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The United States in the 1980s--foreign Affairs (1980-01-17)
About this film
Today's guests are 3 of the 16 contributors to Hoover's landmark volume The United States in the 1980s, and from their different perspectives they all tell the same tale: despite its material and spiritual poverty, the Soviet Union is scoring success after success in its foreign policy, and is ahead of us in nuclear weaponry, for one simple reason: in Dr. Teller's words, "They have clear-cut goals and they are consistent in pursuing them." Despite the gloominess of the message, this proves to be a lively exchange. PD: ".. . I'm worried about oil. Let 'em have Grenada. You have to have a strategic sense of balance here. The whole of the Caribbean isn't worth much to us. It can be easily neutralized in any time of crisis." RS: "Except that Grenada's 90 miles from Venezuela." PD: "But oil from the Middle East is immediately and crucially important to the whole of Western Europe and Japan." WFB: "Is Mr. Staar's point--and your point too--that if we control the skies over the Caribbean and the water in the Caribbean, whoever has the atolls doesn't matter all that much? ..." PD: "Yes, we need oil; we don't need bananas and coconuts." ET: "We still need the Panama Canal." RS: "We also nee…
Directors & creators
Southern Educational Communications Association
Subjects
public broadcasting, AAPB, William F. Buckley Jr., Edward Teller, Richard F. Staar, Hoover Institution, Soviet Union foreign policy, Nuclear armament, Caribbean basin security, Grenada, Venezuela, Middle East oil dependency, Panama Canal, Mexico petroleum, United States foreign policy 1980s, Cold War strategy, Geopolitics
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