Bush is Right About 'axis of evil' and Castro's Repression

Frank Calzon
The Miami Herald, April 10, 2002

When Jeane Kirkpatrick took her seat as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 1981, she told U.S. diplomats in New York to take the ''kick me'' signs off their backs.

Twenty years later, after President George W. Bush's election, the U.S. representative in Havana, Vicki Huddleston, told her staff -- and the rest of the international diplomatic community in Cuba -- also to take the 'kick me' signs off their backs.

Both ambassadors reflect their presidents' policies. President Reagan, who appointed Kirkpatrick, created quite a stir by candidly describing the Soviet Union as an ``evil empire. Bush has done likewise, calling North Korea, Libya and Iraq an "axis of evil".'

That millions of Soviets agreed with the American president was not important to the critics who berated Reagan and Kirkpatrick. Nor does it seem to matter to Bush's critics that millions of Cubans support Huddleston's denouncement of increased repression in Cuba and her call last month to ''colleagues in the diplomatic community in Cuba and in capitals around the world'' to speak out.

Cuba's dissidents, Huddleston said, represent ''the desires of the Cuban people to travel freely in their country, to be able to leave their country without having permission, to be able to go to tourist areas, to invest in their own businesses, to speak freely, to have freedom of assembly, to read the books that they want to read.'' They, she trumpeted, ``could be the Solzhenitsyns of Cuba.'' She not only expressed Bush's views but also echoed those of Vaclav Havel, Nobel laureate and president of the Czech Republic. Cuba's future, Havel said, rests with its democratic activists, not with the current regime.

In dealing with terrorist states, including Cuba, Bush is clear. Yet much of the U.S. bureaucracy remains committed to the don't-make-waves school of foreign policy; believing that one has to ''go along to get along'' -- to nicer overseas assignments or Washington promotions that include offices with ever-larger windows.

Many years ago, I worked as an interpreter. Once I translated for a foreign visitor who was given an extensive, persuasive briefing at the State Department. The briefer accompanied us to the lobby and upon bidding farewell to the guest added: ''I am sure you understand, I gave you the official briefing. That does not mean I agree with everything I said.'' Most foreign-service officers are honorable and stick to the administration's message; some don't.

Among the media, many of those criticizing Bush for his ''axis of evil'' statement were also up in arms about the Pentagon's plan to establish an office to distribute disinformation abroad. The goal was to mislead U.S. enemies in the war against terrorism, a tactic that goes back to the Trojan Horse. Given the uproar, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wisely killed the effort.

But what about the disinformation campaigns conducted by governments hostile to the United States? Ana Belén Montes, the Defense Intelligence Agency analyst who recently pleaded guilty to spying for Fidel Castro, did more than pass American secrets to Havana; she incorporated Havana's disinformation in her reports.

Montes reported to the highest levels of the U.S. government that Castro wasn't supporting terrorism, wasn't involved in narco-trafficking and wasn't a threat to U.S. interests. That disinformation molded the misconceptions at the heart of today's debate about Cuba.

Has any reporter who used Montes's misinformation and identified her as an ''unidentified [U.S.] government official'' now recognized publicly that she in fact was a Cuban spy peddling Havana's propaganda?

Candor by the president and ambassadors complicate matters for some bureaucrats. Until Bush took office, many believed that White House statements about Cuba were not to be taken seriously. But Bush means what he says, and he couldn't have a better representative in Cuba articulating U.S. policy than Huddleston.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, Russians and others were free to say that Reagan's ''evil empire'' characterization was right on target. Why should Cuba be different? When Cubans are free to speak out, millions are likely to say, ``Thank God for President Bush and the United States.''

Frank Calzón is executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba in Washington, D.C.

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