Department

Fog at U.S. State Department

David North’s article on the Kiste-Herr Report’s reception in Washington includes description of a U.S. State Department briefing at which ques tions on the report were sandwiched between others on Lebanon and South Africa.

Following is a trans cript of the exchange, which, as Mr North sug gests, indicates that at least one briefing officer in the U.S. State Depart ment is a little shaky on his Pacific geography.

The briefer’s name is Charles Redman, the questioner un-named in the transcript.

Q: Chuck, an academic report com missioned by the State Department appears to blow a few holes in the U.S. State Department view on the South Paci fic, namely that the alleged Russian penetration of the region is being greatly ex aggerated, that the French are the real problems along with rigid U.S. attitudes. Do you have any comment on the report?

REDMAN: Yes, I do.

Q: I thought you might.

REDMAN: That’s just between the South Pacific, the Soviet I’m

just trying to find out what area of the world this is in. (Laughter.) Should I try Europe?

No, it’s not Europe. I give up. Anybody got a oh, yes, here it is.

It is under the South Pacific. (Laughter). All right. Here we are. Yes.

The report you are referring to is known as the “Kissed-Herr” report.

I didn’t make that up, folks. (Laughter). It is a report written by Profes sors Robert Kiste and Richard Herr. It does not “blame” the U.S. and France for instability in the South Pacific. Such a conclusion could only be based on a selection, out-of-context reading, of the document. The Department commis sioned Kiste and Herr to write this report on the

potential for Soviet penetration in the South Pacific in mid-1984.

This commission was part of the Department’s on-going external re search program and was a purely academic exercise with neither au thor having access to classified government documents. As was al ways the case with ex ternal research program projects, the conclu sions reached by the authors do not repre sent the official opinion or policy of the U.S.

Government. The report is unclassified and has been widely distributed.

Q; Could I have a copy, please?

REDMAN: Of the re port? Q: Yes, please.

REDMAN: I’ll see if we can find one.