Portland O bserver
T hursday, Septem ber 30th, 1976
Cuba’s UN Mission wins friends
by T . D . Allman
(PNSI New York The cocktail party,
held in the United Nation« enclave here,
waa not an unuaual one Guesta included
diplomat«, journaliata. university profes
aora. officials of foundations and several
of those chick, thirtyist women who are
the diplomatic equivalents of snow
bunnies.
In one corner, two Cuban diplomat»
were engaged in a heated argument.
What was unusual was that they were
arguing with each other, rather than with
Americans. Whether the Cubans were
aware of it or not, their amicable but
lively debate had a highly favorable effect
on the other guests.
"I've visited many communist coun
tries,” said one U.S. foreign policy ex
pert, "and you just never see a pair of
Russian or Chinese officials disagree with
each other in public. I find the Cubans
likeable and impressive."
While United Nations membership is
important to Cuba, Cuba's New York
mission is absolutely vital to its growing
dialogue with Americans •• a dialogue
that is more lively than ever, despite the
fact that the two countries have had no
diplomatic relations for more than fifteen
years.
The objective of Cuba's diplomacy in
New York is so clear that not even the
Cubans themselves make any secret of it.
Though the official course of U.S.-Cuban
detente has been blocked following the
Cuban military intervention in Angola, an
unofficial, behind-the-scenes Cuban effort
to promote renewed diplomatic relations
is flourishing.
From their UN mission, Cuban diplo
mats armed with invitations to Havana
have been seeking out Americans they
believe will be influential policy makers
after the presidential election, whoever
wins.
As » result, the trickle of important
U.S. visitors to Cuba - including legisla
tive assistants and members of the major
northeastern universities, think tanks
and foundations - has grown into a small
stream. Several small air charter firms in
Miami have even begun specializing in
flying American visitors south across the
Straits of Florida to Havana.
The visitors tend to be personally con
servative, even when they favor major
liberalizations in U.S. foreign policy, and
therefore their personal reactions are
especially interesting. Most such visitors
dislike the communist-style austerity of
Cuba. But they are greatly impressed by
Cuba's social accomplishments, and they
remark again and again about the ab
sence of secret policy, the lack of fear
among Cubans, their friendliness and
their frankness, even in political discus
sions with foreigners.
“For all its faults, I still would prefer a
liberal democracy like Venezuela." said
one such visitor, Robert Bond, who is a
research fellow at New York's Council on
Foreign Relations. But, he added, “if one
is to choose between the dictatorship in
Chile and the dictatorship in Cuba, I
would prefer Cuba. Castro has not only
given the people bread. He has given
them dignity.’’
Even during the darkest days of the
U.S.-Cuban confrontation, Americans and
Cubans retained much in common for the
simple reason that historically no other
I^atin American country, not even Mexi
co, has been so close to the United States.
The expertise of Cuba's i America
watchers clearly remains great and the
Cubans seem correctly to have recog
nized that they can only gain by giving
Americans a largely unimpeded look at
themselves and the socialist society they
have built since Castro entered Havana in
1959.
Why, nonetheless, are the Cubans so
eager to re-establish diplomatic relations
with a country which historically has ex
ploited Cuba, and which, since 1960, has
done everything from blockade the coun
try to conspiring to have its national
leader assassinated*?
Both Americans and Cubans point out
that it was never Cuba that broke off
diplomatic relations with the United
States, or withdrew from the Organiza
tion of American States. Rather it was
the U-S. which severed ties and at
tempted to ostracize Cuba from inter
American relations.
"They are also terribly proud of what
they have done," said another visitor to
Cuba, Richard Haas, who is an American
Rhodes Scholar and former legislative
assistant to Senator Claiborne Pell. “Yet
in spite of the total independence they
now have from America, we are still
terribly important to them. It is almost as
though by re-establishing ties with Wash
ington they would gain the final, ultimate
legitimacy."
Cuban officials frankly state that they
would benefit from renewed trade ties
with the U.S. and from access to Ameri
can technology. And in return, high rank
ing Cuban officials, in marathon conver
sations with visiting Americans, have
offered the possibility of what once were
some unthinkable concessions.
