ABC Nightline: Tonight’s program focused on Grenada, Cuba and the UN vote today

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Jeane Kirkpatrick: On the UN vote, …it’s one of those typical UN events in which a great many countries and their UN representatives say one thing privately and another thing publicly, and you get a public outcome that looks as though the U.S. is less isolationist than isolated. A lot of them say privately that they think that it was a marvelous thing that we did and will have good effects all over the world; they are glad we did it; but they have to do this and they hope we will understand. She has said it before—the UN is a political system. Countries don’t, generally speaking, vote on the merits of the case; they vote as sort of members of a party making calculations about the politics of the UN system, and we are a country without a party in this system. We are frequently isolated in the UN and that’s been the case for a long time. More often than not, we turn out to be isolated with Israel and in defense of Israel. This time Israel chose to be isolated with us, in defense of us, and we appreciate that.

Ramon Sanchez-Parodi, Cuban Interest Section: On the UN vote, the world has expressed its decision in favor of the principles of international law, of the standards of behavior of the international community. Out of this dramatic experience, this is the only thing he believed has been a gain in the military intervention in Grenada by the U.S. He has been reporting to his government from the beginning of the operation how the actions in Grenada have been greatly manipulated by official sources in the U.S., especially the censorship of the press and also world opinion. He did not agree that Cuba has suffered any setback. Quite the contrary, Cuba’s prestige, Cuba’s standing among even developed nations, have been enhanced by the consistent way that Cuba has expressed its position regarding events in Grenada. Also, it has been enhanced by the way their workers, their technical personnel, and their diplomats have reacted in Grenada in face of the invasion—that counts more than any temporary military setback.

Kirkpatrick: Things have changed very dramatically in the Caribbean over the past few weeks. First of all, we have seen the first reversal of a so-called irreversible revolution since the Brezhnev Doctrine. A country, which had been effectively claimed and taken by the Soviet empire—of whom Cuba is the principal agent—which had become a base for the projection of Soviet military power, which Cuba is a principal agent, was lost to them. It was a strategically located country designed to serve as a base for the Cuban conquest of the Eastern Caribbean. It was a very important military base which was armed absolutely to the “teeth,” and ready to receive thousands of Cuban and Soviet bloc personnel.

Sanchez-Parodi: Denied Kirkpatrick’s statement as completely against the facts. Stated that the construction workers were armed with light infantry weapons that the Maurice Bishop government had issued them in face of an American invasion which took place, and the only troops or country that has used that airport for military purposes is the U.S. The U.S. has occupied that country at this moment and is imposing its will on that territory by force and it has been condemned by the international community—those are facts.

Kirkpatrick: The international community also called for free elections of a new Grenadan government—the U.S. voted for that resolution. The Cubans not only tried to cut off debate today to prevent discussion of the merits of this case, but even to prevent the presentation of an amendment that called for free elections of a new Grenadan government. Now, we understand that since Cuba doesn’t permit free elections in their own country, and neither do they permit access to the media. What the Cubans and Soviets were doing in Grenada was building really major, military bases and they had plans for a deep-water port as well. They had built under this so-called tourist airport a military base which already very heavily armed. There was a Cuban enclave, in fact, in which Grenadans were virtually absent. The Cubans had already taken over the military management of the island; they were already made the Grenadans a kind of colony, and the Grenadans are very happy to see them go. The Grenadans don’t think the American are going to stay which, indeed, we are not. The fact is, this was not an invasion, it was a rescue operation, and the Grenadans know that.

Sanchez-Parodi: Grenada is a country where thousands of American troops are and he didn’t think anyone could express themselves freely under those circumstances. The only foreign troops that have come by force into Grenada without any declaration of war, but by surprise, were the American troops.

Next, Koppel interviewed Richard Feinberg, formerly with the State Department and a Caribbean expert, and Jose Sorzano, U.S. Deputy Representative to the UN.

Feinberg: Stated that recent events in Grenada have certainly been a setback for Fidel Castro. But the real setback came before the American invasion — it was the falling out within the Bishop government, that very much smeared the image of a close ally of Cuba in the region. He thought actually that the invasion by the U.S. has allowed Cuba to recoup some of that loss by switching attention from the failure of a regime that they had supported, to the debate over whether the U.S. ought to intervene in its own backyard.

Sorzano: The discoveries of the deep Cuban involvement in Grenada has indicated that those left regimes that have welcomed Cuban advisers are in real danger. He didn’t think that leftist regimes in Latin America are going to be willing to continue to receive this kind of Cuban assistance, and proof of that is the reaction of Suriname a couple of days after the events in Grenada.

Feinberg: Thought we should have let the situation in Grenada simmer after the Bishop murder. By going in, he would argue as the UN vote suggested today, that in the big picture, globally speaking, Grenada is a minus for the U.S. What it does is alienate us and drive a certain wedge between us and major countries in Latin America.

Sorzano: He believed the events have been a setback for Cuba and the Soviet bloc. And as Amb. Kirkpatrick said, this is the first time that the Brezhnev Doctrine has actually been reversed.

3. Havana minimize considered. Shultz

Date:
November 3, 1983
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