Word: covert
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Administration's Caribbean Basin Initiative and the Kissinger Commission report are getting virtually no attention at all. That is because the recommendations they make--for economic aid and trade--are not as glamorous or as interesting as military and covert assistance. But economics and ideology are our strongest suits. If we competed with the Soviet Union in those areas, it would be no contest...
...Soviets are making a greater effort than ever before to destroy mujahedin units operating from sanctuaries in Pakistan and stem the flow of weapons and supplies provided to the resistance by the U.S., China and several Muslim states. The U.S. pipeline alone is delivering an estimated $250 million in covert aid this year. Additional humanitarian assistance is going to the 3 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, whose number has increased by 500,000 over the past year...
...same time, support for anti-Communist insurgencies has its limitations. As Nicaragua makes clear, the U.S. is still incapable of waging truly covert warfare of any magnitude. In this respect, the Soviets enjoy a permanent advantage. The First Chief Directorate of the KGB, the principal clandestine arm of Soviet foreign policy, can engage in dirty tricks while preserving its "plausible deniability." The CIA's Directorate for Operations, by contrast, is subject to oversight by a notoriously leaky and fastidious U.S. Congress...
While support for guerrillas is a useful instrument of U.S. policy, it can rarely be decisive all by itself. Rather, covert action can serve to soften up a situation so that it will be more amenable to a negotiated settlement, or to direct military intervention. Sooner or later the secret agents and jungle warriors must give way to the diplomats and politicians--or to the generals...
...application of direct U.S. military pressure is simply not feasible in Afghanistan; there are already some 115,000 Soviet troops there. Also, the Kremlin can fight fire with fire: most covert American aid to the mujahedin is channeled through Pakistan, a country that is painfully susceptible to "destabilization" by the Soviet Union. Logistically, it is easier to contemplate the introduction of U.S. combat troops into Central America, but the political obstacles there are considerable. Congress has made it clear that it opposes U.S. military intervention in the region...