CZECHOSLOVAK MEDIA TREATMENT OF THE UNITED STATES DURING 1975

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September 19, 1975
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25X1 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 :CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 FOIAB3B1 Approved FOREIGN BROADCAST INFORMATION SERVICE SPECIAL MEMORANDUM CZECHOSLOVAK UTA TREATPUIT O THE UNITED STATES DURING 1975 19 SEPTEMBER 1975 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 CONFIDENTIAL This propaganda analysis report is based exclusively on material carried in foreign broadcast and press media. It is pub- lished by FBIS without coordination with other U.S. Government components. CONFIDENTIAL 7'~----Tpprove "+ oea 2005/08/02: CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 25X1 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 CONL'J.DEN'CIAL F R7.S S1.'ECT:l.T, 11fSD101(A1;DiJti 19 SEPTEMBER 1975 ,CZECHOSLOVAK' P?fl)IA TRE!ITP' I'fT OF THE UNITE) STATES DURING 1975 CONTENTS I. General Observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 II. Background of Czechoslovak Anti-U.S. Resentment . . . . . . . . 2 III. Comparison of Czechoslovak and Other East European Media . . . . 3 U.S. Role in World War II . . . 3 Contrasting Treatment of U.S. Domestic Problems . . . . . . . 4 East European Treatment of U.S. Foreign Policy . . . . . . . . 4 APPENDIX: Examples of Czechoslovak Media Treatment of the United States I. U.S. World War TI Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Al II. U.S. Domestic Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A5 III. U.S. Foreign. Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . All Mayaguer. Incident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . All CIA Role in Foreign Affairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A13 U.S. Military Budget . ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A14 Secretary of Defense Schlesinger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A15 President Ford's Visit to Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A16 Portugal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A17 New York TIMES Editorial of 12 August . . . . . . . . . . . A19 Helicopter Incidents of 15 and 17 August . . . . . . . . . . A19 giroshima Anniversary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A22 USSR Grain Purchases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A22 Implicit Criticism of Sinai Accord . . . . . . . . . . . . . A24 NOTE: The Appendix to this memorandum is unclassified and may be used as such w7 hen detached from the body of the text. Approved For Release 2005/OS/02- -CIA-RDP86T006O8R00020012gp01-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 CONFIDLNJJ1AL l'BIS SPEC]:Ata M M ~~c,~.~;?~1;?r 19 SLPiEM?3E1: 1975 CZECHOSLOVAK MEDIA TIfi TIEWF OF TIME UNITED STATES DURI1 1975 I. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS The Czechoslovak media have displayed a markedly more pronounced anti- American bias in 1975 than the media of other East European countries. The most extreme phases of Prague's anti-U.S. stance '.his year occurred in connection with the 30th anniversary of V-E Day and Czechoslovak liberation, the Mayaguez incident-off Cambodia in May, and the 15 and 17 August incidents in which East German refugees were airlifted out of Czechoslovak territory to West Germany by a helicopter piloted by an American citizen, Barry Meeker. There was also a steady diet of negative material on U.S. int:i:rnal problems. The Appendix to this report contains numerous illusLrations of Czechoslovak media treatment of the United States, arranged in categories related to the U.S. role vis-a-vis Czechoslovakia `Ln World War II, U.S. domestic problems, and 1975 U.S. foreign policy issues. When dealing with U.S. leaders, the Czechoslovak media carried negative as well as positive comment on President Ford, while the other East European countries were predominantly favorable to the President. Prague's criticism of U.S. foreign policy was harshest in connection with statements by Defense Secretary Schlesirger, who was viewed generally in the same category as John Foster Dulles as an advocate of cold war policies. Secretary of State Kissinger was subjected to at least one notably harsh attack by Prague, for his remarks on Portugal in a 14 August speech. The Prague radio portrayed the Secretary as warning the USSR, in blunter terms than was actually the case, to refrain from supporting the Portuguese Communist Party. To a greater extent than did the media of other East European countries, U.S. foreign policy was portrayed by Prague as dominated by the Central Intellige.ice Agency, notably with regard to Portugal and Chile, and helicopter pilot Meeker was also linked with the CIA. Czechoslovak comment on revelations of alleged U.S. domestic surveillance activities by the CIA and FBI, like other East European comment, drew heavily on material appearing in the U.S. press on this subject and was not notably harsher than that by the other countries. Uniquely hostile Czechoslovak comment, however, was directed at U.S. crime, recession, unemployment, and other domestic problems, and a notably vitriolic article in RUDE PRAVO on 5 June assailed allegedly oppressive treatment of Puerto Rico by the United States. Czechoslovakia belatedly acknowledged, in a 28 August Bratislava PRAVDA article, that charges had appeared in the U.S. press regarding an "alleged anti-American campaign" being carried on in the Czechoslovak press, radio, and TV. Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R00020012q001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 CONF1DENTIAf. FBIS SI'L;CIA., 19 SEPTEMBER J-975 Prague's anti-U.S. campaign has been waged largely in press and broad- cast continent, while the top Czechoslovak leaders, notably CPCZ Genera Secretary and CSSR President Gustav Husak, have remained generally moderate in their references to the United States. In his Prague liberation anniversary rally speech on 7 May, attended also by the Ci'SU's Kirilenko, IIusak avoided any mention of the United States. After lavishing praise on the Soviet role in Czechoslovakia's liberation, he added briefly that "we thank the other fraternal nations, other allies and combatants against fascism who participated in" Czechoslovakia's liberation. On the issue of the August helicopter incursions, Husak manifested both anger and restraint: After noting in a 30 August speech that the American pilot had gained his experience in the "dirty" Vietnam war, the CSSR president stopped short of directly blaming the United States by stressing that the pilot was merely "irresponsible." In contrast to Husak's relative restraint, a 22 August RUDE PRAVO article strongly implied official U.S. backing for Meeker, charging that he had been paid for the flights "just as" he had been paid for "his blooey service in the Vietnam slaughter." Meeker was directly linked to the CIA in Prague radio commentaries on 19 August and 9 September. At an 8 September Prague dinner honoring visiting Syrian President al-Asad, Husak's strong implicit endorsement of al-Asad's rejection of the Egyptian-Israeli Sinai disengagement accord was registered without any direct mention of the accord, Secretary Kissinger, or the United States. II, BACKGROUND OF CZECHOSLOVAK ANTI--U.S. RESENTMENT The notably harsh treatment of the United States by Czechoslovak media during 1975 occurred against a background of increasing influence in the Husak regime from hardliners such as Vasil Bilak since the November 1974 CPCZ plenum. That plenum took place in the immediate wake of an incident involving a letter sent by deposed leader Alexander Dubcek in October to the Czechoslovak Federal Assembly, detailing repressive policies against Dubcek and other 1968 liberals by the Husak regime after Husak succeeded Dubcek as party leader in April 1969. Submission of the letter, and its publication in the United States and other Western countries, strengthened the hardliners' pressure on Husak to retreat from his moderate stance and led to hie harsh public denunciation, in a 16 April 1975 speech, of Dubcek, Smrkovsky, and other liberals, as well as of "the West" and "bourgeois reaction" for publishing their documents. The climate of resentment in Prague over what was construed as Western support for the deposed 1968 liberals was focused more directly on the CONFIDENTIAL Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 CONFfl)ENTIAL FB]:S SPECIAL MI NOEANDUM 19 SEPTEMBER 1975 United States following the adoption of the Long-Gravel amendment to the trade bill passed by the U.S. Congress in December, which imposed a condition on implemantation of the 5 July .1974 Prague- Washington agreement on return of Czechoslovak gold and the granting of most-favored-nation status--a condition requiring Prague to pay 100 cents on the dollar to settle U.S. r.itizens' property claims against Czechoslovakia. Evidently sensitive to economic practicalities, Prague's direct comment on the "discriminatory" amendment was relatively muted, stressing regret over the action and voicing hope that realism would ultimately prevail in U.S. trade policy toward the socialist countries. An authoritative article by "Vaclav Dolezal" (thought to be a pseudonym for the CPCZ Presidium) in the 2 January RUDE PRAVO in fact included an appeal to the United States to return the gold on the strength of the World War II alliance between the two countries. The fact of the U.S.