Resist Perils Posed by the World's Tyrants

January 9, 2003 | The Miami Herald
by Frank Calzon

Until Sept. 11, 2001, two huge oceans on its borders provided the United States a sense of national security, and most Americans paid little heed to history, geography and world events. Today we know that such attitudes, at best, are naive and, at worst, lethal. We are compelled to learn more about the world's tyrants and to resist or confront them.

Tyrants are certain to use every means available to protect their power and impose their will and views on others. Osama bin Laden is the obvious example of the embittered enemy of American ideals and institutions. He not only recognized but used the easy access provided by Americas open society to destroy the World Trade Center and plant the seed of terror. Other tyrants content themselves with exploiting our society, bending American public opinion and manipulating U.S. political and economic organizations to serve their interests.

Joseph Stalin, Rafael Trujillo, Ho Chi Minh, the Sandinistas, Ferdinand Marcos and the shah of Iran cultivated allies among American intellectual, political and economic elites. Cuba's communist dictator, Fidel Castro, is among those who do so today. And Americans hardly raise an eyebrow when lawyers and former high-ranking U.S. government officials tout and represent foreign interests on the lecture circuit, in the halls of Congress and at the White House.

In America's criminal courts, all are innocent ''until proven guilty,'' and that's commendable. Applied to foreign affairs, however, the ''all are innocent'' principle makes little sense. America shouldn't need proof beyond ''a reasonable doubt'' to be wary or to protect Americans and the national interests.
The damage done by failing to recognize reality can linger for a long time. Does it matter that Jane Fonda now apologizes for her role supporting communism in Southeast Asia? Was any of the damage repaired when, years after the fact, it was shown that Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times correspondent Jimmy Durant mislead millions around the world with his ''benign'' reports from Stalinist Russia? Does it make a difference that the Bay of Pigs battle was not lost in Cuba but in the White House when John Kennedy reneged on the promised air cover to men under fire who had been trained and equipped by the United States? For many Americans, that's all ''ancient history'' and provides no guidance for today's economic and political decisions. But surely we should have learned something.

Yet even today we fail to recognize that while President Bush faces vigorous questions from the press and congressional debate over policy, the tyrants of this world face no such questioning or debate. Recently, U.S. Reps. David Bonior, D-Mich., Mike Thompson, D-Calif., and Jim McDermott, D-Wash., while visiting Baghdad publicly blasted Bush for poverty and suffering in Iraq. Does Saddam Hussein bear no responsibility? The specious logic behind the complaints of the congressional trio is the same as that of those who make political pilgrimages to Havana and find no problems for which Castro is to blame. It can be likened to those who praised Stalin's great sense of humor, declared the dictators faults to be greatly exaggerated and blamed capitalist ''encirclement'' for the suffering of the Soviet Union's people.

Things do change. Regrettably only one thing seems to have changed in our understanding of tyrants: Fifty years ago, there was time for America to awake to a threat. Today, there is little time to react and scant room for error in deciding where U.S. interests lie and how our security is best protected.
Washington's debates reflect the vigor of America's body politic and democratic processes. The point is not to still America's voices or curtail its freedom but to infuse the debate on security with an understanding that friends and foes alike are listening and will act. We continue to ignore the lessons of history at our own peril.

Frank Calzon is Executive Director of the Center for a Free Cuba, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., that promotes human rights and democracy for Cuba.