PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS TO ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES -- CARIBBEAN BASIN INITIATIVE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84B00049R000200400016-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 24, 2007
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: February 18, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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(NSC/Bakshian)
February 18, 1982
1:00 p.m.
it is a great honor for me to stand before you today. The
principles which the organization of American States embodies --
economic prosperity, political justice, and regional security are also three of the most basic pillars of U.S. foreign policy.
The United States of America is a member of this
Organization and a part of this hemisphere. What happens
anywhere in the Americas affects us in this country. In that
very real sense, we have always shared a common destiny.
Some 2 years ago when I announced as a candidate for the
Presidency, I spoke of an ambition I had to bring about an accord
with our two neighbors here on the North American continent.
I was not suggesting a common market or any kind of formal
arrangement. "Accord" was the only word that seemed to fit what
I had in mind. I'm aware that the U.S. has long enjoyed friendly
relations with Mexico and Canada, that our borders have no
fortifications. Yet it seemed to me there was the potential for
a closer relationship than had yet been achieved. Three great
nations share this continent with all its human and natural
resources. Have we done all we can to create a relationship in
which each country can realize its potential to the fullest?
I know in the past the United States has proposed policies
we declared would be mutually beneficial not only for North
America but also for the nations of Central and South America.
But there was often a problem. No matter how good our intentions
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were, our very size may have made it seem that we were a xe_csi:;g
a kind of paternalism.
At the time I suggested the North American accord, I said I
wanted to approach our neighbors not as someone with yet another
plan, but as a friend seeking their ideas, their suggestions as
to how we could become better neighbors.
I met with President Lopez Portillo in Mexico before my
inauguration and with Prime Minister Trudeau in Canada shortly
after I had taken office. We have all met several times since,
in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. I believe we have established a
relationship better than anything our three countries have ever
known before.
Today/tonight, I would like to talk to you about our other
neighbors by the sea -- the some dozen countries of the Caribbean
and Central America. [Points to map] Their well-being and
security are also vital to us. I am happy to say that Mexico,
Canada and Venezuela have joined with us in the search for ways
to help these countries realize their potential.
We, the peoples of the Americas, have much more in common
than geographical proximity. For over 400 years our peoples have
shared the dangers and dreams-of building a new world. From
colonialism to nationhood our common quest has been for freedom.
Most of our forebears came to this hemisphere seeking a
better life for themselves. They came in search of opportunity
and, yes, in search of God. Virtually all -- descendants of the
land and immigrants alike -- have had to fight for independence.
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Having gained it, they had to fight to retain it. There T~==2
times when we even fought each other.
Gradually, however, the nations of this hemisphere developed
a set of common principles and institutions that provided the
basis for mutual protection. Some 20 years ago President of the
U.S. John F. Kennedy caught the essence of our unique mission
when he said it was up to the New World, "to demonstrate that
man's unsatisfied aspirations for economic progress and social
justice can best be achieved by free men working within a
framework of democratic institutions."
In the commitment to freedom and independence, the peoples
of this hemisphere are one. In this profound sense, we are all
Americans. Our principles are rooted in self-government and
non-intervention. We believe in the rule of law. We know that a
nation cannot be liberated when its people are deprived of
liberty. we know that a state.cannot be free when its
independence is subordinated to a foreign power. And we know
that a government cannot be democratic if it refuses to submit to
the test of a free election.
We have not always lived up to these ideals. All of us at
one time or another in our history have been politically weak,
economically backward, socially unjust or unable to solve our
problems through peaceful means. My own country, too, has
suffered internal strife including a tragic civil war. We have
known economic misery, and once tolerated racial and social
injustice. And, yes, at times we have behaved arrogantly and
impatiently toward our neighbors. These experiences have left
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their scars but they also help us today to identify with he
struggle for nationhood, for political and economic development
that still goes on in many of the Caribbean Basin and other
countries of this hemisphere.
Out of the crucible of our common past, the Americas have
emerged as more equal and more understanding partners. Our
hemisphere has an unlimited potential for economic development
and human fulfillment. We have a combined population of more
than 600 million people; our continents and our islands boast
vast reservoirs of food and raw materials; and the markets of
the Americas have already produced the highest standard of living
among the advanced as well as the developing countries of the
world. The example we could offer to the world would not only
discourage foes; it would project like a beacon of hope to all
of the oppressed and impoverished nations of the world. We are
the New World, a world of sovereign and independent states that
today stand shoulder to shoulder with a common respect for one
another and a greater tolerance of one another's shortcomings.
But there are also new dangers.
A new kind of colonialism
stalks the world today and threatens our independence. It is
brutal and totalitarian. It is not of our hemisphere but it
threatens our hemisphere and has established footholds on
American soil for the expansion of its colonialist ambitions.