-Czechoslovak alliance in World War II had been largely ignored by the post-April 1969 Husak regime, in contrast to the line of the liberal Dubcek leadership in 1968, which seemed to be that, while the USSR deserved prime credit for the 1945 liberation, the positive U.S. role could not be passed o'rer in silence. Prague's policy of silence on the U.S. role shifted to one of open hostility in 1975, when resentment over the U.S. trade bill and alleged U.S. support for Czechoslovak dissidents was overtly channeled instead into harsh attacks on the U.S. World War II role in connection with the 30th anniversary of V-E Day and the Czechoslovak liberation on 9 May, on U.S. foreign policy, and on domestic conditions in the United States. III. COMPARISON OF CZECHOSLOVAK AND OTHER EAST EUROPEAN MEDIA U.S. ROLE IN Czechoslovakia is the only Warsaw Pact country in WORLD WAR II whose liberation U.S. forces, as well as the Soviet army, played a significant role. In contrast with Prague's attacks last spring on the U.S. role, the East German media merely left unmentioned the fact that U.S. forces had advanced into what is now CDR territory at the end of the war. Prague, on the other hand, not only failed to give the U.S. forces credit but actively assailed U.S. bombing of Czechoslovak cities and its military strategy in the country as being aimed at destroying the economic base of the country and preventing its joining the socialist camp. Prague's failure to include any counterbalancing credit for U.S. forces and its assignment of sole credit to the Soviet army for the country's liberation was objected to t., Yugoslavia, in a bitter media altercation during the latter part of April and early May. The 14 May issue of TRIBUNA, the hardlining CPCZ weekly for ideology and politics, broadened the attack to include the U.S. bombing of Dresden, now in the GDR, and Hamburg and Schweinfurt, now in the FRG, as well as Czechoslovak cities. Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 ccn i I1:1:1Q'I'!!~1, FBIS SI'??(;I.AI, M61,19!?AANi).f!-! 19 ShI T1LMBEIt 197 By contrast, the Clt's NEUES DEUTSC1LAND commemorated only briefly the 30th anniversary of the bombing of Dresden by U.S. and British planes on 13-14 February 1945. Also, this event, whose anniversary had been a staple on East: German calendars in past years, disappeared from the calendar issued by NEUES DEUTSCHLAND for 1975. Other East European countries gave effusive praise to the Soviet army for the World War II victory but, unlike Prague, refrained from indictments of the U.S. role. Brerlmev, in his 30th V-L Day anniversary speech in Moscow on 8 May, favorably mentioned the United States as a member of the anti-Hitler coalition. CONTRASTING TREATMENT OF The Czechoslovak media's critical treat- U.S. DOMESTIC PROBLEMS ment of U.S. internal. problems in 1975 has been more intensive than that by the other East European countries in frequency of items, number of original commentaries, and in the harsh tone of the commentaries. Whereas the media of Czechoslovakia's Warsaw Pact allies have merely continued in 1975 their past practice of publicizing, on a fairly regular basis, brief items on U.S. internal problems based on U.S. sources, Prague shifted in May from preoccupation with the U.S. World War II role to an intensive preoccupation with U.S. domestic conditions. Thus, RUDL PRAVO since early May has carried an average of three reports or commentaries daily on such U.S. topics as growing social. tension, rising unemployment and youth delinquency, inflation, economic stagnation, child labor, increased suicide rate, and racial discrimination. These topics were treated even more voluminously in the weekly TR1BUNA, which carried major articles on the U.S. internal scene, most of them covering a full page or more. By contrast, the Polish v'edia refrained almost entirely from negative comment on U.S. internal problems, with the exception of a Broniarek article in TRYBTJNA LUDU on 18 June--almost six'weeks prior to President Ford's visit to Poland--scoring American industry for profiteering at the expense of the environment. The only other East European country to approach Czechoslovakia in its frequency of treatment of U.S. domestic problems was East Germany. However, whereas Czechoslovak media used U.S. news reports as the basis for snide commentaries of their own, the GDR media generally confined themselves to reporting the U.S. news material in a straightforward manner in brief daily press items and longer press reports once or twice a week. Thus far in 1975 there have been no original commentaries in NEUES DEUTSCHLAND attacking the United States on the basis of its internal problems. EAST EUROPEAN TREATMENT Critical treatment by Prague of U.S. foreign OF U.S. FOREIGN POLICY policy under the leadership of the Ford Administration during 1975 has contrasted with such treatment by the media of other East European ccuntries, which was more in tune with the climate of past-West detente. Thus, in coverage of President Ford's 9 June press conference, the Prague 3 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 C;~)N1.?IDI:U9.IAL FBJ.s sl').,C1.AL NFIIo)ZANi)W4 1.9 Sl 1'T!:MJu 'it 1975 radio focused exclusively on. the President's "refusal" to make public the portion of the Rockefeller Commission report dealing with alleged CIA plans for assassination of foreign political figures. A Hungarian TV report, on the other hand, noted at the outset that "President Ford struck a note of emphatic optimism" about prospects for the European Security Conference (CSCE) summit in Helsinki and about U.S.-Soviet relations, and it dealt only secondarily with the issue of alleged CIA assassination plans, pointing out that they occurred "before the Ford Administration." Budapest's positive emphasis was in line with the treatment given the press conference by TASS. Prague's criticism of Defense Secretary Schlesinger was more extreme and frequent than that by the other East European countries. Prague assailed the defense secretary for his "threats against the oil-producing countries, his "pressure" on the Western allies to increase their contributions to NATO,' and his "shocking" statement in May about first use of nuclear weapons in an East-West conflict. The Prague radio on 2 September also assailed Mr. Schlesinger's "dangerous war game" in connection with his just concluded Far East tour. In contrast to continued Prague attacks on the United States in regard to Vietnam, an article on Vietnam in the 3-4 May issue of the Polish party daily TRYBUNA LUDU, for example, refrained from attacks on the U.S. role. Polish media, at the opposite end of the spectrum from Czechoslovak media, carried preponderantly favorable comment on the United States, especially in connection with President Ford's visit to Warsaw, en route to Helsinki, in late July. Of the maverick countries--Yugoslavia and Romania--which also hosted visits by Mr. Ford, the Belgrade media's treatment of U.S. foreign policy was largely favorable, while the Bucharest media generally refrained from any comment on the United States except for warmly favorable treatment of Mr. Ford's visit and the granting of most- favored-nation status to Romania. East German media this year have continued the moderate posture shown toward the United States since the establishment of U.S.-GDR diplomatic relations on 4 September 1974. The hard line which the GDR took on the issue of freer access across borders in the wake of the Helsinki CSCE conference merely stressed that antagonism still existed between the socialist and capitalist systems, rather than attacking the United States directly. In the wake of the August helicopter incidents involving the airlifting of East German nationals to the FRG, the GDR media--unlike Prague--refrained from identifying the pilot as an American. The Bulgarian media were restrainedly favorable toward the United States regarding detente and ties with the USSR, alluding only to the "contradictory" aspect of President Ford's support for detente as opposed to the Mayaguez incident and his support for NATO. CONFIDENTIAL 1 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-F2DP86TOU608R00020012(5001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02: CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 CONFTDENTaAL Ff318 SPECIAL NI:Ii'JIANIMM :1.9 SEPTEMBER 1975 In an exception to the Prague media's generally hostile stance toward Washington, RUDE PRAVO on 9 September evinced a willingness to reserve judgment regarding the U.S. role at the NBFR talks in Vienna: Citing a statement by President Ford in a CBS interview, to the effect that the West was shifting to new positions, the paper conceded grudgingly that "if Ford's statement should mean that the negotiations in Vienna will start moving, it would be a welcome thing." On the operations of the U.S.-financed Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, Czechoslovak comment has been more frequent than that of the other. East European countries, in reaction to the alleged role of liberal Czechoslovak emigres in these operaticiis. 25X1 Approved For Release 2005/08/02: CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 APPI-34I:TX TO FBIS SP'ECIAl, MENORh~7UUM 19 SEPTEMBER 19'5 - A 1 - A P P E N D I X EXAMPLES OF CZECHOSLOVAK MEDIA TREATMENT OF THE UNITED STATES The following excerpts are typical. examples of the treatment of the United States its Czechoslovak media during 1975, in the areas of the U.S. role in the 1945 liberation of Czechoslovakia, U.S. domestic problems, and U.S. foreign policy issues. I. U.S. WORLD WAR II ROLE Prague RUDE PRAVO, 14 February, page 3 [Article: 'American Bombs Against Prague"] American bombs destroyei 93 buildings, heavily damaged 190 and did light damage to 1,545. These are the facts as described in the World Almanac. Other sources list slightly different data. However, there is one point on which they all. agree?--this air raid destroyed no military or industrial objectives . . . . Why, then, was the raid carried out' Various explanations appeared right away. According to one version, the airmen mistook Prague for Dresden; according to another, they intended to destroy the railroad station and the bridges but missed their targets. However, as the following raid, which took place on 25 March and destroyed factories in eastern Prague clearly demonstrated, those airmen knew how to aim. The March bombings could have had no effect on the outcome of the ware--only on the postwar restoration of the country. Prague LIDOVA DEMOKRACIE, 14 February, page 3 [Article: "Nonsensical Blow Against Prague"] The March air raid against the Vysocany factories was dictated by a perverse type of logic, similar to that which had sent Anglo-American airmen to bomb Gottwaldov and Plzen: Czechoslovakia had been liberated by the Soviet armies, and raids against industrial objectives in the Czech lands during the last weeks of the war were the result of the thinking of those Western . statesmen who, at the time that the anti-fascist war was coming to a close, were looking for an opportunity to paralyze the industrial potential of countries which were about to enter into friendly relations with the Soviet Union. And thus, those Anglo-American air raids against Czechoslovakia thirty years ago really were forerunners of the long-lasting cold war which followed. Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 A1'P1;1dI1X TO FL'I S SI'i CIAL 111.: i('I:ANT)UM 19 SEPTrd1BE1: 1.975 Prague TRACE, 14 February, page 5 [Article: "Treacherous Bombs Over Prague"] At the very end of World War 11, the Anglo-American air force carried out a raid against Liben and Vysocany on 25 March which heavily damaged the factories of key Prague industries. Let us also remember the very last big air raid of World War T.T. in Europe: This was the 25 April. 1945 raid against Plzen in which approximattAy 500 heavy American bombers turned the famous Skoda Works into a heap of rubble. Also the raids against Zlin, Kralupy, Most and other Czecloslovak cities could definitely no longer be regarded as part of the Anglo-American air force military strategy, nor as its mistakes. In all these cases it was not a military purpose which was the primary issue--after all, Hitler's Germany was already facing certain defeat at that time. These raids were part of a postwar strategy of Liie Western powers, directed against the Czechoslovak Republic because it was embarking can a road toward progressive democratic development. Prague PRACE, 25 March, page 5 [Article: "Attack Against the Economic Strength of New Czechoslovnik.ia"] . . . There arises the question as to why the American air force carried out these raids at a time--only several weeks (and in the case of Plzen only several days) before the end of the war--when they could no longer have had any military purpose. it is true that after the loss of theic industrial basins in the Ruhr and it Upper Silesia the Nazis depended exclusively on the industry concentrated on Czechoslovak territory, but by March and Apri-' 1945 the dissolution of Hitler's "thousand-year" Reich 1'3d progressed so far that there could not be the least doubt about its imminent fall. The real purpose of the boml 'ng of industrial. targets in Czechoslovakia in the concluding phase of the war cannot be found in purel;r military considerations but lies primarily in political ones. The spring months of 1945 were no longer just a period during which Anglo- American forces struck decisive blows against the Western front--it was already the opening phase in the development of a new political strategy to be employed in postwar Europe. Part and parcel of these politico- strategic combinations was?wt_houc any doubt also the bombing. of certain key factories in Czechoslov,.:kia by the American air force: By carrying out the destructive raids in the last hours of the war, the monopolistic circles of the West intended to break up the strength of the liberated Czechoslovak Republic, make it dependent, economically and politically, and thus obstruct its development toward progressive democracy. Approved For Release 20Q5/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200126001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 nrl'la~,r 1.;; TO Flil'S SJ'ECJ:A1 11Etii Alfl)l.U.1 19 SP;PTI91;L;R 19,1i5 Prague RUDE PRAVO, 12 April., page 4 "Vladimir Briclitti article: "Fight for a New Czechoslovakia"] The revolutionary organs of the people operating in parts of West Bohemia :tad difficulty in overcoming the efforts of the American command which tried to prevent our people from reaping the fruits of victory to whicl-, they had so greatly contributed. In West Bohemia the fight for liberation culminated at the beginning of May 1945. On 5 May, the revolutionary uprising of the people toppled the fascist power in Plzen The Plzen uprising, like uprisings everywhere else, was based on the results of the struggle against fascism in which the key role was played by the Soviet Union . . . . But unlike other are~is where the people's power was supported by the arrival of the Red Army . . . , the Plzen movement was confronted by obstacles everywhere American units set fooL. In fact the attitude of the Americans caused considerable difficulties for the revolutionary movement of the people and its organs. The American army was a tool of imperialism whose interests ran counter to the interests of our workers. And thus, in addition to the military actions carried out by the Americans at the very end of the war (bombing of the Skoda Works, destruction of the railroad system, and other unnecessary damage caused by air raids), there was other activity designed to obstruct reconstruction of the national economy and its development. The most important, however, were the measures directed against the revolutionary power. For example, in Plzen, the Americans proscribed the activity of the revolutionary national committee and the publication of its paper. Moreover, Plzen was no exception in this respect; the same happened throughout West Bohemia. What this meant was that imperialism was mounting a counterattack, the purpose of which was to stop the revolutionary process which was the legitimate culmination of the systematic anti-fascist fight in our country. Today, 30 years after May 1945, we can really rejoice in the fact that these imperialist plans were thwarted and that even West Bohemia-- thanks to the liberating role of the Soviet army--eientually developed, along with the rest of the republic, toward progressive democracy and socialism. Prague TRIBUNA, 16 April, page 2 [Article: "We Stand for the Truth"] During the war; the Americans gave us only minimal help. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, signed the Agreement for Mutual Aid and Postwar Cooperation with us (on 12 Dece'nber 1943), supported our resistance movement with materiel, as well as men, and treated us as equals. In Approved `Four Release'2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86TO060'8R000200120001-7 I Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 AI'1'1 N )17 TO FBIS SPECIAL MUMC,14ANDTjr: 1.9 SEPTI;Mlil:lt. 1.975 contrast, the American: bombed our l.avgost industrial factories in ti..t spring months of 1.945 (and especially in April)--at. a time when those factories were of no further use to the Nazis. Their reason: to undermine our postwar potential. In territory liberated by the Americans, they established the position of. District Executive Officer (okresni hejtman) and dissoived the then nascent national committees--in contravention of the decision of the Czechoslovak government and against the joint decision of all Czechoslovak political parties. What can we add to that? The legal.ly-recognized government was suddenly unrecognized, the [Soviet-sponsored] Kosice resolution ignored, the established national committee simply waved aside and the principal district function given to an offic{.al without regard to his past. [In trying to ascribe a more favorable role to the Americans, the 1968 reformers had only one aim:] . . . to distort reality . . . . No one need be surprised that we, for our part, have also put a stop to such lies and made it impossible for their disseminators to speak. For we support only the truth, not the lie. Prague RUDE PRAVO, 22 April, page 3 [Zdenek Novak article: "People Were Asking: Why?"] The months of. April and May 1945 were the culmination of the battle against Hitler fascism and at the same time a start of the building of a new, free, socialist society in our country. Already then, imperialism revealed its true face as far as our country was concerned and demonstrated its attitude toward the road on which our people were embarking. Covered by a mask of transparent hypocrisy, it had given us a cruel lesson in its never-changing political strategy. That was the real reason for the bombings of the Skoda Works on 17 and 25 April 1945. We shall never forget it! Prague RUDE PRAVO, 23 April, page 1 [Article: "Preparations for the Prague Operation"] In view of the fact that since 17 April 1945 U.S. Army troops were standing on the western border of Czechoslovakia, it became necessary to delineate the operational areas of the two allied armies on Czechoslovak territory and to determine their line of contact. On 24 April the chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Army, General Antonov, in a letter informed General Eisenhower of the Soviet Army's intention to clear the right bank of the. Vltava valley of enemies. Eisenhower agreed with the Soviet proposal. In the last days of April the contact line between the Approved-F-or-Release 2005/08/02-!-C]A-RDP86T00608R000200:120001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 APP'l',NDI:Y. '1'0 Flil:S SPECIAL Mi iORANUUft 19 SEP7'EMll1:R 1.975 Soviet and U.S. armies was fixed by a Karlovy Vary-Plzen-Ceske Budujovicn_ line. On 1 and 2 May the supreme command of the Soviet Army gave directives to the First, Second and Fourth Ukrainian Front on carrying out the Prague operation. On 30 April. W. Churchill wrote a letter to U.S. President Truman asking that the U.S. troops should occupy the largest possible pant of Bohemia, including Prague. It was obviously under this influence that Eisenhower. announced to the Soviet command on 4 May that -should the situation demand it, the U.S. troops, which on that day had crossed the borders of Boheiala, would advance as far as the Vltava and Elbe rivers. In view of the fact that such an American advance would have greatly complicated the prepared Soviet Army operation, the Soviet supreme command asked Eisenhower to comply with the agreed procedure. Prague RUDE PRAVO, 13 May, page 7 [Dusan Rovensky commentary: "Historical Lessons"] Before February 1948 Czechoslovak reaction distorted the ue class role of the American Army in the final. stages of World 1.