THIRD WORLD IS TRAMPLED AS GIANTS FIGHT FOR MORE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404490003-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: February 24, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404490003-9
ART-ICLE J~?'
..: PAGE
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By Hilary Ng'werio
NAIROBI -? The two superpowers
do not challenge each other. in Eu-
rope where the armies of the War-
saw Pact and the NATO alliance
stare down the barrels of each
other's guns. No, the challenge -
and the bloodshed - takes place in
the bushes of Africa, the deserts of
the Middle East, the jungles of South-
east Asia and the mountains of Paki-
stan, Afghanistan and Iran.?To quote
an old African adage: When two ele
a ? have used Third World surrogates in
phants fight, it is the grass that suf Third World regions like Korea, the
ters? Middle East, Indochina, Angola, the
Still, the Russians are perplexed Horn of Africa. These wars - fi-
b the Third World's reaction to
Y
their intervention in Afghanistan.
After all, only a few months earlier,
the Third World leaders praised the
Soviet Union as their natural ally.
Why, then, when the issue of Soviet
troops in Afghanistan came up in
the U.N. General Assembly did over
two-thirds of the Third World na-
tions vote with the imperialist West
for the immediate and uncondi-
tionai withdrawal of Soviet troops?
WASHINGTON STAR
24 FEBRUARY 1980
The Soviets and the Americans are
uzzled by the Third World's
both
p
evaluation of events in Iran and Af-
ghanistan because each sees the rest
of the world only in terms of its own
national interest. They have divided
the world not as it is, but as they
wish it to be, and in the process they
have misjudged the magnitude of
'the Third World's-mistrust of them
both.
That mistrust comes from three
decades of bitter experience. In the
Years-since World War II, the only
wars that have been fought between
nanced, engineered and fueled. by
the superpowers - have taken the;
lives of .pillions and have caused im-
mense suffering..
In Vietnam the United States per-
fected some of the most lethal in-
struments of destruction the world
has ever known. The Soviet's ability
to move men and materiel quickly in
combat was tested in the Ethiopia-
Somalia war of 1978 and later put to
The Kremlin's confusion about move in'Afghanistan. The Soviets
Third World responses is mirrored also successfully tested their ability
in the United States. American . to coordinate global operations
policy-makers cannot' understand when they ferried thousands of
why the Arabs are, not running into w whops fCuba rie to
their arms for protection against the tr ops from sense m of torAnhtonot helped
non-aligned Russians. Why aren't the by the blatant propaganda the super-
countries unanimously: powers pour out to justify their rape
opposed to Russia's naked aggres- of the Third World. When Russian
sion against an independent Third: troops overthrew the Afghan gov-
World nation? ernment of Hafizullah Amin and in-
stalled their-"hand-picked man;.Ba-
Hilary Ng'weno, a Kenyanf brak Karmal, ,their line was that
-who is one of Africa's most-re~ they had been invited by the Af-
spected journalists,-.is air as->, ghans in accordance with'a mutual
sociateeditor oftjtenewinter- . defense pact. The propaganda ma-
narinnal newspaper .. sun-- chinery forgot to explain whx Amin
ye will - p pea -r- - cuted b the soldiers they cle will appear. in the next"' Y Y
issue of WorldPaper. ? = invited into their country. (The Chi-
In the accompanying two. nese were more honest when they
articles, American and Soviet:-... invaded Tibet- They told the world
f
spokesmen debate, who's, to- that Tibet had always been part o
blame for the upheaval in Af- China. Although the world may have
ghanistan- Marshall Shulman,` been shocked by China's aggression,
the U.S. secretary of state, is on honesty in its stated iutenuvns.
- leave as head of Columbia Nothing remotely similar can be
Oil vs. Freedom .
The current problems in western
Asia stem from American duplicity;
in Iran. It was in the name of free-
dom that Washington encouraged or
condoned the shah in his tyrannical
ways. What did it matter that his
dreaded SAVAK detained, jailed and
tortured thousands of Iranians so
long as the oil flowed freely and the
Russians were kept at bay? While it
may be. true that the Iranians have
always had an interest in checking
Russia's southward expansion, what
motivated the Americans to give
military and economic assistance to
the shah's regime had to do with
American national interests, not Ira-
nian interests. However great the
cost to the people of Iran in freedom
and political stability. Iran was to be
the local guarantor of American ac-
cess to cheap oil from the Middle
East and Gulf countries. It is little
wonder that, even with the Russians
breathing down their necks, the Ira-
nians still hold the United States to
be the No. i Villain. And they do not
need a cantankerous old imam to
egg them on.
Then there is the economic plight
of the Third World. Year after year
Third World people see the eco-
nomic gap widening between them-
selves and the superpowers. It makes
no difference whether the relations
are between the Soviet Union and
her socialist Third World client
states or between the United States-
and her capitalist Third World client
states..Nearly two decades of trade
between Cuba and the Soviet Union
have led to the same kind of depend-
ency. for.Cuba as that between, say,
the United States and Somoza's
Nicaragua.
While the Russians shout against
imperialism, they do next to nothing
to help its victims get out of the mess
in which colonialism left them.
Countries that opt fora Marxist-
Leninist way of life do get some as-
sistance.-But as - Angola, Mozam-
bique, Somalia and Ethiopia in
Africa, Cuba in America. Syria and
Iraq in the Middle East and Cambo-
dia in Southeast-Asia have found out,
Soviet assistance is more likely to be
in tanks and armaments than in
productive or useful commodities.
America may give more economic
aid" to its Third World partners, but
Vla imtr ro p Y
y
t
cal commentator for theSoviet- the volume of the-aid is strictly
press agency Novosti. Both determined by. its own strategic
articl Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404490003-9 --
-
University's Russian Institute-., said of the activities of the super
is a olio- r powers in the Third World.)
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