According to Americans recently re
turning from Cuba, these include an end
to the propaganda war with the U.S.,
some form of reconciliation with the
Cuban exile community in America,
which amounts to ten per cent of the
entire Cuban population, an end to Cuban
pressure at the UN and elsewhere for
Puerto Rican independence and even dis
cussing the question of compensation for
nationalized U.S. holdings in Cuba.
Cuban officials, while strongly defen
ding the Angola intervention, state that
it was a product of unique circumstances,
among them Dr. Kissinger's own unwar-
ranted hostility to the Ml’LA. They point
out that they have counselled the
government of Angola to establish diplo
matic relations with all nations, including
the U.S.
And they express the hope that Dr.
Kissinger's present African diplomacy
will succeed to the extent that another
Angola-type situation - and hence
another need for Cuban intervention -
will not arise again.
The question cannot help posing itself:
Is the Cuban eagerness for relations with
the U.S. a function of the same dissatis
faction with the Soviet Union that ulti
mately has driven countries as diverse as
Ghana, Egypt and China into better rela
tions with Washington?
Conservative American visitors to
Cuba state that the Russian presence,
while very important, is discreet,
respectful of Cuban sovereignty and that
in unusually frank discussions with
Cubans no trace of irritation with the
Soviet Union emerged. “Of course, they
can never forget what Khrushchev did
during the missile crisis,” one such
American remarked. “But there also is
the fact that Moscow itself favors Cuban
U.S. detente."
Both the Cuban mission in New York
and the foreign ministry in Havana are
watching the U.S. presidential election
carefully, and have attempted in a low-
key but consistent manner to build
bridges to tho Carter camp.
The Cuban effort already may have
enjoyed some important successes. At a
recent private but high-level meeting at
the Center for Inter American Relations
in New York, recent visitors to Havana
discussed their experience.
There was no apparent hostility to the
idea of re-establishing relations with
Cuba at the meeting. Indeed, the rtmos-
phere was one of guarded but real optim
ism that U.S.-Cuban relations sooner
rather than later can be restored on a
mutually respectful basis.
Cuban officials privately say that they
have no illusions that the road back to
correct relations with the U.S. will be an
easy one, whether Ford or Carter wins in
November. And they correctly point out
that U.S. concessions on the Panama
Canal may complicate any eventual U.S.-
Cuban rapprochement by making either
Ford or Carter even more reluctant to
permit an eventual return of the U.S.
Guantanamo base to Cuban sovereignty.
But the Cubans are equally convinced
that their patient, low key good neighbor
policy toward individual members of the
U.S. foreign policy community is success
fully building a domestic appreciation of
Cuba's accomplishments, and friendly in
tentions, that no administration in Wash
ington will be able to ignore forever.
(PNS) - The booming export of U.S.
nuclear technology - only a decade ago
the most tightly controlled technology in
the world -• is stirring mounting Con
gressional resistance to what critics view
as dangerously loose government con
trols on nuclear exports.
Some fear that the high profitability of
nuclear export coupled with the precar
ious financial state of the industry has
locked both the State Department and
private companies into an escalating nu
clear export race.
The key concern, reflected in recent
amendments to eTifgy bills pending be
fore Congress, is the unfettered sale of
nuclear material to nations that do not
accept international safeguards.
At least 41 countries have now elected
to go nuclear, up from 32 just two years
ago. The three newest members of the
nuclear club are Indonesia, Poland and
Turkey.
According to the recently released an
nual report of the U.S. Arms Control and
Disarmament Agency, 20 countries are
now capable of buiilding crude but effec
tive nuclear explosives from the spent
fuel of nuclear power plants. Nearly twice
that many will have stockpiled enough
plutonium from nuclear plants to build
atomic bombs during the next decade.
In addition, the Geneva based Interna
tional Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a
UN group, now proposes to scatter nu
clear fuel recycling centers which yield
deadly plutonium - around the world to
serve the 454 reactors now operating or
planned outside the U.S.
Yet only one-third cf the current nu
clear nations now observe the IAEA safe
guards against malfunctions, sabotage or
theft, and most are not members of the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty INPT),
which bans development of nuclear wea
pons.