- II. As it demonstrated particularly in western Bohemia, the American Army served the clearcut class aims of the bourgeoisie. We know examples of American military bodies obstruct:Lng the activity of the national committees which were established in accord with the Kosice Government Program. They obstructed Czechoslovak citizens in the latters' efforts to go to the assistance of the Prague uprising and it is also a fact that under the patronage of American military commanders the bureaucratic structure of the pre-Munich bourgeois republic was set up in places. These political forces, to whom the Soviet Union's victory in World War II and the historical role of the Soviet Army in liberating the subjugated nations is a thorn in the flesh, tried to misuse the anniversary of the end of the World War in Europe toward clouding the fact that the May days of 1945 signified not only the defeat of Nazism, the defeat of Hitlerite Germany, but also a strong blow against inter- national imperialism in general. H. U.S. DOMESTIC PROBLEMS Prague RUDE PRAVO, 9 May, page 4 [Editorial comment: "Two Kinds of Views"] The American economic journal BUSINESS WEEK has published a chart giving the income of the 15 best-paid managers in the U.S. during the past year. They are headed by the president of the Revlon Company, M. Bergerac, Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 APPEND] X TO FIil:S SPECIAL MI;NO RANDUM 1.9 Sl?]'TLMBER 1975 whose yearly income is of iicial.ly admitted by him) amounted to 1.595 million dollars. Even the last man on this list had;in income last year which amounted to more than half a million dollars. The magazine adds that the income of these men has risen "generally in relation" to the increase in prices. At the same time American authorities released the latest data on unemployment in the country. Out of the total of 84,100,000 working Americans, 8,900,000 were out of work in April which is 0.2 percent more than in March. This is the highest figure since 34 years ago at which time the. United States found it difficult to recoup from a previous economic depression. A. Greenspan, consultant to President Ford, is of the opinion that certain stabilization should occur in the coining quarter, and that the official unemployment figure, which stands at present around 7.5 million persons, should start to decrease. However, American workers find it hard to believe such predictions. There have been quite a few of these predictions in recent years and all of them have somehow disappeared from public view. For otherwise it would be necessary for the economists to invent some kind of an official justification for the deepening crisis and the lengthening lines in front of the employment agencies. Prague RUDE PRAVO, 15 May, page 6 [Milos Krejci Washington dispatch: "What Cannot Be Denied"] I have talked to an American woman trade unionist. She told me: "My factory is in a very conservative town, in Vermont. Our people were totally unemployed as far back as 2 years ago. Then an agreement with the USSR was signed and the factory received orders. The workers were saying: Now we have our jobs hack. And the Soviet Union, no matter whether we agree with its policies or not, is giving us work. Thousands of workers returned to the factory. Now they are very interested in what is happening, not only in the Soviet Union but in all the socialist countries. There are leaflets and publications which talk about trade with them. In essence it all comes to this: It means work for the American people. And the more advanced workers, moreover, also ask how is It possible that those are socialist countries which are providing the work, and how is it that in those countries industry and everything is being expanded while here we have unemployment?" Prague TRIBUNA, 21 May, page 3 [(G.H.) article: "Two Worlds"] The first December week of last year was the worst so far for the inhabitants of the American city of Detroit. At that time, 60,000 workers were dismissed at once. In all, 20 factories, most of them automobile Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 APPENDIX TO FB]:S SPECIAL NJ* ORANI,UM 19 S1:111YEM11)il . 1.9 / 5 factories, closed their gates. The reason? In their warehouses, 1,700,000 cars are waiting in vain for customers. Today, 280,000 Detroit inhabitants are out of work, which means almost 15 percent. The hardest hit are the black Americans. Among them, the unemployment figure is 30 percent, which is soon expected to rise to 40 percent. As stated in the Western press, 3.00,000 Detroit inhabitants go to sleep hungry every night, In front of the employment office crowds are forming as early as 5 A.M., 3 hours before the arrival. of the staff. Very few of those who stand long hours in front of the building on Connor Road have any chance of succeeding. And if they do not need them at the employment office, then they do not need them anywhere. The only thing to do is to wait, live from clay to day, and hope for better times. Better times, however, are not coming. In September of last year. Henry Ford II tried to calm down tens of thousands of workers by saying that Detroit would again see prosperity, as soon as the consequences of the energy crisis are overcome. According to him, 1975 was supposed to be a jump-off point for the American automobile industry to a new prosperity. This prediction has not come true. The unemployed are getting more numerous . . So much has changed.. Dr. Bruce Danto is the chief of the Detroit institute for the prevention of suicide. The institute's confidential telephone line is in use now much more often than before. During the spring months of this year, on the average 1,250 potential suicides called during a 30-day period. That is a 50 percent increase over last year. The most frequent callers are young blacks. They have nothing to do, nowhere to go. Their fate interests no one. The unemployment, the fear about one's work, however, is a good thing for the monopolies. When thousands stand outside the factory gates, their shadow falls even on those who have not yet lost their jobs. These workers become more receptive to the lie that only low wages and a still higher intensity of their efforts can again revive the capitalist economy. Reality is different, however. What is reviving is primarily financial capital, with the mammoth banks in the lead. While many Detroit citizens go to sleep hungry, the banking companies of the United States are gleefully announcing that their profits have increased still more. During the first quarter of this year, as announced by M.A. Shapiro and Company, the profits of 60 U.S. commercial banks have ~ncreased,in comparison with the same period last year, by more than 20 percent. Record profits were achieved by the Chase Manhattan Bank, the third largest in the world, which secured for its stockholders for Easter a Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 APPENDIX 'c0 F13IS SPECIAL M11010 ANDUP1 19 SEP1.i:l BER 1915 net Profit of 62.3 million dollars in comparison to 36.3 million dollar;; in the first quarter of last year. Its head, Rockefeller, has really put in some effort. Such is the sysr.e;,; of the capitalist "division of labor.." Because of the economic cr.i;i.s, Dr. Bruce Danto finds it difficult to explain to thousands of Americans the senselessness of suicide. Despite his efforts he by far cannot save them all. The stockholders of American banks, however, are not interested in the desperate discussions which go on on the confidential telephone lines of Detroit, New York or San Francisco. They are only interested in profit. On th' one hand, the United States is accumulating ever greater riches; on the other hand, there is ever greater desperation and poverty. The unbridgeable difference between the capitalist world and the worker world is deepening. Prague RUDE PRAVO, 5 June, page 6 [Radomir Jungbauer article: "For the Freedom of Puerto Rico"] Among the still. dependent territories, a specific place is helrl by Puerto Rico, which in number of inhabitants has been for several decades the largest colony ia, Latin America and simultaneously also the most populous possession of the United States in the world. The United States had seized Puerto Rico in 1898 as a result of the Spanish-American war, called by Lenin the first imperialist military encounter for the redivision of the world. For a long time this island in the Caribbean with its almost 3 million inhabitants had been a classic colony. On U.S. initiative, a new. law was enacted in 1952 (in the Uni`.d Nations) under which Puerto Rico became a so-called freely associated state. This neocolonial maneuver was also approved the next year by the then-existing pro-American majority of the UN General Assembly. In fact, however, Puerto Rico has continued against the will of its people to be a U.S. colony. The highest legislative power in Puerto Rico belongs to the American Congress; Puerto Rico has one single representative in the House of Representatives and he only possesses an advisory vote. Puerto Ricans cannot take part in the American presidential or congressional elections. They are allowed to "elect" their governor but his jurisdiction, as well as the jurisdiction of other local organs, is limited to resolution of only some matters of internal interest. In the island the monetary and postal'system of the United States has been introduced. The field of ideology, culture and education, which is in an especially critical state, is under strong imperialist influence. Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 APPENDIX TO PHIS SI'I CIAL MEMORANDUM 19 SEPTIE;MBIs'R 1975 The island is subject to racial discrimination and under the pretext of overpopulation and excess numbers American neo-Malthus us are enforcing and carrying out mass sterilization of Puerto Rican women. Moreover, more than one third of Puerto R.cans are living at present in the United States as a result of the American policy of enforced emigration; in the U.S. they are subjected to humiliation and often prevented from returning home. The backward economy of the country is completely controlled by American monopolies, helped by local stooges. Puerto Rico is a warning example of the brutality, greed and rapacity, characteristic of American imperialism. In recent years, especially, there have been cases of blatant denial of trade unionist rights, of steady decreases of wages and an increase in unemployment, which now amounts to about 20 percent . . . . Essentially, Puerto Rico is a huge strategic North American military base, out of which imperialism had threatened Venezuela in 1958, organized a sortie into the Dominican Republic in 1965, and planned armed assaults and sabotage actions against Cuba. American nuclear, air and rocket bases, built ca some of the best agricultural soil of this island, are at the same time a threat to world peace and security. This circumstance underlines the international. import. itir_ e of the struggle for the independence of. Puerto Rico which is closely connected to the effort for maintenance of world peace. . . . The change in world balance of power and the prevalent tendencies to lessen international tension create favorable conditions for intensification of International solidarity with the struggle of the colonial and oppressed nations; this struggle is one of the most pressing problems of the contemporary world and requires an immediate solution. Prague TRIBUNA, 9 July, pages 16-17 [Article: "The New York Variant"] Advertisements intended to recruit young Americans for military training centers are apparently right when they proclaim that "in our country you must be a real man." You become convinced of this fact as soon as you enter a hotel where special notices inform guests how they s1,ould behave in case they are assaulted in their room by an armed bandit. However, assaults take place most frequently in public areas. First place in this is held by the central railway station, closely followed by platforms and trains of the subway, apartment houses and elevators in hotels, as well as in private houses. . . . Fascinating, contradictory, terrifying and shocking is the American metropolis of New York. It is a reflection of the society which has created it. It is the concentrated focal point of contradictions which Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R00020012QO01-7 ir,L~.r..4.dw.}:i.:alU. va..i `a..r~c.ra,r~...r. ?:1. fir iL ?.~1 ~ '. ., . _. Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 APPENDIX TO ]?ISIS SPECIAL MEMORANDUM 19 SE1"1IEM.BER 1.975 are plaguing the leading capitalist power. For that very reason it is an important starting point for the struggle against injustice, poverty and the dark forces which control it at present. And this struggle is growing in intensity. Prague RUDE PRAVO, 19 August, page 6 [CTK New York dispatch: "Tragedy of the Ghettos"] . . . Unfortunately, this situation [in the Watts suburb of Los Angeles] is no different from that which exists in most of the black ghettos in other American cities. The statistics are somber. These ghettos have been exceptionally hard hit by the economic slump; unemployment there, according to official. data, is twice as high as among the white Americans. But even these data give a better picture than the actual situation really is. If we take into consideration those who are employed only part-time and those who have given up and do not register as unemployed, then real unemployment in Watts amounts to almost 50 percent. Prague RUDE PRAVO, 19 August, page 6 [CTK Washington dispatch: "They Long To Return Home; Discontent of South Vietnamese Dragged Into the U.S."] "I am longing to go back home, to Vietnam, to my family which needs mey" announced Cao Van, one of the many thousands of South Vietnamese who had been dragged by force into the United States. Now he is in the American refugee camp on the island of Guam. The chairman of a subcommittee of the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress, J. Eilberg, who had recently made an inspection trip to Guam, announced that over 1,600 South Vietnamese in the refugee camps on this island are asking for repatriation. Cao Van and numerous of his compatriots had been fraudulently transported to U.S. territory through the American military base of Utapao in Thailand. The Pentagon has already been forced to admit that some South Vietnamese who had no wish to leave their country were given drugs and then dragged away by force. Approved-Fc .Release 05 O8/O2-: Gh4-RDP.86,T006O8R00020&i2OgO1?=7 . Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 APPENDIX 1'0 IBIS SPECiAI, PIl?M!1,'1!d !)lii1.9 SEPTEMBER 1,975 III. U.S. FOREIGN POLICY Ma a ,uez Incident Prague Domestic Service in Czech, 1.6 May [Editor Jan Rezac commentary] Three Cambodian patrol boats sunk, several other vessels severely, damaged, devastation following American bombing of the Cambodian airport of P.eam near the port of Kompong Som, and of course losses of human lives. This is the still incomplete balance sheet of the U.S. military operation against Cambodia. The pretext for this action was the seizure of the U.S. vessel Mayaguez in Cambodian territorial waters. A number of members of the American Congress have condemned this military intervention, for this was a violation of the law forbidding the use of U.S. armed forces in Indochina without congressional consen.t. According to a statement by Mansfield, leader of the Democratic majority, a considerable number of leading congressmen were not informed about the action that was being prepared. Was the American operation in the Gulf of Thailand so urgent that the President did not have tima to inform the Congress about it? Certainly not. Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy remarked that the Administration acted with unjustifiable haste without making full use of all diplomatic channels to settle the conflict. This raises another question. Was the United States entitled to take such an action? Here, too, the answer is the same. The vessel Mayaguez, carrying weapons, was seized in Cambodian territorial waters because, in accordance with the valid norms of international law, every state is entitled to take the necessary measures if its sovereignty and peace are being threatened. This was the case with regard to the Mayaguez. The reason for the barbaric attack on Cambodian territory must; however, be sought somewhere else. It reveals that the United States intends to continue to interfere in the internal affairs of Cambodia and other states in Southeast Asia. This is a curious approach to the promised reassessment of U.S. foreign policy, proclaimed by President Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger. This is why bombs dropped on Cambodia have generated real indignation throughout the world. Even London's the GUAi2DIAN, which decidedly does not rank among the progressive newspapers, described the U.S. military operation near the Cambodian coast. as precipitate and senseless. Approved For Release 2005/08/02 CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120901-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 APPENDIX TO FPI.S SPECIAL MrThORAN1)I1M 19 SEPTEM131i,P. 19:s Prague in English to Africa, 16 May [Unattributed commentary] Arid here now is a short comment by a Radio Prague news analyst. discussing a recent incident which took place off the Cambodian coast. United States President Gerald Ford, says our news analyst, has made a very concise statement to the effect that the United States merchant vessel Mayaguez, seized by the Cambodian Navy_on Monday, had been returned yesterday morning and that its crew had been released. True, the Mayaguez was seized by a Cambodian naval vessel. But it is equally true that this alleged United States merchant vessel carried weapons and that it was seized not off New York, but in Cambodian territorial waters. In its own territorial waters any country may take the necessary steps if its Fecurity and peace are in jeopardy. All the more so with regard to the fact that only recently 5 years of a United States dirty war, interference and aggression have ended in Cambodia. Although the United States had caused the conflict, it was the United States which felt hurt, blamed Cambodia for a hostile act, failed to make use of diplomatic channels and on orders of its President launched a military operation . . And so this deplorable act of violence has again shown to the world and to United States. citizens as well that even with the process of easing international tension being in progress, ruling United States circles do not refrain from military force, especially if their imperialist interests are threatened. ,3ratislava PRAVDA, 17 May, page 7 [Pavol Cipka commentary: "Foreign Policy Note: A Clear Act of Aggression."] The intimidation by the advent of ships of the 7th Fleet was not all--bombs were dropped in the Gulf of Siam, Cambodian patrol boats were hit and sunk-- the American military machinery used the fresh "opportunity" to demonstrate what it could do. In order not to let things stop with ships they also bombed Ream airport in the vicinity of the port of Kompong Som, that is, sovereign Cambodian territory. In a word, it was an act of aggression with all its appurtenances. The shocked world is rightly asking itself whether these are to be the conclusions drawn by the United States from its defeat in Indochina. Only a few days ago both American President Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger called on the American public not to look back any more, to let the past be that is the failure in Indochina), but rather to look toward the future and concentrate on the forthcoming tasks of the United States. This was just talk, while the concrete acts show the practice of a policy of strength, the application of "limited armed intervention" from which it is no more than one step toward a real conflict, with results which cannot be in any way limited. In view of the Approved ForRelease 2005/08/02-:-CIA=RDP86T00608R000200120S01-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 APPENDIX TO FB is S SPECIAL 111" ORANDUti 19 SEPTEMBER 1975 threat posed to peace, the classification into small or big aggressions no longer holds good. Aggression always constitutes a great threat, particularly in an area where peace is just a few clays old. Concerning the heart of the matter, the general view is that the whole: matter could and should have been settled by peaceful means. Words and not bombs should have been dropped. Thus by "one stroke" the White House not only committed aggression against Cambodia but, in the framework of this operation, violated the sovereignty of neighboring Thailand, where, without the approval of the Thai Government, it used the military base of U Tapao. The sharp protest of the Thai Government and the wave of anti-Americanism in the country will not be the only results of this step. The response in the world