin go almost voluntarily
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into the Soviet bloc. The United States was struggling mightily
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to keep West Berlin free.
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At that point in time the strong power in West Germany were the
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Christian Democrats under Konrad Adenauer, and these were the
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people that we were supporting.
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The Christian Democrats, however, just did not have the wherewithal
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to save West Berlin. The situation was such that the Social
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Democrats were the ones who could save West Berlin.
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Not getting into all of the whys and wherefores and policy positions,
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the Social Democrats also had a very charismatic person named Willy
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Brandt. So by backing Willy Brandt and the Social Democrats, instead
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of putting all of our eggs in the Christian Democratic Party basket,
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Brandt and the Social Democrats were able to maintain a free West
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Berlin and we were able to achieve our goal.
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There were some people in the CIA who thought this was terrible, we
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were not being ideologically pure, and one of them happens to be E.
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Howard Hunt, who actually considered Willy Brandt a KGB spy.
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So there are times when you have to, I guess you would call it,
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choose the lesser of two evils.
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It might have been a miscalculated gamble.
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I don't have all of the facts, but maybe the thinking was that
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if we left the pro-West faction in power we may end up with
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a goddamned civil war.
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FD: In retrospect, the Carter administration's decision seems
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even more tragic and mistaken.
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Since coming to power, the Vanaaka Party has consolidated power
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in the new country, now known as Vanuatu, and established
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diplomatic relations with governments like Cuba and Vietnam.
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Socialist Vanuatu has now come to serve as a beacon of sorts for
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other independence movements in that part of the world, such as the
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Kanaks in New Caledonia, who have subsequently adopted socialism as
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their ideology.
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When I asked Jimmy Carter about this during an interview recently
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he said he was sorry, but he did not remember the episode.
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Is it possible that this may have been an incompetent blunder
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on the part of the U.S. government? That somebody didn't do
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their homework, and as a result those responsible for the
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decision didn't have all of the facts?
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Marchetti:
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Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. Its not the kind of an issue that
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draws the most attention in Washington. As you just pointed out,
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Jimmy Carter doesn't even remember it. I'm sure that decision was
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made pretty far down the line.
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If Carter ever had to make a decision he probably doesn't even
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remember it because it was probably staffed down because it was
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considered so inconsequential at the time by Carter and everyone
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involved. They considered it so inconsequential that they don't
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even remember it. It's something they signed off on. My guess
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from what you have told me is that it was a mistake.
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