"Attack on the Americas"
McDonough, Ruth
The American Security Council (ASC), not to be confused with the National Security Council, recently released "Attack on the Americas!," a made-for-television film decrying the "red...
...One glaring example of the type of distortions that run throughout the film is a scene in which the overvoice decries the sufferings of the people caused by communist guerrilla terrorists while showing the well-known news footage of the government massacre of mourners at the funeral of Archbishop Romero, killed a year ago this March 24th in El Salvador...
...The film concludes with a plea for increased military strength in order to protect the United States' geopolitical and economic interests in Central America and the Caribbean...
...According to many, the American Security Council is the military-industrial complex which President Eisenhower explicitly warned against in his farewell address...
...It claims, despite widespread findings to the contrary by 'international organizations, church groups and the U.S...
...Read the script...
...The primary distortion," Wheaton observes, is that "there is neither recognition nor analysis of the social inequities which are the cause of the social upheavals in Central America and the Caribbean, nor that these inequities are due to the oppressive and exploitive role of the ruling classes in specific countries...
...All twenty-six Public Broadcasting System (PBS) stations around the country have the Silber film, and the Coalition urges people to call their local PBS station to express interest in broacasting (or rebroadcasting) "El Salvador: Another Vietnam...
...sending advisers to El Salvador, it appears that "Attack on the Americas...
...Composed of over 25 individuals and Washington-based organizations, the ad hoc Coalition asked the Center for New Creation to develop an information packet to critique the film, provide background information on the ASC, and supply information on the Fairness Doctrine, plus a list of alternative films and other resources to counter the film's perversions...
...This film was so inaccurate and biased that the Pentagon itself was led to officially refute its content...
...The second message," continues Wheaton, "is an attack on the Carter administration's human rights philosophy as naive...
...During the Carter administration, the ASC clandestinely brought in former Major Roberto D'Aubisson, second in command of Salvadorean Army intelligence prior to the 1979 coup...
...was produced by the American Security Council Foundation for the Coalition for Peace Through Strength, a bipartisan alliance of 177 national organizations, 230 members of Congress, and other pro-defense leaders across the country...
...The Fairness Doctrine, an FCC provision, requires stations to air opposing views on public issues...
...In fact, Ronald Reagan, Alexander Haig and Jeane Kirkpatrick are all featured prominently in "Attack on the Americas...
...See the film...
...the White House opposing Bushnell's view...
...As Marie Grasso, a founder of the Coalition stated, "We viewed 'Attack on the Americas!' and found it biased in the extreme...
...and with the U.S...
...Trained at the International Police Academy in Washington, D.C...
...President Reagan denying comparisons between El Salvador and Vietnam...
...Having attempted to obtain Senator McCarthy's old lists among others, the ASC is also reputed to have the largest list of "subversives" in the country...
...government, that these governments have not violated human rights...
...According to the ASC, the film "reports on the Brezhnev-Castro drive to turn the Caribbean into a Soviet lake by a combination of Communist-sponsored revolution and U.S...
...Remember Ronald Reagan selling GE products years ago on your television screen...
...to view the film...
...capital for surprise visits and press conferences has occurred over and over again...
...War Without Winners," the impressive anti-nuclear-war film by the Center for Defense Information, was prompted by the extensive airing of 'The SALT Syndrome...
...Following the U.N.-sponsored arms embargo against South Africa the State Department prohibited contacts with senior South African military officers...
...first) a rhetorical, redbaiting warning against the steadily ly growing and intentional strategy of the Soviet Union to take over the Caribbean basin and to march inexorably northward through Central America, country by country, until they are at our border...
...is indeed helping to make truth the first casualty of war...
...The American Security Council "Attack on the Americas...
...Although the ASC film deals with other Central American and Caribbean countries, the Coalition for Human Rights in Central America considers Glen Silber's 39update *update update update "El Salvador: Another Vietnam...
...As Wheaton points out: "The film has a double message or argument...
...General Electric, among other corporations, is a member of the ASC...
...and claiming close rapport with U.S...
...The film is part of a $5,000,000 television campaign called Project Survival, whose stated intention is to "waken and activate all Americans for a change in U.S...
...have a President, a Secretary of State and an Ambassador to the United Nations, "brought to you by ASC...
...Nevertheless, these ASC-hosted illegals briefed not only the ASC staff on South Africa, but also made a "courtesy call" to the Defense Intelligence Agency, and a staff member of the National Security Council...
...A letter signed by the participating individuals and groups was also sent to those television stations who have shown or intend to show "Attack on the Americas!," demanding that, under the Fairness Doctrine, they air an alternative viewpoint...
...were small initially, but are growing, bubbling up here and there...
