Saturdoy, May 18, 1974
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Five
U.S. Army school for scoundrels
By NANCY STEIN
ON HIS recent whirlwind visit
to Panama in February, Se-
cretary of State Henry Kissinger
and Panama's Foreign Minister
Juan Tack signed an eight point
agreement of principles yr oid-
ing for the eventual restoration
of Panama's territorial sover-
eignty over the Canal and the
550-square mile zone surround-
ing it.
According to this agreement,
a new treaty will be nagn'iated
that supercedes the one signed
in 1903, which gave the Unted
States control, of the Canal "in
perpetuity." The new treaty
will contain a fixed terminsaion
date for U.S. jurisdiction over,
the Canal, and will provide for
Panama's participation in the
administration, protection and
defense of the waterway until
the Canal reverts to Panama.
Even though this agreement
indicates that some pragress
has been made in the long-stale-
mated negotiations over t h e
Canal, it is significant I h at
Kissinger carefully skirted the
issue of continued U.S. mili-
tary presence in the Zone.
Omar Torrijos, president of
Panama's nationalist military
government has repeatedly cal-
led for the removal of U.S.
military installations as part of
any agreement with the United
States insisting that "the Amer-
icans have to pull out with their
colonial tent."
BUT UNDER the Nixon Ad-
ministration, U.S. military ac-
Be careful with fire:
There are babes
inthe woods.
tivity in the Canal Zone h as
been greatly stepped up. Al-
most the entire U.S. counterin-
surgency force for Latin Aner-
ica, including more than 12,000
Army, Air Force and Navy per-
sonnel, military training cert-
ers and a jungle warfare school,
is located in the Zone.
It is also the headquarters of
the U.S. Southern Command
(SOUTHCOM), which coordinat-
es all U.S. military and intelli-
gence activities, supervises all
U.S. military assistance p r 0-
grams, and maintains a com-
munications and logistics net-
work for U.S. forces thro-ighout
Latin America.
On February 7, the New York
Times reported that JOUTH-
COM was one of seven military
headquarters slated to he shut
down by 1975. This was partly
due to the costs of operating
the program: $136.5 million last
year alone. However, in an in-
terview, a Pentagon spokesman
said that the only actual change
being contemplated is the par-
tial withdrawal of Army units
from the Command. None of the
programs under the jurisdiction
of SOUTHCOM wil be affected.
REMAINING will be 1,100
members of the Eighth Special
Forces (Green Berets) stationed
at Fort Gulick, who travel
throughout Latin America pro-
viding intensive counterinsur-
gency training programs f o r
troops from nations friendly to
to the United States. Since the
formation of the Green Berets in
1962, they have operated in ev-
ery Latin American country ex-
cept Cuba, Haiti and Mexico.
There is even a model Viet-
namese village in the C a n a I
Zone which has served as a
realistic training site for Indo-
china-bound Green Berets and
continues to be used today for
refresher training purposes.
The Canal Zone is also the
training ground for thousands of
Latin American military person-
nel. More than 40,000 students
have graduated from the U.S.
Army School of the Americas
(USARSA) and the inter Amer-
ican Air Force Academy sirce
they were founded in the 1940s.
Many of these graduates have
risen to top positions in their
governments. As of October 1073
more than 170 graduates of
USARSA were heads of gov-
ernments, cabinet ministers,
commanding generals or direct-
ors of intelligence in their coun-
tries. Members of Chile's mnili-
tary junta and the Chilean di-
rector of intelligence are all
graduates of the school.
TRAINING is a crucial ele-
ment in forging close -el'ions
with the militaries of otner na-
tions. In fiscal 1971, $10 million
or 62 per cent of the Penta-
gon's grand aid program was
devoted to this purpose.
Despite requests by Panama's
government to remove SOUTH-
'COM from the Canal Zone, Gov.
Nelson Rockefeller continued to
stress the value: of these pro-
grams after his 1969 tour of Lat-
in America:
"In view of the growing sib-
version against hemisphere gov-
ernments . . . it is essential that
the training program w n i c h
brings military and police per-
sonnel from the other hemis-
phere nations to the United
States and to training centers
in Panama be continued and
strengthened."
THE U.S. ARMY Sznool of
the Americas, located at F o r t
Gulick in the Canal Zone, was
established to "conduct training
for designated Latin American
personnel which will increase
their capability to contribu:e to
the maintenance of internal se-
curity and the development of
their countries." It is the most
important training ground for
counterinsurgency operations in
Latin America, and is the only
U.S. Army school to cater ex-
clusively to Latin American per-
sonnel.
