Exporting Idealism: The Right Kind of Intevention

...There wouldn't be as much need for the CIA if more foreign service officers were doing their jobs—if they weren't afraid to apply political leverage in the right direction or to displease top officials in their host countries...

...Ethiopia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Libya all have received extensive economic assistance...

...but rather, the quiet role of establishing contact and working with the opposition...

...The conservative view was that it didn't really matter who ran Liberia, as long as the country remained in the "Western camp...

...Sometimes we need to resort to such actions when our open support would embarrass those we seek to help...

...The administrations of both William V. S. Tubman (1944-1971) and William Tolbert (1971-1980) represented primarily the interests of a minority oligarchy—the Americo-Liberian establishment that descended from the former slaves who created the country...

...Even such relatively commonplace corruption can become fodder for anti-American factions within a country, and frustrate our efforts to nudge local officials in the right direction...

...Our embassy did not, however, systematically attempt to confront higher authorities in the Liberian government with evidence of these abuses, or exert pressure to put a stop to them...

...See "Great Expectations: The Real Cause of Revolution," October 1983...

...If we are not proud of such actions—if we aren't willing to take open responsibility for them—then we shouldn't do them...

...But we make matters worse when we neglect a developing country's need for institutions that can give it a chance to resolve these conflicts and that will ensure that the benefits of our economic and social aid are widely shared...

...Tolbert, who succeeded Tubman in 1971, reversed these trends...

...Tolbert might have listened to private lectures by our ambassador on his and his brother's acquisitive abuse of power, but if a leader is not willing to listen we should make clear that we have ways of embarrassing the regime if he doesn't respond—and that we are willing to use them...

...To be sure, some of the problems come with the territory...

...And in this regard, Liberia is typical: a decade from now we might well look back upon events in Liberia, as we have done with so many other countries, and wonder why our efforts came to naught...

...The volunteer had attempted to resolve priorities between two road building projects for which he was responsible by arranging a meeting between the leaders of two clans...

...The heads of two of the country's four security organizations (Tubman believed in checks and balances) were members of indigenous tribes, not Americo-Liberians...

...Why didn't we let the dictator and his cronies know that there would be a price to pay if Aquino came to harm...

...Witness, among countless other examples, the repressive policies of a President Mobutu of Zaire or a Marcos of the Philippines...

...For all its shortcomings, the Carter human rights policy benefited the subjects of repressive regimes throughout the world...

...Yet the economic assistance we provide, the development projects we sponsor, and, above all, the military aid we give to Third World countries are anything but neutral...

...A tighter rein on covert actions would be an effective way to ward off that national bugaboo—another Vietnam...

...On the one hand was the "liberal" impulse that deemed it inappropriate for Westerners to seek to guide the political development of a small, backward country...

...Another omission was our failure to react when local politics interfered with programs we supported...

...But he did set in motion a policy of "unification"—participation by all of the country's 23 tribal groups, not just the Americo-Liberians...

...In contrast to the more controversial covert operations with which he has come to be associated, William Casey has also proposed a "nation building" strategy...

...A military coup followed...

...They should have been instructed to report to the U.S...

...For instance, we could have insisted, even before the end of Tubman's administration, on a different focus for our economic assistance projects, directing more to tribal areas and less to Monrovia...

...But in countries where we are involved for better or worse—El Salvador for example—the CIA can serve a useful role...

...This might have antagonized the government, but it would have shown Liberians that we were committed to the continued broadening of the popular base of government...

...Covert operations encourage an administration to wade into foreign commitments that the American public doesn't know about and ultimately will not support...

...There is no reason that public displays of displeasure cannot be used to encourage the democratizing of the political process as well...

...Whispering campaigns and street demonstrations to bring pressure upon a recalcitrant regime are also possibilities...

...There's nothing fancy about this kind of "political action ." Just one example: Why wasn't Benigno Aquino of the Philippines invited to the White House before his fateful return to his home country...

...Others were passive because of their sense of the magnitude of the problem...

...Like most of our foreign policy failures, it is not self-evident today, but rather is quietly in the making...

...Tubman's under-secretary of state, for instance, had been identified as a student radical while studying in the United States...

