Word: cuba
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Even if Jebsen's scenario is correct, and U.S. military withdrawal does lead to an El Salvador controlled by a Soviet-backed regime, the question is how bad would that be? Jebsen suggests that El Salvador is different from Vietnam because it is closer to home. But Cuba is only 90 miles from the American shore, and although it has been a Communist state for twenty-five years. American children still aren't taught in Russian. Jebsen says El Salvador is of strategic importance, but this simply isn't the case. El Salvador itself is of no military importance...
...hostile," I said. "Offended by Soviet excesses. Confident, determined, prepared to do what is necessary. The Soviet leadership must know that there must be change, for the future good of both sides." Then and subsequently, I stressed our concern with Cuba's role as a Soviet proxy...
Dobrynin complained, "All I ever hear from you is Cuba, Cuba, Cuba...
...that subject often. Cuban troops in Ethiopia were the praetorian guard of a regime whose policy had caused inestimable suffering. Cuban troops in Angola were the chief impediment to a settlement that might bring peace to that country and independence to neighboring Namibia. But it was the role of Cuba in the insurgency in El Salvador that engaged our attention in the most urgent manner...
...virtually alone in the other camp, which favored giving military and economic aid to El Salvador while bringing the overwhelming economic strength and political influence of the U.S., together with the reality of its military power, to bear on Cuba in order to treat the problem at its source. In my view that the potential strategic gain from this combination of measures far outweighed the risks, and that the U.S. could contain any Soviet countermeasures, I was isolated...