ADMIRAL STANSFIELD TURNER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000200920006-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 25, 2008
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: October 25, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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RADIO N REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 656-4068
FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF
The Joel Spivak Show
DATE October 25, 1983 10:10 A.M. CITY Washington, D.C.
JOEL SPIVAK: . . . I just saw the door open and the DCI
just walked in. As a matter of fact, he's walking right into the
studio.
How are you, Admiral Turner?
I didn't think -- Stansfield Turner just walked in here.
I didn't think I'd be talking to you again.
ADMIRAL STANSFIELD TURNER: Different subject than
yesterday.
SPIVAK: This fellow on the phone, Admiral, his brother
is down there at that St. George's medical college.
And what'd you say, Mark, you talked to him last night?
MAN: Right. I spoke to him last night. There's still
communication there. I called this morning, also, and I wasn't
able to get through to his particular line. But they still have
communication with the island itself.
SPIVAK: And he said his brother told him that the
Grenadian military was anticipating something like this, so they
were already digging trenches around the island. I guess they
must have figured something was going to come, Admiral.
ADMIRAL TURNER: Well, the word got out yesterday that
we had sent forces down there in preparation. So I'm sure they
were concerned about that. I can't imagine that the Grenadian
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military is going to give our military much of a go for it at
this stage. It sounds like we've got the airfield secured. It's
only 500 miles from there to Puerto Rico, where we have a major
set of bases. So once we get a good airfield, we ought to be
able to bring in predominant force very, very quickly.
SPIVAK: I just -- the other night on Nightline I saw
Ted Koppel talking with -- I think it was the Prime Minister of
Barbados. I hope I'm not misspeaking myself. But it was the
prime minister of one of the larger islands down there, who said
that it was his feeling that most of the people who live in that
region were kind of hoping that we would do this.
Do you have any feeling about that at all, Admiral?
ADMIRAL TURNER: Really, I don't. Though listening to
the Prime Minister of Dominica talking with the President on
television this morning, it sounds as though those countries were
quite aligned.
Now, almost all of those countries involved in this are
former British colonies. They do have a sort of cohesiveness
because of their Anglophile background. And I think it's quite
possible that Grenada was a real aberration in that part of the
world and was not liked or accepted by the rest of them.
I wonder if your listener here can tell us, you know,
why his brother was in Grenada and why are there so many Ameri-
cans going to medical school down there, and such forth?
MAN: Well, the reason there are a lot of medical
students there is, obviously, the AMA has a tight control over
admissions here. And there are a lot of people who are qualified
and competent medical students who were unable to get into
American medical schools because of restrictive policies at
medical school. And so what has happened is there's been a
growth in recent years of a lot of foreign medical schools, not
only in the Caribbean -- Grenada's been rated as one of the best
medical schools in that area, and it's operated by Americans. In
fact, it's operated out of Long Island in New York.
SPIVAK: Very interesting.
MAN: And all the teachers there are Americans. So
usually what will happen is it'll be doctors who either teach at
American medical schools and go down there in the winter.
SPIVAK: Listen, Mark. Keep your radio on. Thanks for
calling.
MAN: If I can ask the General a question.
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SPIVAK: He's an Admiral. All right.
ADMIRAL TURNER: I've been promoted, anyway.
MAN: My question is, after, you know, the regime, the
present regime is stabilized, whatever, the country is stabil-
ized, what do you think is going to happen in that country? I
mean now don't we have a situation on our hands where -- how long
are we going to have to keep troops in there? What are we going
to do, politically, down there once we stabilize the military
situation? What do you think will happen?
ADMIRAL TURNER: I think we have a very touch situation
here. If the people of Grenada really don't want to change
governments, would rather have either the Bishop government back
-- not him personally, 'cause he's dead; but his regime -- or the
regime that we've just, presumably, toppled, and that's what they
would vote for democratically, what do we do? We're in a
terrible mess.
If the people of Grenada are more like their neighbors
on Dominica and these other islands and would vote for a demo-
cratic government, and we can find that kind of leadership there,
then everything will be reasonably good after a while. We'll
restore order, we'll get the Cubans and the Soviets to leave, and
set up a new government, people will elect it, and hopefully we
can get out in a few months.
MAN: Any idea how many Soviets are down there?
ADMIRAL TURNER: I've just heard the number 600 Cubans
and a handful of Soviets.
SPIVAK: Yeah. Well, that's going to be another sticky
wicket, isn't it?
MAN: Yes, if any of them are injured.
ADMIRAL TURNER: Well, that will be. Though one hopes
this is going to be a reasonably peaceful takeover here. It
sounds like it's off to that kind of start.
SPIVAK: Admiral, from a policy standpoint --incidental-
ly, he's not a General. He's an Admiral. His name is Stansfield
Turner. And up until not too long ago, he was the head of
Central Intelligence Agency.
From a policy standpoint, in your opinion, does this
make sense for us to do something like this?
ADMIRAL TURNER: It's in line with the very strong stand
of the Reagan Administration against letting Communism, Marxism
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spread in this hemisphere. I happen to think that's a little
overstretched, myself; that Communism, Marxism isn't that big a
threat in some of these smaller countries. But I do think that
this will be generally acceptable as a policy for the United
States.
It raises one very fundamental question. A number of
years ago, Mr. Brezhnev, head of the Communist government in the
Soviet Union, declared what was called the Brezhnev Doctrine
--that is, no country would turn democratic in his orbit, in his
Eastern European orbit in particular. We, in effect, are
declaring the Brezhnev/Reagan Doctrine now, that we're not going
to let countries in this hemisphere, whether they do it through
the ballot box or through a coup, turn Communist.
It makes us a little edgy when we try to say, "Well, the
Soviets shouldn't go into Afghanistan," for instance, "in order
to protect their interests there."
SPIVAK: Well, the President was already hit this
morning with at least one question, I think asked by Helen
Thomas, which had to do with -- well, I think she asked it of
Eugenia Charles, the Prime Minister of Dominica. And the
question was, "Do you think it's right for the United States to
impose its will on another sovereign state in order to tell them
what kind of government they're supposed to have?"
ADMIRAL TURNER: Well, I think what I was trying
awkwardly to get at a minute ago is if we try to impose our will
-- that is, we insist it's a democratic government, and the
people don't really want a democratic government -- then we're
going to have a terrible time. We almost have to stay there and
run the country, or get out in somewhat disgrace.
I don't think that's likely to be the case. But it runs
a risk here: Can we find a suitable government, and can we
persuade the people that that's what they want, in order for us
to then pull out and turn it over to them?
SPIVAK: Before you walked in I was just saying I was on
Grenada several years ago. Ever been there?
ADMIRAL TURNER: No, I haven't.
SPIVAK: Well, my impression, Admiral, was that the
poverty on that island was so overwhelming that if ever there was
a place that was ripe for Marxism -- I left the island thinking
that -- it was Grenada, you know. It depressed me so. I
couldn't wait to leave.
ADMIRAL TURNER: Well, the average per capita income is
$800. That is, each person on Grenada has an income of about
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$800. Now, our listeners can think about what that means in
terms of...
ADMIRAL TURNER: That's an annual income. Yes. Not a
weekly income.
SPIVAK: Well, okay.
Admiral, thank you for stopping by. Good to see you
again.
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