Our lesson is indelible from our common past. We need
each other. None of us can be strong if any of us is weak. The
key to our future security lies in solidarity. Our vital
interests are at stake. /Points to Central American section of
maE7 The Panama Canal is but one short, 50-mile span out of
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thousands of miles of Caribbean sea lanes through which pass
imports and exports for all the American nations North, South
and Central. Threats to the economic well-being and security
of any of our neighbors in this area are threats to us all.
I spoke a moment ago of the program four of our=nations
have already started for the Caribbean area. The people of
this area seek and have the right to shape their own national
identities; to improve their economic lot and to develop their
political institutions to suit their own unique social and
historical needs. They ask nothing more than what other people
of the Americas have sought throughout their history.
At the moment, however, these countries are under economic
siege. in 1977, one barrel of oil was worth 5 pounds of coffee
or 155 pounds of sugar. To-buy that same barrel of oil today,
these small countries must provide five times as much coffee
(nearly 26 pounds) or almost twice as much sugar (283 pounds).
This economic disaster is consuming our neighbors' money
reserves and credit, forcing thousands of people to leave for the
United States, often illegally, and shaking even the most
established democracies. And economic disaster has provided a
fresh opening to the enemies of freedom, national independence
and peaceful development.
We have taken the time to consult closely with other
governments in the region, both sponsors and beneficiaries, to
ask them what they need and what they think will work. And we
have labored long to develop a program that integrates trade,
aid and investment -- a program that represents a long-term
commitment to the countries of the Caribbean Basin and Central
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America to make use of the magic of the market of the Amer:_--:
to earn their own way toward self-sustaining growth.
At the Cancun Summit last October, I presented a fresh
view of development which stressed more than aid and government
intervention. As I pointed out then, nearly all of the countries
that-have succeeded in their development over the past 30 years
have done so on the strength of market-oriented policies and
vigorous participation in the international economy.
The program we have proposed puts these principles into
practice. It is an integrated program that helps our neighbors
help themselves, a program that will create conditions under
which creativity, private entrepreneurship and self-help can
flourish. Aid is a part of this program because our neighbors
requested it and because it is needed to put many of them in a
starting position from which they can begin to earn their own
way. But, make no mistake, this aid will encourage private
sector activities, not displace them. Private investment, U.S.,
indigenous and foreign, is at the heart of this program.
The centerpiece of the program I am sending to the-Congress
is a free trade area for all Caribbean Basin products exported
to the United States. To create a climate.for new investments
and production, this authority will be extended for 12 years.
Investors will be able to move into the Caribbean knowing that
their products will receive duty free treatment not on a year-
to-year basis but for at least the lifetime of their investments.
The only exception to the free trade area will be textile
and apparel products; these products are governed by other
international agreements. However, we will make sure that our
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;m mediate neighbors have more liberal quota arrangements,
even if some of our other suppliers have to have less.
This proposal is as unprecedented as today's crisis in
the Caribbean. Never before has the United States offered a
preferential trading arrangement to any region. This commitment
makes unmistakably.. clear our determination to help our neighbors
grow strong.
.We?:propose to negotiate free trade country-by-country. Its
impact will develop'slowly. The economies we seek to help are
small. Even as they grow, all the protections now available to
U.S. industry and labor against disruptive imports will remains.
And growth in the Caribbean will benefit everyone, with American
exports finding new markets.
Secondly, to further attract investment, I am asking the
Congress to extend the 10 percent domestic investment tax credit
to the Caribbean Basin. We also stand ready to negotiate
bilateral investment treaties with interested Basin countries.
Third, I am asking for an emergency Fiscal Year 1982
appropriation of $300 million to assist the private sector in
countries where foreign exchange is particularly scarce. Additionally,
I am asking the Congress for a significant increase in the 1983
foreign assistance budget for the region. Much of this aid
will be concentrated on the private sector. These steps will
help foster the entrepreneurial dynamism necessary to take
advantage of the trade and investment portions of the program.
Fourth, we will offer technical assistance and training
to assist the indigenous private sector in the Basin countries
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We will not, however, follow Cuba's totalitarian lead
attempting to resolve human problems by brute force. Less than
10 percent of the assistance I am proposing to the Congress
for the Caribbean Basin is for military purposes. The
thrust of our assistance is to help our neighbors realize
freedom, justice, and economic progress.
I know sometimes words like 'totalitarian' seem abstract and
remote to us. The crimes of communist regimes sometimes
overwhelm and desensitize us because of the sheer size of the
numbers.