and in Asia in particular shows that many countries, including Japan, consider this act at the least an inappropriate attempt of the United States to regain lost prestige, an attempt which will just precipitate the decision of certain countries to revise their orientation toward the United States. They have learned again that when the United States asserts its power interests it is not particular about the means; on the contrary, it prefers force and in this connection does not pay any regard to the state sovereignty of other countries, CIA Role in Voreign Affairs Prague Domestic Service in Czech, 10 June [Miloslav Ambr;is dispatch] At his press conference yesterday, President Ford refused to release for publication 80 pages from the 299-page report of the special investigating commission headed. by Vice President Rockefeller on the illegal activities of the well-known espionage agency CIA. It is this very part which forms the core of the report on which the Rockefeller commission worked a full 5 months. Yet, according to President lord, it did not manage to complete its investigation of alleged plans for assassination of certain statesmen unacceptable to the United States. President Ford contends that there is no intention of hushing up the matter, and special committees of the Senate and House of Representatives will continue the investigation. Ford said literally that the aforementioned 80 pages contained incomplete studies and dealt with exceptionally sensitive matters. This is why, allegedly, he decided not to allow their publication. According to some reports, what is described are plans for the assassination of such statesmen as Fidel Castro, Rafael Trujillo, Patrice Lumumba and others. Washington POST commentator Joseph Kraft reflects on the deeper consequences of the affair. He says that in the days of the cold war CIA was in its element and regarded it as quite natural to use such weapons against the threat of communism. CIA has not yet been able to adapt itself to a policy of detente in international relations. Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 APPENDIX TO IBIS SPECIAL Mlf'MOXANM1vI 19 SEPTEMW:R 1.975 Prague in English to Africa, 11 June Discussing the CIA scandal in the United States a Radio Prague commentator said today that the shattered image of American democracy has further been damaged by recent disclosures of the Washington POST, the INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE and TIME magazine about the United States intelligence agency CIA frequently resorting to murder as a means of diplomacy and former United States presidents knowing about this. CIA, continued our commentator, also had a plan for the liquidation of the Cuban premier, Fidel Castro. U.S. President Gerald Ford's press conference on Monday was to provide an answer to the question whether a green light will be given to the publication of all these facts. For the time being President Ford refused to release 80 pages from a 300-page report of a special committee headed by Vice President Rockefeller investigating these facts. The reason given by President Ford was that investigations had not yet been closed and that these passages touch especially sensitive questions. But there exists no excuse for CIA vlots with the blessings of former U.S. presidents. In connection with the 80 pages withheld out of the Rockefeller report, the American press said that, for example, the CIA is to blame for the murder of Dominican President Trujillo and of the Congolese president Patrice Lumumba. It is hardly surprising that such dirty methods applied in U.S. foreign policy are causing widespread indignation in the United States and in the world at large. Let us quote from the Washington POST: To play a part in the murder of a leader of a state with which our country is not at war, wrote the Washington POST, is an abject confession of both moral and political bankruptcy. Far from being the mark of a great power, such acts are a demonstration of impotency, the more so when they are directed, as they' apparently were, against the leaders of small, weak nations. U.S. Military Budget Prague CTK in English, 1 July The new American military budget is no contribution to international detente, or to the deepening of mutual confidence of the United States and the Soviet Union, the Slovak Communist Party daily PRAVDA writes today. The imperialists should realize that the times of Truman and Dulles have passed aid any return to the era of "cold war" would mean for the United States total disruption of exi.sting values. The widei.? context of the present difficulties of America's policy in the world confirusthis fact. In the present international. situation, in which the balance of forces is steadily developing to the benefit of socialism, peace and progress, the American imperialists naturally cannot build on a direct thermonuclear Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 APPENDIX TO FBIS SPECIAL MEtIORANDUPI 19 SEPTEMBER 1975 confrontation with the Soviet Union, as they are well. aware of its aftermath. However, this does not mean that the U.S. has completely given up the nuclear war conception. On the contrary, it is doing all to rehabilitate it, PRAVDA says. Secretary of: befense Schles9.n er Prague Domestic Service in Czech/Slovak, 29 June [Stanislav Hruska commentaryl As U.S. President Ford and Secretary of State Kissing: traveled around Europe, Pentagon chief Schlesinger made: two very significant statements. He said that despite the great risk, the United States is prepared to strike first in an atomic attack. The second statement i~a closely connected with the first: It concerns Schlesinger's refusal to allow a reduction in the 7,200 U.S. tactical atomic weapons positioned in Western Europe. It is logical that someone who intends to use nuclear arms will not transport them back to arsenals in the United States. Like Eastern Europe, the countries of Southeast Asia and the Middle East were not spared the Pentagon's threeat_s in the past. At the s:Ime time, of course, Schlesinger cannot be considered a man who does not knuw what he is doing. He has studied nuclear strategy and is well aware of the fact that the first explosion of what is known as a mininuclear weapon can lead to fast escalation and world catastrophe. So what is it that leads him to his hazardous reflections bordering on lunacy? At present, it is becoming cheaper and more effective for imperialism to produce nuclear missiles than to equip, for example, a military air force with a sufficient number of up-to-date fighter bombers. Under the influence of this vision, Schlesinger, as well as the NATO generals, succumb to the temptation to increase the nuclear strength of their armies by nuclear armaments. As long as the Pentagon produces atomic weapons, while fully aware that they can be used, it also begins to threaten the socialist countries with them. Schlesinger's threats are not merely threats, but also a shocking attack on the treaties concluded so far between the Soviet Union and the United States whose meaning has been and is to limit, as far as possible, the danger of a nuclear catastrophe. Prague in English to Africa, 2 September [Unattributed commentary] The United States defense secretary, James Schlesinger, returned to Washington yesterday after a week-long tour of the capitals of America's two Far Eastern allies, South Korea and Japan. Though formally the Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 APP1;J4D'iX 1'0 FI3IS SI11;CIAL M%MUTANDUM 19 SEPTEMBER 1975 tour was described as consultations with the leaders of the two countries on so-called military cooperation, it is no secret to anyone that President Ford's Pentagon chief was acting as the principal spokesman and exponent of America's current Asian policy in a show of strength in the Far East in particular and in the attempt to boost the morale of United States militor.y allies with renewed commitments to more intensive and massive war preparations in the area. After all, it was primarily Mr. Schlesinger who lately frequently uttered various bellicose statements, including threats to use nuclear weapons against the People's Democratic Republic of Korea and the carrying out of the completely bankrupt concept of containment invented by the late John Foster Dulles and his pre:enit-day disciples in Washington. Hence, unsurprisingly, apart from reiterating the continued presence of 42,000 United States troops, Mr. Schlesinger promised full support to the Seoul dictator's $3 billion war preparation plan, plus an undisclosed loan to buy American arms together with further United States investments and technological. aid. In Tokyo, in pursuance of the Forcl-Miki agreement last month the talks centered on Japan's rearmament program, including increasod str.engtli of the Japanese Self-Defense Toros and a contingency military plan within the framework of the Japanese-U.S. military alliance. In other words, the Miki government was assigned a new role to strengthen American positions which have been affected by the Indochina debacle. Thus, Mr. Schlesinger's dangerous war, game and tension building showed that the American administration has failed to draw any lesson from its increasing isolation in post-Vietnam Asia, and can think of nothing more realistic than a return to its militaristic dogmas of the past. Such a policy not only runs counter to the very spirit of international detente, as well as to the aspirations of Asian nations for peace and security, but all the more it is at total variance with the view of the large majority of the American people, who see the Vietnam lesson as evidence of the failure of the United States posture as a world policeman, which is exactly what Mr. Schlesinger intended to revive once again during his Far Eastern tour. President Ford's Visit to Spain Prague CTK in English, 23 May The American military presence in Spain may become the cause of grave political situations, says _[Bratislava] PRACA today commenting on the planned visit to Spain of U.S. President Gerald Ford who will seek Franco's consent for continued use of military bases in Spain by the United States. Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001 -7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 A', PJ.