...In much of the Third World "in place of the Speaker with a wig, there stands a soldier with a gun," as Dennis Austin sadly comments on Britain's ex-colonies in Africa...

...After all, isn't it better to risk some embarrassment now with our ostensible allies, than to grapple later with the choices that currently confront us in countries such as El Salvador...

...In extreme cases, where prolonged repression has already built up a potentially dangerous head of steam, the CIA has a valid and useful function...

...Indeed, distancing ourselves from Marcos in such a fashion would have enhanced our ability, in the long run, to keep those bases...

...But it was never done...

...He needs us more than we need him, despite our military bases in the Philippines...

...Appearances, however, do not tell the story...

...If they see us solely as obstacles to progress, not only will they write us off as hypocrites...

...Instead, all too often, our aid strengthens dictators who stand in the way of democratic reform...

...Why do we keep failing...

...His brother Stephen, the country's finance minister, capitalized on the power he shared with Tolbert to increase vastly their personal wealth...

...Exporting Idealism: The Right Kind of Intervention By Harden Smith "Meddling in the internal affairs of other countries ." American foreign policymakers usually take pains to deny such intentions...

...more, they may join with the communists out of desperation—and retaliate against us if they ever assume power...

...It is policy-making by back room elites...

...Liberian society today is less open, its institutions less "democratic," than they were a generation ago...

...in fact, following a brief flirtation with doctrinaire socialism under the military rule of President Samuel K. Doe, it recently has sought to shore up its traditionally friendly relations with the West...

...More important, we should be willing to do something with the information that results from such efforts, even if it proves embarrassing to the government...

...Economic aid can produce rising expectations among a populace that the nations in question cannot meet...

...The United States must stop being defensive, overlooking a regimes authoritarian behavior until a crisis occurs and then invoking the specter of incipient communism...

...In Liberia, our embassy should have protested police brutality and influence-buying by U.S...

...Perhaps we would have lost anyway, but our chances would have been much better had we aggressively and directly intervened to assist the democratic process...

...His notion of applying pressure is limited largely to demands "tactfully and privately" delivered "that our friends observe certain standards of behavior with regard to basic human rights," along with "land reforms, corruption, and the like...

...This did not please the district commissioner, who had been playing one clan off against the other to protect his own base...

...Quiet American In other countries, what form should our "political action" take...

...It didn't...

...embassy protested...

...But political action doesn't have to be this sinister...

...Or, more precisely, we restrict our intervention to economic and social programs, hoping that well-fed people will not turn to the Soviets and that grassroots social programs will build responsive political institutions at the national level...

...Most of what the CIA does— especially the gathering of information—the foreign service is supposed to do in the first place...

...To understand America's missed opportunities in Liberia, some history is in order...

...It's worth recalling that the CIA has played such roles in the past...

...But it is far better to go public in support of an Aquino (whose followers are generally pro-American) than to prop up covertly a Ferdinand Marcos...

...American officials who advised the Liberian police knew, through the police grapevine, of brutal interrogation techniques, abuse of power by senior police, and foul detention facilities...

...We also should have monitored and countered influence-buying by major American companies investing in Liberia...

...Recent events in Liberia are an apt example...

...It is not the stereotyped "bad guy" role of helping local security services ferret out opponents of the regime...

...When concession negotiations with iron and rubber companies failed to produce expected benefits for Liberia, the public presumed that the companies had bought the Tolberts off...

...memories of Kissinger's and Nixon's flawed "Track II" and the heavy-handed machinations by American business in Chile overshadow the CIA's positive role in supporting the Christian Democrats of Eduardo Frei as an alternative to radicals on the right or the left...

...This in turn means standing up for those employees when an unhappy, corrupt regime tries to send them packing...

...Generally, covert operations are most suited for small-scale, short-term projects that do not become institutionalized—infiltrating the Salvadoran death squads to undo them would be a prime example...

...could help expand his nation-building initiatives...

...Harden Smith is a retired foreign service officer...

...Our agents could publicize the names of both killers and targeted victims, give advance notice of operations, discredit the death squads by forgeries—whatever is necessary to destroy their terrible effectiveness...

...but because we did not work as hard to strengthen the political institutions in these countries, the results have tended to be negligible at best and sometimes even destructive...

