EMBARRASSMENT AND BLUNDERS MARK CARTER'S ENERGY POLICY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100160037-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 14, 2007
• Sequence Number: 37
• Publication Date: February 13, 1979
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/06/14: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100160037-7
Article appeared
on page A-4
THE WASHINGTON STAR (GREEN LINE)
13 February 1979
per's E
The way thins are going, Jimmy.:
'Carter would have trouble getting f
:people to turn off the lights in the in-i
terest of conservation.
The energy crisis - if that's what it!
Js -.brings together a number of
blunders and embarrassments that
have brought him to a new crisis of
:esteem and a sharp plunge in his job
'rating, which is down to 28 percent in
the latest polls. -
Asking people to make sacrifices
.when they can see for themselves
'what the trouble is is one thing. But
asking them to be "patriotic" when
?. they suspect that they haven't been
.told the whole story is quite another.
. Skepticism about oil shortages was
'born in the wake of the 1973-74 oil
embargo, which was handled with
:good cheer and resourcefulness by
many citizens who later learned that
.the "crisis" had been greatly assisted
,in its development by oil companies'
withholding supplies in the interests
`
cf higher prices.
THAT SKEPTICLSM haunted the 18-
-Month struggle over the energy bill
the passage of which was supposed toa,
avert the kind of problems we may ort
may not face as a result of strikes in!
Iran. .
But at the heart of the problem is!
the president's totally ambivalent atti-,
tulle toward what he once called "the!
moral equivalent of war." If it is of the ii
paramount, overriding concern, why:
did- he conduct relations with two
major oil-producing countries, Iran
and Mexico, with such frivolous disre-1
gard of the effect on us?
The closing of the oilfields in Iran
was greeted with something like
ecstasy by Energy Secretary James
Schlesinger, who is ever on the watch
for something that can be taken as a
green light to rush out and tell us that
the sky is falling so he can raise oil i
prices.
During the tortuous progress of the
energy bill, he periodically conjured
up the spectre of grass growing in the
streets. When our client, the shah,
finally packed it in, Schlesinger
rushed forward to warn us of a crisis
"prospectively more serious than the,
73274 embargo."
TREASURY SECRETARY W. Mich-
ael Blumenthal tore in behind Schles-
inger to say it wasn't that bad. Schles-
inger's apocalyptic predictions had
produced a run on the dollar, making
things worse on the inflation front -
a side-effect that might have been
avoided.
The president in his press confer-
ence took a stance roughly in the mid-
dle. The situation is "not crucial now"
and we could offset the current reduc-
tion in the Iranian supply if we
heeded Schlesinger's call for volun
tary conservation.
The handling of the revolution in
Iran also was the result of divided
.counsel within the administration.
Secretary of State Cyrus Vance sug-'
gested that we not panic at the
thought of the shah's departure - at
view subsequently espoused in the se-
cret report of. George Ball - but when
it mattered, Zbigniew Brzezinski
clamored successfully for all=out,
unconditional support of the shah.
After the shah left for his winter
vacation, we endorsed the regime of !
his chosen successor, who also bit the
dust. We seem to have proceeded not , .
with a thought to energy but only to
maintaining our right to interfere, as
we always have, in the affairs of Iran.
The result is we have no friends
among those who have their fingers
on the spigot
THAT, OF COURSE, leads us-to
another current embarrassment, the
CIA and the performance of Carter's
hand-picked director, his Annapolis
classmate, Stansfield Turner. The CIA,1
drawing on its incestuous relation-
ship with the shah's secret police,
SAVAK, gave the White House badf
dope - not to worry, they kept saying,(.
as millions marched in the streets. I
We have become-accustomed oven
recent years to hearing of the botch
the CIA made of things it was not sup-.
posed be doing. Iran provides the I
first instance of its inability to do the!
one thing it is clearly supposed to do,
which is collect information on;,
STAT
which rational foreign-policy deci-j
sions can be made. " -
No intellic ence shortfall has pro-
duced the crisis with Mexico. Here
the failure has been one of common {
sense. jf
The discovery of oil and gas re-
serves next door has been treated by c
Schlesinger as a calamity. He has
given it a wetback's welcome. He has
practically told us we would not want
our homes heated or our cars run by
stuff from a neighbor that had been
vulgar enough to nationalize-its treas-
ure.
WHEN THE MEXICANS came up
here last year to make a deal he in- C -
sulted them. When they came back to '
try again, he refused to see them.
First he told us that their supplies
were too expensive. Then he said they
were too cheap and might create
havoc among our own producers.
The result of his advance work has
been to unleash a wave of anti Ameri-
canism 'on the eve of the president's
visit. - -
Carter's press conference statement
that he was "proud" of Mexico's
bonanza sounded a bit odd. That's
what he said about Bert Lance.
If he's going to convince the. coun-
try to cooperate, he has first to con-
vince people that he understands the
situation. People will walk and shiver
if they're sure it's necessary. So far,
they have no evidence that the .
energy crisis exists anywhere but in
the boardrooms of the oil companies
- and in'the White House, where the I
man in charge doesn't seem to have
made any final decisions about how
important energy really is.
Approved For Release 2007/06/14: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100160037-7