-.N U1.,. '1'f1 Hil'S S1'TSCTAI. 1.9 SJsf'TJ 3hlt 1975 It is impossible to take seriously tlit. "argument" that the NATO bases in Spain are to provide protect-ion against the "Soviet threat." At the present time of general relaxation of tension, a process initiated precisely by the Soviet Union, tais claim lacks logic. "On the contrary, foreign bases in Spain jeopardize the security of nations in the Western part of the Mediterranean . . .; they are a serious threat to the revolution in Portugal a:: well a;; the political movement in Spain itself. Thus if we leave out of account the interests of NATO, the American bases on Spm.ifsh territory arc in fact needed only by Franco and his lackeys," says PRACA. Portugal Prague RUDE PRAVO, 14 August, page 7 fVaclav Dolezal commentary: "The Final. Act C,! J-Iclsinki and Portugal: The Time of Tests"] In Helsinki the final act was signed by 35 top state representatives. With their signatures they confirmed their political will to take part in its implementations Loc.) . But the ink has sc ~2 cely had time to dry ell the signatures on the document and things have alrady started happening which 'can be called peculiar, to say the least . . . . It is an unusual situation. From the viewpoint of international reaction the Portuguese affair calls for an intervention in internal affairs. But how should one organize things so that "the wolf would eat 'and the goat remain whole"? The regulation says that regardless of their mutual relations, "the participating states will refrain from any direct or indirect, individual. or collective intervention in the domestic or foreign affairs falling under the intrastate jurisdiction of another participating state . . . ." This regulation is not palatable, or scarcely palatable for the NATO wolves, armed to their teeth. President Ford also has problems. Only recently he quite openly complained in the U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT: "It is a tragic thing that the American CIA intelligence service cannot organize secret operations in Portugal." Even if we can justly doubt that the CIA agents would be mere spectators in the developments in this country, we must recognize two objective circumstances which make the CIA's secret operations difficult: first, the revelations about CIA participation in preparing the counterrevolutionary and fascist putsch in Chile, which have concentrated attention on the CIA's "beneficial" activity; and second, the fact that in Helsinki President Ford signed his name under the text which states, among other things, that the Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608ROP0200120001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 APPEND] X TO FBIS SPECIAL M1110RANDUM 19 SEPTEMIilsll 1975 participating countries "will refrain, apart: from other things, from directly or indirectly supporting, the terrorist activity or subversive or other activity aimed at forcibly overt'. hrowing the regime of another participating stute." Prague in English to Africa, 15 August. [uinattri.buted commentary The U.S. Secretary of State, 1)r. Kissinger, in his speech in Alabama warned the Soviet Union that, we quote, its support for the minority Communist Party in Portugal is incompatible with the principles of the Helsinki declaration on European security and cooperation. Unquote. Such an allegation is,, mildly said, ignorant and absolutely unjustifiable because the Soviet Union strictly meets its international commitments. Dr. Kissinger's speech is most likely aimed at diverting the world public's attention from the direct CIA interference in the Portuguese internal development. This interference is proved. Let us recall what General Otelo Carvalho, the chief of COPCON, said in October 1974 after. the abortive counterrevolutionary -.oup in Portugal. He blamed agents of the CIA for their active support for General Spi.nol.a and other coup leaders. There is a proverb saying "a thief cries catch the thief" and this is the case with various allegations about the socialist countries' interfe -nice in Portugal's internal affairs. Prague in English to Africa, 26 August Developments in Portugal are widely discussed by the dailies and other information media. A Prague radio commentator today examined activities of the United States intelligence agency, CIA, in present-day Portugal, citing American sources which admit that CIA agents are active in Portugal. The CIA, emphasized our commentator, is working under the guise of alleged democracy and liberalism. In addition to acts of terror, the sphere of economy offers itself as a tool for subversive activity. CIA activities in Portugal are in absolute contravention of the Helsinki act, especially of its passages calling for noninterference in the internal affairs of other countries. The CIA activities may lead towards catastrophe. This is corroborated by the CIA-backed coup in Chile and the current reign of terror of the Chilean military junta. Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 ANPEIDTX '1U FB1.S SVE'G 'AT, 1.9 SEP'1'1?MLEIt .1.975 Now York TTI-JES Xdl.torh-il of 1.2 August. Prague RUDE PRAVO, 20 August, page 6 [Zden(,.k lloreni article in Helsinki conference] Thc:3e days we have liter.. l.ly felt the breath of cold weir when the halter New York TIMES published on its pages an article containing slanderous attacks against the head of our state, an article saturated with hat;-ed for our country, its social system, the policy of detente (that is, of the easing of tension) and, within this framework, also hatred toward the endeavors to achieve an American--Cs.cchoslovak normalization. Let us merely remark in passing that it is claimed that General Eisenhower is being called "Hitler's collaborator" in Czechoslovakia, and so forth. Thepamphlet [the New York T1MESeditor.ial] mentioned al-.love is simply overflowing with such lies and insults, as though they were reprinted from the fascist organ of the john Birch Society. lleli.c911ter Incidr nts of 15 nnd IV Au if-,t Prague Domestic Service in Czech, 20 August [Commentary by station reporter] Our state border in the Lipno recreation area has been the scene of a piratical attack, which by its preparation and course was reminiscent of James Bond-type spy horror stories. During last week there were two incursions by an American-made armed helicopter aimed at illegally carrying off across our state border to the West a number of citizens of a third state. How was it possible for such an act to ;,e repeatedly committed just when the whole world had heaved a sigh of relief with the good news from Helsinki? Who is behind this a-t which has caused public concern not only in this country but throughout the world? Much can be deduced from the statement of one of the organizers of the operation who was arrested by our security officers. He has given us significant fats and continues to make extensive statements about his activities. A number of details on the background of the whole operation have also been disclosed--perhaps unwittingly, according to the version published by the Western press--by the helicopter's pilot, Barry Meeker,.a former captain of special units of the United States Army Air Force, who today is allegedly undergoing an operation in Traunstein Hospital in the FRG for wounds inflicted by bullets which allegedly hit him. All this is, of course, their version. Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 APPEND , EX TO 111BIS SPECIAL loll;^iouAND(111 1.9 SFL'11MLFR 1975 Let us look at the facts. This is not the first act of this kind carried out by Meeker. If we arc to believe reports of Western agencies that Barry Meeker was the pilot of the pirate helicopter, then vieknow that after a short spell with Random House, New York publishers, a man of this name joined the U.:1. Army special commandos and from 1.969 to 1.970 served in Vietnam as a captain fighting against the Vietnamese people. In 1.970 he was detailed to a special head- quarters of the U.S. Air Force in Ludwigsburg, West Germany and we may be sure this war not clone without a purpose. lie was a man already holding a number of awards for special tasks, and his records at the CIA center in Langley spoke very eloquently for him. Prague RU1)1: PRAVO, 22 August, page 2 [ZPK article: "Killer from Vietnam at Lipno"] I know them from Vietnam. They took off from the Ai-tu Airbase not far from the city of Quang Tri. They had many other concrete runway:, throughout the South, but the Ai-tu Airbase primarily served helicopters. Tons of death-dealing cargo were brought here and distributed, and the helicopters with appropriate quantities took off over rice paddies, over the. siirfnt:cs of rivers and searched stealthily over the juni r1e treetops. Everything that. came intc, their sights they slaughtered with their onboard cannons. They murdered innocent people on sight without mercy and in cold blood. Here I saw the tortured, devastated land they left behind, full to the brim with tears. One of these murderers was Barry Meeker. When he left Vietnam in 1970, he was not yet 30 years old. This son of a New York businessman received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University--what an irony in view of the prestige of this school--before he entered the U.S. Army. In the army, he underwent training in the "Special Forces" and with the rank of captain, as well as being a helicopter pilot, commanded a helicopter unit. All this was not given free in Vietnam. Let us return once again to the book by Mark Lane, "Conversations With Americans." It is full of blood and the monstrous bestiality of the American soldier. Barry Meeker also spilled this blood, for he murdered. In 1970, he appeared in Ludwigsburg not far from Stuttgart in the FRC with an American army air unit. When he left the army about 2 years later, he ,settled in Munich as a helicopter pilot. When he landed his repainted helicopter belonging to a "certain civilian company" -specializi.g in "rescue work"--to transport several persons from the Lipno Lake area to the FRG, he was prepared to shoot his way out just as he had done for months over Vietnam's rice paddies. He also Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 APPENDIX 7'0 i'i IS Sil.'1-;C' aAI, 1.9 1975 fired from the