...Many members of this coalition have had personal experiences in the Caribbean, particularly in Central America...
...Biased and distorted, "Attack on the Americas...
...Lest the ASC lose members to a nuclear war, it provides a study on "how to maximize your chances for surviving nuclear war using tools and equipment to be found around the average home" called Nuclear War Survival Skills...
...Right Wing TV The original working title of "Attack on the Americas...
...Thus the Americas are 'under siege' and through Cuban intervention, the Soviets intend to 'slash' the Americas in half...
...ASC Special Tours The latest caper sponsored by the ASC occurred in mid-March 1981 when they brought five highranking South African military inNACLA Reportupdate *update update update telligence officers into the country in flagrant violation of U.S...
...defense policy...
...policy...
...The feverish rise of anti-communism has come from somewhere, and one source is certainly the ASC, with its "disinformation" campaign to win over first the administration, and then the hearts and minds of the American people...
...Nevertheless, the ASC sneaked D'Aubisson into the United States at a time when the Immigration and Naturalization Service was directed to prevent his entrance...
...Furthermore, when President Carter relieved Major General John Singlaub of his position as Chief of Staff, U.S...
...Appalled by what they saw, those gathered formed the ad hoc Coalition for Human Rights in Central America...
...With John A. Bushnell, acting Deputy Assistant of State for InterAmerican Affairs, complaining that reporters are overplaying their accounts of El Salvador developments...
...and their regular communication with the struggling poor in Latin America paints an entirely different picture...
...The Center for New Creation's information packet includes a critique of the film prepared by Philip Wheaton, Director of EPICA...
...Could another reason for the film's withdrawal be that copies are busy being shown to incoming Reagan administration personnel and new members of Congress...
...is such a poorly done film that even a member of Congress who agreed with its message noted, "It is not as well done as 'The SALT Syndrome...
...Running its National Security "Academy" in Washington, D.C., and courses for credit through Georgetown University's School for Summer and Continuing Education, the ASC's central 38 headquarters are on an old rolling estate in Boston, Virginia...
...Leadership of the ASC and its incestuously close relatives, the Center for Strategic and International Studies of Georgetown University and the Coalition for Peace Through Strength include numerous retired high-ranking military men (including a number of former Chiefs of Staff), prime defense contractors, and hard-line anti-communist politicians, as well as a number of former CIA and other intelligence personnel-in short all the "good old boys" cold warriors...
...The Counterattack Measures to counter "Attack on the Americas...
...The film argues for U.S...
...Today we 37te * update update . update a) E z Haig's first press conference-stirring the embers of anti-communist hysteria...
...government opposition to anti-communist leadership in the area...
...They also met with Kirkpatrick, who incredulously claims to have been ignorant of their identities...
...Lest this goal not be taken seriously, Project Survival's first film, "The SALT Syndrome," has been televised over 2000 times by local stations nationwide...
...Attack on the Americas!," previewed in December at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, will be offered by the ASC to all commerical stations in the country...
...Forces in South Korea, the ASC engineered and financed a speaking tour, held a press conference similar to D'Aubisson's right in the shadow MarlApr 1981 of the Capitol, and developed a public relations campaign to give Singlaub a voice across the country...
...This pattern of bringing persona non grata into the U.S...
...conservatives, D'Aubisson denies frequent charges that he is the leader of the rightest death squads in El Salvador...
...support to unpopular military dictatorships in El Salvador, Guatemala and elsewhere in the Americas...
...In January, the Center for New Creation, a small justice and peace center "for Northern Virginia and beyond," invited a group of human rights activists from the religious, political, educational and grass-roots sectors in Washington, D.C...
...Here the ASC plays computerized war games, holds national security seminars and meetings on grounds complete with a small landing field, and runs a large printing plant and mass mailing facility, a private library and ultra-modern computerized offices...
...The American Security Council (ASC), not to be confused with the National Security Council, recently released "Attack on the Americas!," a made-for-television film decrying the "red menace" next door...
...to be an excellent partial response to "Attack on the Americas...
...While attempting to enter the State Department, one officer was recognized as being a persona non grata, and the group was refused entrance...
...Listen to the President's and Congress' latest calls to unleash the intelligence community, beef up military strength, and send increased military aid and advisers to the Junta in El Salvador...
...As the film's sponsor, the Coalition for Peace Through Strength, an ASC spin-off, states: "The objective is at- least five showings in each of the more than 200 television market areas...
...Already shown at least thirty times on public television, the film has been temporarily withdrawn for revisons, but a massive campaign of cross-country television showings is planned for April...
...was MarlApr 1981 "Caribbean Pearl Harbor...
Vol. 15 • March 1981 • No. 2
