THE SOVIET UNION AND CUBA HAVE ESTABLISHED AND ARE CONSOLIDATING A BEACHHEAD IN NICARAGUA AS A LAUNCHING PAD TO SUBVERT THE REST OF THE CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA, CI A DIRECTOR WILLIAM CASEY SAYS.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100670028-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2011
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: May 17, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/12 :CIA-RDP90-008068000100670028-7
ASSOCIATED PR6'ZS_
17 May 1985
WASHINGTON
The Soviet Union and Guba have established and are consolidating a
"beachhead" in Nicaragua as a launching pad to subvert the rest of Central .and
South America, GI A Director William Casey says.
The threat, according to the Central Intelligence Agency chief, is to
the Panama Canal in the short term, to Mexico in "a somewhat longer term" and
could result in a "tidal wave" of refugees to the United States.
At stake, he says, is control of the Panama Canal and, ultimately, the oil
fields of the Middle East.
Nicaragua is only one part of a "worldwide process" the Soviets have worked
successfully in other areas, he says.
"This campaign of aggressive subversion has nibbled away at friendly
govenments and our vital irate rests until today our national security is impaired
in our immediate neighborhood as well as in Europe,-Asia, Africa and Latin
America," Casey says. .
His remarks are contained in a speech scheduled for delivery Saturday to the
World Business Council in San An tanio, Texas, The Washington Times reported
today.
CIA spokeswoman Kathy Pherson would not comment today on Casey's plans but
did say the speech text printed by the Times was of a speech Casey delivered May
1 to the Metropolitan Glub of New York.
The newspaper said Casey's speech sets out the administration's view of why
Americans should consider its vital interests threatened by a Marxist government
in a small nation in Central America,
The two .primary targets of "all this carnage, this creeping imperialism" are
"the oil fields of the Middle East, which are the lifeline of the Western
Alliance, and the isthmus between North and South America," Casey says.
"Afghanistan, South Yemen, Ehtiopia, as well as Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam, and
Mozambique and Angola in southern Africa, bring Soviet power astride the sea
lanes which carry those resources to America, Europe and Japan," he says.
"capabilities to threaten the Panama Canal in the short term and Mexico in a
somewhat longer term are being developed in Nicaragua, where the Sandinista
revolution is the first successful Castroite seizure of power on the American
mainland," the director says.
The Sandinistas are "building the strongest armed forces in Central America
and becoming a center far exporting subversion to Nicaragua's neighbors," the
GIA head says.
The U.S. intelligence community, according to Casey, believes that in
Nicaragua "the Soviet Union and Guba have established and are consolidating a
beachhead, are putting hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military
equipment into it, and have begun to use it as a launching pad to carry their
style of aggressive subversion into the rest of Central America and elsewhere in
Latin America,"
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/12 :CIA-RDP90-008068000100670028-7