cockpit of the West German helicopter, without regard Lc the fact that he Wright kill. His second landing did not come off with impunity. Ile returned to Traunsteiu in the FRG via Austrian territory with shattered bones in his arm and leg. Suddenly; no one from the other side of the border wants to admit to this act of air piracy and the. grossest violation of state sovereignty. Suddenly, everything, according to them, was of course solely the work of one person, a killer trained for Vietnam. In Traunstein hospital he allegedly revealed that lie had received 1.0,000 West German marks for this piracy, just as he used to receive money for his bloody service in the Vietnam slaughter. Prague TVORBA, 27 August, page 2 [Article: "Threat to Good Neighborly Relations; Pirate Action on Lipno Lake") The pilot of the helicopter was Barry Meeker, an American citizen, veteran of the Vietnam war and member of special units of the U.S. Army, a man with a college education who had left his job in a New York publishing firm, Random House, in order to exchange his work of handling books for the murdering of Vietnamese people. For his criminal activity in Victnaii he was many times decorated and became a captain of the special units of the U.S. Army. He became an experienced killer and a specialist in helicopter assault actions. That was an excellent recommendation for the CIA and its activities in Europe. Probably ". that reason, Meeker was transferred in 1970 to the special units of e U.S. Army in Ludwigsburg, West Germany and in 1972 he "retired." However, he stayed in West Germany, lived in Munich and worked for a certain "private company" whose occupation was to "save people with the help of helicopters." Whom he saved and where and how he was saving them could be the subject of another entire study, but for the moment let us content ourselves with the statement that within one year he had received, according to his own admission, $4,000 or 10,000 West German marks. Prague Domestic Service in Czech, 9 September Officials of the investigation commission of the CSSR Federal Interior Ministry this morning briefed Czechoslovak newsmen on the conclusion of investigations into the gross violation of Czechoslovak airspace and sovereignty by U.S. pilot Barry Meeker and his associates. The findings of the investigation clearly prove that Barry Meeker, and his associates were employed by an organization headed by a certain K. Mierendorf and operating on the territory of the FRG and West Berlin. Approved For Release 2005/08/02: CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 i'lij:s ;JJ1;c lA1, AlENOl;ANllUM 19 Sl;l''J'1;111;EF 1.975 This organization, which was set up in 1971, had the task of organi.z i ns; the illegal tr;~nsport and abduction of parsons from the soc:i_ali.Ft 't:at'os to the Federal Republic of Germany. At first it nbu:.ed :i.nternati.onr.nl haulage transport. Later, it forged travel documents of the socia.lic,L states. Finally, it concent.rated on :illegal flights to the socialist states using small aircraft and helicopters. It is iuter.esting to note that all activities by the Micrendorf organization, just as those arranged by a number of similar gangs, were regularly eval.uatec1 by the U.S. CIA. All 'of Nier.endorf's agents were ecluj.pped with firearms that they were to use again:;t citizens of socialist states in the event of attempts to detain them on socialist territory. Thus i?leclccer.'s firing on our citizens was no coincidence. Hiroshima Ann:1versar _ Bratislava PRAVDA, 28 August, page 3 [11. Kosina article on 30th Hiroshima anniversary] Several days ago the progressive press throughout the world carried trany different articles, features and reflections in connection with the 30th anniversary of the dropping of atomic bomb, on thn. Japan_+~-e ci..ti.es of. Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The mass communications media in Czechoslovakia carried them too. Our PRAVDA has also commemorated this shocking anniversary. This has considerably irritated certain bourgeois ideologists. And thus it was not. only the American press that suddenly carried extensive articles about alleged anti-American propaganda in the Czechoslovak press, radio and television. This allegedly anti- American campaign is being simultaneously connected with the recently signed documents of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, that was held in Helsinki. Some of these propagandists regard information about the Hiroshima tragedy as r violation of the signed agreements. What a nonsensical paradox. But other aspects exist also. The ideologists of psychological war count above all on influencing the young generation. They assume that it is less informed about what actually happened in 1945 in Hiroshima. And so they look for arguments to prove that dropping atomic bombs was one of the most humane feats of World War II. USSR Grain Purchases Prague RUDE PRAVO, 5 September, page 6 [Nibos Krejci Washington dispatch: "A New Anti-Soviet Lie"] Reactionary forces in the United States have made use of the well-known fact that the American inflation rate has now reached approximately 14 percent and that prices are soaring for attempts to accuse the Soviet Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 /1l.'J'J M)IX '1'r) 11.1 BiS SPL;CIL I., NISIJu UANDUA1 1.9 51.9 7 5 Union of causing this brerikdown of the United Staten' own economic system. It: is known that the United States is the largest producer and exporter of grain in the world. 1 lowuver, as far hack as the 7.972-1973 fiscal year, when the Soviet Union made large grain purchases in the United States, well-known anti-Soviet politicians like Senator Jackson and reactionary trade union bosses like George ?leany began to shout about the price increases which this would produce, thus misleading the American public. Although the Soviet purchases are smaller than they were 2 years ago, this year Neany even went so far as to declare--together with the International Longshoremen's Association, which is part of his Aiieri.can Federation of Labor--a boycott of the ships loading grain for the Soviet. Union on the east coast. On the other hand, Harry Bridges, president of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union on the west coast, declared that his trade union will be glad to load cargo for the So,iieL Union. "This will be a great thing for our country, for our. workers on the west coast," Br-idgas said, and T hope it will. benefit: the cause of peace and the socialist state--the Soviet Union." 'feany claimed that the boycott is in the interests of American consumers. But even the bourgeois press has proved him to be a liar. For instance the Washington POST pointed out in its editorial that Meany's trade unions and the shipbuilding industry have been working hand in hand for some time to get contracts for the largest possible consignments for ships belonging to American companies. The crux of the matter is that American shipowners have the highest charges in the world and nobody wants to pay them who need not do so. The purpose of Meany's patriotism is to force the government to push through the largest possible participation of American shipowners in the grain contracts. The other aspect of the great lie about the influence of. Soviet purcnases on inflation and prices in the United States is illustrated by a few facts. First, the United States has a tradition of exporting grain and is also exporting one-third of its total production. Like every state, the United States also depends on exports, in the interests of its own trade and payments balance and in the interests of its farmers, who are unambiguously in favor of the sales to the Soviet Union, which they esteem as a good customer. But neither Mr. Jackson, Mr. Meany, nor the other people like them shouted that the high prices in the United States had been caused by exports to Western Europe or to Japan. pr.2ue Zr_e_e ase 2005/08/02 : A-RDP86T00608R000200120001-7 Approved For Release 2005/08/02 : CIA-RDP86T00608R00U20042I000J1 7 FBVi.s SI'FX:J.A1, l1h;NoitAl'I UPI 1.9 11, E' 1975 By Lh^ way, what would they want American farmers to do? Should they h-arvec;t the peal! rued than burn i.r:, as wan done before the war? Not: long ac;co--t&.::Levi.ci.On showed t:h?t.s and newspapers wrote about this only last year--Anler.i.r_rin farmers slaughtered their calves because they could not pet r.eas,onable hricen for the cattle from food concerns that dictate price:;. I remember about three years ago articles In the local press about how certain farming cities stored grain on the streets because they had no more storage space for it. Soviet purchases were. a heaven-sent opportunity for them. Imj licit Criticism of Sinai Accord Prague RUDE PRAVO, 9 September, pages 1-2. [1Iusak toast at 8 September Prague dinner for Syrian President al-Asad] The achievement of a lasting and just peace in the Middle East demands Israel's unconditional withdrawal from all. Arab territories occup:i.ed in 1.967, full respect and the safeguarding of the Palestinian pecple's national rights, including their right to have. their ownl state, as well. as the safeguarding of the security and sovereignty of all slates in this area. We fully identify ourselves with the standpoint of the Syrian Arab Republic and the other progressive Arab countries, namely that the settlement of the situation in the Middle East demands the comprehensive solution of all its basic questions. Solution of individual problems alone, and only in the interests of certain. states, cannot bring the peace which is so desirable for this area. On the contrary, it can merely put off the final just solution. We are also convinced that anti-imperialist unity is imperative for the successful completion of the just struggle of the Arab states; this is twice as valid now, when the forces of world imperialism and Zionism are trying to disintegrate the unity of the Arab national liberation movement. On this occasion I would like to stress that the close cooperation of the Arab countries with the countries of the socialist community, and particularly with the USSR, is in the interests of the successful completion of the Arab countries' just struggle. 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