In Search of Enemies - A CIA Story - John Stockwell

The Economy-Size War
was a direct contradiction of our public policies, making it essential
that we keep the American public from knowing the truth.•
The Cubans weren't ashamed of their program and they didn't
need to hide it from their own people, or from the world press. In
fact, on October 8, the Cuban ambassador the United Nations,
Ricardo Alarcon De Quesada, had announced Cuba's position in a
public speech before the General Assembly:
In Angola the conspiracy of imperialism, its allies and lackeys, has
found concrete expression in the brazen interference designed to frustrate
true decolonialization while threatening its territorial integrity;
snatching away from the people's liberation movement of Angola the
fruits of its dauntless struggle against colonialism, while condemning
the future state to control by transnational corporations. Cuba renews
the expression of its full solidarity with the people's liberation movement
in Angola-yesterday heroic in its struggle against the European
colonizer; today firm in its defense of true independence.
In the face of scandalous interference of imperialists, colonialists
and racists [in Angola], it is an elementary duty [for Cuba] to offer its
[the Angolan] people the effective assistance that may be required for
that country to ensure its true independence and full sovereignty. In
order to spur the decolonization process, a coherent strategy must be
implemented with the participation of all progressive forces. Th;s
strategy is essential in order to face up to colonialists and racist machinations
against the peoples of Namibia and Zimbabwe [Rhodesia] and
must oppose colonialism in all its forms and manifestations in every
comer of the earth. (Emphasis mine.)
•In an essay, " 'Intelligence:' The Constitution Betrayed" (New York Review, September
30, 1976), Henry Steele Commager states: "The fact is that the primary
function of governmental secrecy in our time has not been to protect the nation
against external enemies, but to deny to the American people information essential
to the functioning of democracy, to the Congress information essential to the
functioning of the legislative branch, and-at times-to the president himself information
which he should have to conduct his office."
The Church Committee concluded: "Recent Presidents have justified secrecy on
the basis of 'national security,' 'the requirements of national defense,' or 'the confidentiality
required by sensitive, ongoing negotiations or operations.' ... The Bay
of Pigs fiasco, the secret war in Laos, the secret bombing of Cambodia, the anti­
Allende activities in Chile, the Watergate affair, were all instances of the use of
power cloaked in secrecy which, when revealed, provoked widespread popular
disapproval" (Senate Select Committee Report, April 26, 1976, p. 12).