The present gloom and doom on the economic front is matched only by the news that our foreign policy is a shambles, from Vietnam and Cambodia, to the Middle East, to Greece, Turkey, and Portugal.
There is, however, one bright spot in the world — a new anti Communist government in Chile. The Communist Allende is gone and Chile is once again pro-American. Chile is Henry Kissingers most conspicuous success.
Back in 1954 when the Communists took over Guatemala, President Eisenhower took courageous action to defend the Monroe Doctrine, which pledged the United States to prevent European interference in Western Hemisphere countries “for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny.”
Eisenhower appointed diplomat Whiting Willauer as Ambassador to Honduras for the specific purpose of helping to overthrow the Communist regime in neighboring Guatemala. Wiliauer headed a team consisting of John Puerifoy, Ambassador Robert Hill, and several CIA men. They accomplished their objective, and Allen Dulles gave Willauer a commendation stating that the Guatemalan revolution could not have succeeded without him.
When Castro’s little band of Communists posing as “agrarian reformers took over Cuba, President Eisenhower appointed Whiting Willauer to supervise a similar operation to preserve the Monroe Doctrine by overthrowing Fidel. Unfortunately, Eisenhower left office a month later. The Kennedy Administration then froze out Willauer from all preparations for the Bay of Pigs invasion, and it was a total failure.
The Bay of Pigs failure set the stage for the Cuban missile crisis a year and a half later because it gave the Soviets a nuclear missile base at a no-warning distance from the United States. The Bay of Pigs failure also set the precedent for those inside our government who then blocked every plan to enforce the Monroe Doctrine by preventing the Soviets from moving their missiles and submarines into the Western Hemisphere.
It may never be possible to identify all those in our government responsible for the decision to let the Bay of Pigs invasion fail, but five years later, in a frank interview with Stewart Alsop, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara admitted: “You know damn well where I was at the time of the decision — I recommended it.”
Khrushchev later subsequently taunted us by saying: “Now the remains of’ this (Monroe} Doctrine should best be buried, as every dead body is, so that it does not poison the air by its decay.” The Soviets continued to “oppress” the Cubans and “control” their “destiny,” in. violation of the Monroe Doctrine.
When the Communist government of Allende took control in Chile, it looked as though Khrushchev’s boast were still operative. Then, lo and behold, a swift and relatively painless revolt replaced Allende with an anti-communist, pro-American government. Some people are trying to pin the blame for Chile’s sudden change on the CIA. The CIA should cheerfully accept this unexpected accolade. It is good to know that one agency in our government still stands behind the Monroe Doctrine.