...When Tolbert revoked a subsidy on rice, Liberia's basic food, and its price soared, riots broke out in the capital...

...The balance of power there is too tenuous, the courts themselves too threatened by the death squads, and the military looms too darkly in the background...

...Demands "privately delivered" to countries like South Africa and the Philippines seem to have fallen on deaf ears— and have failed to identify the United States with change and progress in local eyes...

...The government is dominated now by the military, which in turn is dominated by the Kranh, one of the country's 23 tribal groups...

...Our ostensible purpose in providing aid to these countries has been twofold: to contain the spread of Soviet influences and to promote democracy by encouraging such democratic institutions as a free press, fair elections, trade unions, and representative assemblies...

...It's a revolution that, in the long term, is the best strategy for promoting the kind of revolution we enjoyed two centuries ago—and for avoiding an altogether more unpleasant type of revolution later on...

...Instead of building` the huge and understaffed W. V. S. Tlibman Memorial Hospital in downtown Monrovia, as the government wanted, we could have insisted that our dollars be spent for smaller, upcountry hospitals and clinics supported by a mid-size hospital in Monrovia...

...American missions are not encouraged to report such behavior, even though these corporations are often obstacles to promoting open, democratic institutions...

...Tolbert mishandled the riots, and a military coup followed that brought Doe, a former military sergeant, to power...

...But when such efforts go unaccompanied by the right kind of political action, they can produce results contrary to what we seek...

...It is not in the communist camp...

...Such an invitation would have communicated an important message to Ferdinand Marcos: that we sympathize with noncommunist reformers who sincerely desire to promote democratic institutions in that troubled country...

...corporations...

...American personnel tried to counter these trends through better training programs and by exerting pressure on police officials...

...For instance, we did nothing when a Peace Corps volunteer was transferred for trying to do his job...

...When foreign policy is out in the open, it is more likely to be what the American people want...

...Rather, it's whether our intervention is effective...

...But this kind of intervention requires a president who encourages State Department employees, from the ambassador down to the 32-year-old political officer on his first assignment, to take risks...

...Liberia appears to be starting to succumb to the coup-counter-coup cycle that afflicts so many African nations...

...However, Casey's strategy is doomed to fail with more recalcitrant regimes...

...A brave ambassador could have raised the problem locally with the companies, or sent such information to Washington and urged the State Department to raise the issue with the companies' home offices...

...When the officials on the ground feel that their promotions will come from taking the initiative rather than waiting for their duty tour to end, we will have effected a true revolution in American foreign policy...

...It can, and should, be a series of small initiatives taken over a long period of time by various arms of the United States government for the purpose of increasing the odds that massive intervention won't be needed later...

...mission any official abuses they observed...

...We helped save democracy in Italy in similar fashion in the turmoil of the late 1940s...

...With Tillman, this approach might well have been effective...

...Most important, by setting a pattern of discussing sensitive political issues with Tubman, we could have continued such discussions with Tolbert and his brother without implying a lack of confidence in them during their accession to power...

...His brother channeled government purchases to his own companies and intimidated rivals into selling out to him at depressed prices...

...Our major concern seems to be whether that soldier is on our side...

...Of course, it's not possible to dispatch the CIA to every oppressed nation on earth where such action may be desirable...

...Above all was the bureaucratic inertia of American officials in Liberia and in Washington, bolstered by their knowledge that Liberia was only one of many small countries competing for policymakers' attentions...

...Foreign pay-offs won't stop until there is joint action among the major trading nations...

...The interior ministry transferred the volunteer to the other end of the country...

...Economic aid obviously can be helpful, and not only in feeding malnourished villagers or building a new school or hospital...

...Similarly, our assistance to Liberian schools was unwisely concentrated in Monrovia...

...To prevent a communist takeover in the Philippines— a possibility that grows each day—we need credibility among Marcos's noncommunist opponents...

...Even if Tubman and Tolbert had continued to halt the progress towards democracy, they could not have ignored all complaints by their principal supplier of assistance...

...After touring government lands that were in reserve for future expansion of Monrovia, Liberia's capital, President Tolbert appropriated the best land for himself, invoking a provision of a law intended for unsettled rural land...