Said President Ford in his recent arms
control address to Congress, "A world of
many nuclear weapons states could be
come extremely unstable and danger
ous."
But despite the acknowledgement, the
administration and the nuclear industry
have resisted current congressional ef
forts aimed at limiting nuclear exports.
Those proposals, sponsored by Senator
Stuart Symington (D., Mo.) and Repre
sentative John Anderson (r„ III.), would,
among other things:
•Entitle Congress to approve or disap
prove all nuclear export licenses to coun
tries that have not signed the Non Proli
feration Treaty:
•Insist that all U.S. nuclear customers
adhere to IAEA safeguards;
•Ban military aid to countries supply
ing or receiving nucleasr technology un
less both countries were party to interna
tional safeguards agreements.
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Register and
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Jimmy Carter and Gerald F o n t
((T o o many have had to suffer at the hands
of a political and economic elite who have
shaped decisions and never had to account
for mistakes nor to suffer from injustice.
When unemployment prevails, they never
stand in line looking for a job. When depri
vation results from a confused welfare
system. they never do without food or
cloth/ j or a place to sleep. When the public
schocis are inferior or torn by strife, their
children go to exclusive private schools.»
Jim m y Carter
made that statement
when he accepted the
Democratic nom ina
tion for President. If
it hadn't been for
Black support, Jim m y
Carter would never
have gotten that far.
For it was Blacks
who put Jim m y
Carter over the top in
the Democratic pri
maries. Because he
understands our
needs. And because he’ll do something
about a government that ignores them.
Now we have a chance to make a differ
ence again. In the general election Novem
ber 2nd. It can mean the difference be
tween politics as usual or real leadership
for a change.
We can d rift along w ith an economy
th a t’s choking the working people of this
country. O r we can elect Jim m y C arter—a
leader who w ill check inflation and put
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We can continue w ith a lack of justice in
this country. Or we can elect Jim m y Carter
282-8361
S IZ E S y o u w a n t
The Friendlie«»
Store« In Town]
'Since 190»
“We've built such a huge nuclear com
plex, with so much capital and so many
jobs dependent on it,” said Long, "that
now people are willing to say that the
destruction of the world is inevitable and
wc should relax and make money on it."
The impart of nuclear exports on the
U.S. balance of payments is suggested by
figures from the U.S. Export-Import
Bank, which finances foreign purchases of
U.S. goods and helps thq Nuclear Regu
latory Commission judge the merits of
nuclear export license applications.
NORTH A N X PORTLAND
' FOR
AMOUNT
OF CERTIFICATE
During July hearings before the Nu
clear Regulatory Commission on a pro
posed 13-ton shipment of enriched urani
um to India, a non-NPT member. Rep.
Clarence Long (D., Md.) charged that
dollars - not safety considerations - were
dictating U.S. nuclear policy.
PORTLAND
CLEANING WORKS
lENOW 'S
BRANDS
tic considerations. The State Depart
ment, for instance, would be restricted
from using nuclear technology as a dip
lomatic plum, as in the 1974 agreement to
sell reactors to Egypt and Israel, neither
of which are members of the NPT.
Equally important is the economic
angle: Nuclear sales abroad promise huge
revenues at home, fast approaching the
level of U.S. arms sales abroad.
The bank's projected outlay for coun
tries buying U.S. nuclear technology over
the five-year period ending in 1978 totals
The Economic Factor
$11 billion its largest single loan rate
gory.
Administration resistance to such pro
Many of those loans went to poor,
posals stems from economic and diploma
(Please turn to p. 4 col. 1)
SHO P
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Copyright PNS, 1976
Congress tries to limit nuclear export race
by Jack Saunders
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»»
while the poor ones
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We can suffer
through a welfare sys
tem th a t’s bloated
and confused. Or we
can elect Jim m y
Carter— a leader who
w ill straighten out the
welfare system and
make it fair.
We can struggle
w ith a government that does nothing to
help the cities. Or we can elect Jim m y
Carter—a leader who w ill move to relieve
an unemployment rate among Blacks
that approaches 17%. We can continue to
have a government that caters to the
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privileged. Or we can have a government
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people. A government led by Jim m y Carter
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It can’t happen w itho ut your help.
That’s why it’s so im portant for you to
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