The courses are taught for
the most part by U.S. citizens of
Mexican, Puerto Rican, or Cub-
an descent, and lop graduates
in each class are invited back
as guest lecturers. Representa-
tives of U.S. military groops,
military attaches and local
commanders screen applicants
from the various countries. Last
January, USARSA celebrated
the graduation of its 30,000th
student.
Documents recently made
available to NACLA describe
the course curriculum offered
to the students. According to
the documents there is ihe:-vv
emphasis on intelligence opera-
tions, interrogation tech siques,
civic action, jungle :irfare,
and the inculcation of U S.
Army doctrine and ideology.
IN RESPONSE to the grow-
ing wave of guerilla activity in
the cities, new courses h a te
been developed on urban guer-
rilla warfare and souhia;iated
"criminal investigation te hi-
ques." Special courses on tne
role of Military Police in count-
erinsurgency operations are at-
tended by police officers cer
the auspices of the Agency for
International Development.
Classroom exercises is urban
warfare courses range from the
selection of labor anion inform-
ers to methods of protecing
leaders from assassination at-
tempts, to the recovery and de-
activation of explosive devices.
A similar program of ins";action
offered to foreign police at the
U.S. Border Patrol A:adetny in
Texas has come under attack
for its contribution to right-
wing terrorism. The Latin
American police and military
are notorious for their inv-ve-
ment in para-military d e a f h
squads, where much of their
training is used to ,arry out vio-
lent attacks on government ip-
ponents.
BECAUSE of the sensitive ra-
ture of SOUTHCOM's activities,
no other Latin American coun-
try would allow the Pentagon to
set up operations within it
borders. In a period of intense
nationalist feelings, no govern-
ment could so visibly comprom-
ise its integrity. The Peatagon
would also prefer not to bring
these programs home to the
U.S., since "There is no ade-
quate substitute for a com-
mand, being on the soat, work-
ing daily on U.S. military reia-
tions with Latin America."
These programs are import-
ant elements of the Nixon Doc-
trine, which seeks to red-tce the
U.S. military presence abroad
while strengthening armies in
the Third World. According to
ex-Secretary of Defense Melvin
Laird, the Military Assistance
Program, which includes miili-
tary training, is the "essential
ingredient" of the Nixon stra-
tegy. The emphasis of these
programs is on "low-cost, low-
visibility assistance and train-
ing programs to upgrade the ca-
pacity of local forces to over-
come guerrilla movements."
THOUGH THE programs in
the past were aimed mainly at
instructing military personnel to
fight internal battles, they have
increasingly international im-
plications. The U.S. military is
beefing up national armies into
special repressive forces Inat
would be able to unite uder a
single command to combit 1-b-
eration movements anywhere in
the continent. Already one of
the leadrs of Chile's junta, Gen-
eral Gustavo Leigh, is ur.,ing
the military governments in La-
tin America to form a league
for self-help and consultation,
to respond to these movements.
U.S. military programs in the
Canal Zone assume n even
greater importance vow that the
liberal Alliance for Progress
programs have been abandoned,
and the U.S. is forced to rely
on the military as the only solu-
tion left to contain resistance.
Thus far, negotiations between
the United States and Panfma
have not resolved the problem
of U.S. military activities it the
Canal Zone, but whether the
U.S. bases remain in te C'inal
Zone or not, the work of train-
ing, arming and indoocrhtalitug
Latin American military per-
sonnel will continue.
Nancy Stein is a s/aff mrin-
parr of /he North American
Congress on Latin America
(NACLA). Reprin/ed f r o n
NACLA's La/in America and
Empire Report, March 1974.
..
^ I{ii
^
/ ]1C
V
a t4
31 N. Washington BO WIDERBE RG'S
YPSILANTI 482-3300
aDy A D
AI~ELV IA MADIGAN and J
SNGS A historical a Do
story between a young wor
c BLUES litical strife which disinte
Q | Peter Schmidt, Anita Biork.
Next Weekend: THI
ART I1 Policewomen and Superchick
COMING SOON CINEMA I1
RFTTF MIDLFR in THE DIVINE MRI .. .
1969
ALEN 31
strike in Northern Sweden by the director of
OE HILL. A gentle interweavino of a love
ker and a factory owner's daughter and po-
grates the relationship and a government.
(Swedish, subtitled).
ANN ARBOR CIVIC THEATRE
PRESENTS
Irving Berlin's
MAY 15-19
Wednesday-Saturday at 8 p.m.
Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m.
Saturday matinee at 2 p.m.
MENDELSSOHN THEATRE
TICKETS: $3.50 and $4.00
Box Office 763-1085