Moreover, many of our countrymen have.never personally
experienced the lash of a dictatorship. But perhaps the
experience of one man can illuminate for all of us what this
struggle is about.
Armando Valladares is a Cuban and a poet. He has been in
Castro's prisons for 20 years. His crime: writing poetry that
did not celebrate the good life of Castro's Cuba. Since 1974, he
has been in a wheelchair, a victim of polyneuritis, a disease
brought about as a result of a deliberately deficient diet. But
Armando Valladares is undaunted. He continues to write his
poetry, smuggling poems out of prison. - As a result, the Cuban
authorities are intimidating his family. In a recent letter,
Valladares wrote: "A high official of the Political Police has
notified me that my family's departure from the country is
entirely in my hands; that for it to happen I have to write a
letter denying my friends among intellectuals and poets abroad;
that I have to forbid everyone, including newspapers and
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organizations, to speak or write about me and my literary works
or even mention my name; and that I must disavow or deny every
thing they have spoken in defending my situation. To write that
letter would be to commit moral and spiritual suicide. I shall
never write it!"
Most recently, Valladares has written: "It is common
knowledge that medical treatment is used in communist countries
for coercion or elimination of unwanted prisoners. My own is
just one case among many. I am being held incommunicado. In
addition to all this, I have not seen the sun in six mcnths.
Conditions are such that it will be even more difficult to stay
alive."
Make no mistake; in the face of such tyranny, security for
the countries of the Caribbean. and Central American area is not
an end in itself, but a means to an end. It is a means toward
building representative and responsive institutions, toward
strengthening pluralism and free private institutions --
churches, free trade unions, and an independent press. It is a
means to nurturing the basic human rights freedom's. foes would
stamp out. In the Caribbean Basin, we above all seek to support
those values and principles that shape the proud heritage of this
hemisphere. We strongly support the Central American Democratic
Community formed last January by Costa Rica, Honduras and
El Salvador. And we will work closely with other concerned
democracies inside and outside the area to preserve and enhance
our common democratic values.
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We seek-to exclude no one. Some, however, exclude
themselves. Let them return to the traditions and common values
of this hemisphere and we will welcome them.
As I have talked these problems over with friends and fellow
citizens in private life, I am often asked "why bother?" Why
should the problems.of Central America or the Caribbean concern
us? Why should we try to help? I tell them we must help. because
the people of the Caribbean Basin and Central America are in a
fundamental sense fellow Americans. Freedom is our common
destiny. And freedom cannot survive if our neighbors live in
misery and oppression. In short, we must do it'because we are
doing it for each other.
Our neighbors' call for help is addressed to us all: here
in this country to the Administration, to the Congress, and to
millions of Americans from Miami to Chicago, from New York to
Los Angeles. This is not Washington's problem; it is the problem
of all the people of this great land. The refugees in our midst
are a vivid reminder of the closeness of this problem to all of
us. The call is also addressed to all the other Americas -- the
great and sovereign republics of North, Central and South
America.
she Western Hemisphere does not belong to any one of us --
we belong to the Western Hemisphere. We are brothers
.historically as well as geographically.
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As I said earlier, I am aware that the United States has
pursued Good Neighbor Policies in the past. These policies did
some good. But they are inadequate for today, and may have also
had a false premise -- that my country would somehow always have
the final word. I believe the U.S. has rid itself of the
illusion that it can impose or, require. I believe the United
States is now ready to go beyond being a good neighbor to being a
true friend and brother in a community that belongs to others as
much'as to us. That, not guns, is the ultimate key to peace and
security for us all.
Look at the map again. [Points to map] We have to ask
ourselves why has it taken so long for us to realize the
God-given opportunity that is ours? These two great land masses
are rich in virtually everything we need. Together, our more
than 600 million people can develop what is undeveloped, can
eliminate want and poverty, can show the world that our many
nations can live in peace, each with its own customs, language
and culture, sharing a love for freedom and a determination to
resist outside ideologies that would take us back to colonialism.
We return to a common vision. The Americas are a special
place, not just markings on the-map. Americans throughout this
hemisphere have expressed this aspiration nobly and often. But
as an American and as a citizen of these United States, I can't
help but believe that Thomas Jefferson once expressed it best.
Jefferson was a profoundly optimistic man who believed this
country, and all of the Americas, were destined to be the beacon
light for all mankind.
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In some of the last words he wrote, less than 2 weeks before
his death, Jefferson said: "All eyes are opened, or opening, to
the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science
has already laid open to every view the palpable truth that the
mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs,
nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them
legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for
others."
'Jefferson's hope for freedom is our aspiration -- and our
determination as well. Let us start now to build a Western
Hemisphere accord based on that hope and reaching from pole to
pole of what we proudly call the New World.
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