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*[ The World & the CIA ]*
FD: Let's turn to world affairs for a moment. One of the events
of recent years that has always puzzled me is United States
support for the Vanaaka Party in what was once the New
Hebrides Islands.
In the late '70s, before the New Hebrides achieved independence,
there were basically two factions fighting between themselves to
see who would maintain control when the colonial powers left.
The British and the French had governed the New Hebrides under
a concept known as the condominium, and before independence,
the British and the labor movement in Australia threw their
support behind the ubiquitous socialist faction, in this case,
the Vanaaka Party. The French offered some behind-the-scenes
support to the second faction, which was basically pro-free
market and pro-West. The U.S. under Jimmy Carter went along
with the British.
Do you have any idea why this might have been done?
Marchetti:
Offhand, I don't. The CIA has learned over the years that you
sometimes cannot support the people you would prefer to support,
because they just do not have the popular power to gain control
or maintain control without a revolution and things of that sort.
The classic example is West Berlin. Back in the '50s we were
contesting with the Russians for influence in Berlin.
This was at a time when the Russians and East Germans were putting
tremendous pressure on to have West Berlin go almost voluntarily
into the Soviet bloc. The United States was struggling mightily
to keep West Berlin free.
At that point in time the strong power in West Germany were the
Christian Democrats under Konrad Adenauer, and these were the
people that we were supporting.
The Christian Democrats, however, just did not have the wherewithal
to save West Berlin. The situation was such that the Social
Democrats were the ones who could save West Berlin.
Not getting into all of the whys and wherefores and policy positions,
the Social Democrats also had a very charismatic person named Willy
Brandt. So by backing Willy Brandt and the Social Democrats, instead
of putting all of our eggs in the Christian Democratic Party basket,
Brandt and the Social Democrats were able to maintain a free West
Berlin and we were able to achieve our goal.
There were some people in the CIA who thought this was terrible, we
were not being ideologically pure, and one of them happens to be E.
Howard Hunt, who actually considered Willy Brandt a KGB spy.
So there are times when you have to, I guess you would call it,
choose the lesser of two evils.
It might have been a miscalculated gamble.
I don't have all of the facts, but maybe the thinking was that
if we left the pro-West faction in power we may end up with
a goddamned civil war.
FD: In retrospect, the Carter administration's decision seems
even more tragic and mistaken.
Since coming to power, the Vanaaka Party has consolidated power
in the new country, now known as Vanuatu, and established
diplomatic relations with governments like Cuba and Vietnam.
Socialist Vanuatu has now come to serve as a beacon of sorts for
other independence movements in that part of the world, such as the
Kanaks in New Caledonia, who have subsequently adopted socialism as
their ideology.
When I asked Jimmy Carter about this during an interview recently
he said he was sorry, but he did not remember the episode.
Is it possible that this may have been an incompetent blunder
on the part of the U.S. government? That somebody didn't do
their homework, and as a result those responsible for the
decision didn't have all of the facts?
Marchetti:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. Its not the kind of an issue that
draws the most attention in Washington. As you just pointed out,
Jimmy Carter doesn't even remember it. I'm sure that decision was
made pretty far down the line.
If Carter ever had to make a decision he probably doesn't even
remember it because it was probably staffed down because it was
considered so inconsequential at the time by Carter and everyone
involved. They considered it so inconsequential that they don't
even remember it. It's something they signed off on. My guess
from what you have told me is that it was a mistake.