Chat with Chic, April 24, 1985

A Report from Washington Chat with Chic April 24, 1985 By U.S. Senator Chic Hecht It is my firm conviction that Russian leaders believe in the maxim, enunciated by their one-time Chinese comrade, Mao Tse-Tung, that political power grows from the barrel of a gun. After serving behind the Iron Curtain as a counter-intelligence agent, and currently a member of the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence, it's my belief that the Russians want to dominate and exploit resources and technology of the world. They have no fixed timetable. They prefer to win concessions from weak and fearful foreign governments without actually waging wars that would damage the economic infrastructure whose output they covet. Consequently, the United States faces a persistent hostile behavior pattern in conflicts below the level of organized, declared warfare. Make no mistake: our form of free society and our influence abroad are targets of the conflict in Central America above and beyond local stakes. What Soviet leaders have in mind is the gradual psychological undermining of the national will in target states and the establishment of political control when local circumstances permit. The process is not easy to contain. It is like ocean waves eroding shores of freedom. I believe the United States should use every diplomatic and infor-mational device at its disposal to explain that the "War of National Liberation", being waged today in Central America from a base in Nicaragua, simply is Leninist double-talk for a war destabilizing governments cooperative with the United States by means of terrorism, Page 2, Chat with Chic political revolutionary action and guerrilla warfare. Wars such as these are fought only to create a new communist dictatorship beholden to Moscow. If covert action is necessary to combat Soviet treachery, so be it. I support it. As I recently told my Senate colleagues during a debate on covert action in Nacaragua: "Covert action by intelligence agencies of the United States government should be an exceptional act, but entirely legitimate when it is presidentially authorized to carry out essential national security programs abroad when overt means are inappropriate or will not suffice to counter a serious threat to American interests." I fully agree with Secretary of State Shultz who argues that U.S. responsibilities as a leader of the Free World require bold action, at times covert in the sense that the detailed moves as distinct from the policy must be kept secret so as to preempt rev-olutionary successes by Soviet sponsored forces. While Secretary Shultz did not specify when or how defensive and deterrent measures should be employed in Nicaragua, he made it clear "that both covert paramilitary assistance and open military support" can justifiably be extended to "those struggling against the imposition of communist tyranny on the basis of the inherent right of individual and collective self defense against aggression." It is unthinkable to me that the Congress of the United States could believe differently on such a grave issue.