...In a multitude of small ways, largely sins of omission rather than commission...

...Vietnam, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Iran, El Salvador, Lebanon—the list of countries that have given us grief despite American aid is a long one...

...Our foreign service officers are better situated than anyone to blow the whistle, if only they were not so reluctant to do so...

...The existing aid patterns merely increased the resentment of tribal groups that traditionally had been excluded...

...In Liberia, a major bank and a rubber company, among others, employed the law firm of the speaker of the house, each paying a monthly retainer of $2,000 for very little legal work...

...The real question is not whether we are interfering in the political life of the Third World...

...Put another way, as Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge did a quarter-century ago, our foreign policy should promote the Declaration of Independence instead of being constantly on the defensive against the precepts of Karl Marx...

...The economic and social assistance undertaken by John E Kennedy's Alliance for Progress in Latin America, for example, helped solidify the democratic institutions of Costa Rica...

...These programs inevitably affect the internal dynamics of a country, propping up the existing government or setting in motion political changes that may eventually undermine it...

...The CIA should have been trying to penetrate the squads and their command structure (not assisting these squads, as some evidence has suggested...

...Where did we go wrong in Liberia...

...After all, isn't this where our foreign service comes in...

...If the discussion route failed, we still could have pressured Tolbert to clean up his act—by cutting aid, inspiring congressional inquiries, briefing journalists, and the like...

...With this corruption and the visible shift away from democratization of the political and economic life of Liberia, Tolbert's regime became increasingly vulnerable...

...These days "political action" is a dirty word, suggesting such massive and inept interventions as the Bay of Pigs, the campaign to overthrow Salvador Allende in Chile, and the recent mining of Nicaragua's ports...

...In short, we should have engaged in a lot more "political action" But we allowed the situation to deterioriate because of our own cast of mind...

...Secondly, our advisers assigned to the various ministries could have filled the watch-dog role that a free press serves in a developed democracy...

...Rice Riot Having served with the State Department for some years in three countries (Libya, Liberia, and Somalia) where coups have destroyed embryonic democracies, I am left with a very strong sense that we missed our opportunities...

...But by the late 1960s, American dialogue with Tubman had verged on sterility, consisting largely of meetings on such subjects as next year's budget or an upcoming U.N...

...During the Tubman administration, however, the direction of change was toward wider participation by all groups in government and in the economic life of the country...

...Early in his administration, Tiibman eliminated the dual administrative system that created "counties" along the coastline, where the Americos had settled, but consigned the upcountry areas inhabited by other tribal groups to the status of "territories...

...On the other hand, the CIA should rely much less upon "covert" operations—political or paramilitary— in the Third World that are inherently overt to those against whom they are directed...

...Harry Rositzke, a former Soviet expert with the CIA, suggested (among others) in The Washington Post that if Nicaragua's ports had to be mined, it should have been a military, not a CIA, function...

...No one would accuse Tubman of being a front man for Common Cause...

...Frequently, by the time the CIA gets involved, it's too late anyway...

...But meanwhile we have to stop them when they give our country a black eye...

...vote—not on how the U.S...

...Nobody on the Peace Corps staff or in the U.S...

...There is another valid role for the CIA in our relations with repressive regimes: to counter extreme right-wing groups such as the "death squads" in El Salvador...

...It's been naive to suppose that protests by our ambassador to the Salvadoran government would be effective...

...Rather than intimidate potential dissidents Tubman coopted them, advancing many of the brightest into government after informants spotted them while still students...

...One of the oldest nations in Africa—it was founded in 1847 by former American slaves— Liberia at first glance seems more like a success story than one of failure...

...While second-guessing is easy, I think a major reason is our failure to do enough meddling in these countries' internal affairs...

...In a recent speech in Fulton, Missouri, the CIA director urged America to foster "the infrastructure of democracy, the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities, which allows a people to choose its own ways...

...Marcos would have been upset, but it's doubtful he would have done anything more than protest...

...We spend billions, sacrifice both international prestige and countless American lives—and often end up with little to show for it...

...This view was epitomized by the foreign service officer who once told me we needed more "little black fascists" in Africa...

...Liberals tend to forget this now...