University of Arizona - Desert Yearbook (Tucson, AZ)

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U.S.-SOVIET TALKS FREEZE UP Relations between the United States and the Soviet Union took a drastic downturn in 1984. The Soviets broke off arms negotiations with the U.S., and became more deeply in- volved in Central America and Afghanistan. TALKS BREAKDOWN: The U.S. and the Soviets had been trying to limit nuclear arms since the Limited Test Ban Trea- ty of 1963. Since then the two countries had been constantly negotiating, until 1984. In 1984, the two nations reached an impasse over the U.S. Cruise missile. The Reagan adminis- tration described the Cruise as a necessary addition to America ' s defensive arsenal. The Soviets announced that deployment of the medium range missile was unacceptable, and would bring an end to the negotiations. Although a visit to the U.S. by Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko in October 1984, and overtures from ' Soviet Premier Konstan- tin Chernenko in November raised hopes of negotiators, 1984 closed without a reactivation of negotiations. CENTRAL AMERICA: U.S. claims of Soviet involvement in Central America came into sharp focus in November 1984, when U.S. intelligence reports sparked fears that a freighter from the Soviet Union was taking high-perfor- mance Mig-21 fighters to Nicaragua. The cargo later turned out to be MI-24 antiguerilla helicopters, but the incident sparked fears of U.S. intervention in Nicaragua. AFGHANISTAN: Afghan rebels reported that, during the Soviet summer offensive, record-breaking casualties were inflicted on the Soviet forces. AFTER A SOVIET politburo confer- ence, Foreign Minister Andrei Gro- myko and Premier Konstantin Chernenko confer on Soviet poli- cies concerning the U.S. RUSSO-AMERICAN EMIGRES DEMONSTRATE in front of the So- viet Consulate in New York on be- s half of Andrei Sakharov, who went z on a hunger strike in mid-1984. 3FREEDOI ' ANDRdSl AFRICA AND THE SOVIET UNION 27

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AFGHAN MUJAHADEEN RELAX after a skirmish with Soviet airmo- bile forces. The Soviet Army lost several thousand troops on various actions against the Afghan rebels. FAMINE, RIOTING BRING WOE TO AFRICA In Africa, problems surfaced on two ends of the continent. In the South, the nation of South Africa underwent major upheavals as many of its citizens protested against apart- heid. In the North, in Ethiopia, the effects of several years of anti-government insurgency and a several-year old famine combined to give the country the appearance, as a Red Cross worker described it, of a modern African Auschwitz. SOUTH AFRICA: Despite the approval of a new govern- mental system giving power to Indians and coloreds (South Arficans of mixed race), blacks continued to rebel against the government, demanding representation for black citizens. The protests came to a head in September 1984, in the black townships on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Hundreds of rioters looted stores and firebombed white-owned busin- esses. The government sent in troops to restore calm, killing over 30 people in the first week. Several hundred eventually died. Despite the problems, the new minority members of the government promised to do everything possible to get black governmental representation. ETHIOPIA: The famine in Ethiopia had existed for sever- al years, but it wasn ' t until a British television news report was aired that world-attention was focused on the situation. Food and donations began to arrive in September, but a lack of transport made distribution difficult. To aid in distribu- tion, England and the Soviet Union sent aircraft, and the United States provided aircraft fuel. Rebel actions in the North hampered the distribution effort. Although quite a lot of aid was sent to Ethiopia, it may not have been soon enough. A relief agency official estimated that over one million Ethiopians had died in the fam- ine. LENIN ' S IMAGE HOVERS over vic- tims of the Ethiopian famine. The Ethiopian government was sharply criticized for its handling of the famine, and its distribution of aid as a weapon against insurgent regions. ANGRY SOUTH AFRICANS riot and set a township aflame during anti-apartheid rioting around Jo- hannesburg. Many blacks felt Prime Minister Botha ' s governmental re- forms were insufficient. 26 NEWS

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WAR AND PEACE IN CENTRAL AMERICA Once thought of as a sleepy backwater to the United States, Central America has become a hotbed of violence and intrigue. Two Central American nations figured promi- nently in the headlines of 1984: Nicaragua and El Salvador. NICARAGUA: The Sandinista government of Nicaragua has been at odds with the U.S. since its inception after the overthrow of Anastasio Somoza in 1978, but rarely has the conflict been as intense as in 1984. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had been sponsor- ing what had been described as a coverf war against the Sandinistas since 1981. The funding and supplying of var- ious insurgent groups in Nicaragua was seen as a means of replacing the Sandinista ' s Marxist government with a gov- ernment more agreeable to U.S. views. The aid to the insur- gents included arms shipments and intelligence reports on Sandinista forces, in addition to the CIA training of the reb- els in guerilla tactics. This guerrilla training got the CIA into trouble in 1984. In October, a pamphlet was issued to the insurgents, titled Operaciones Sicologicas en Guerra de Guerrillas (Psycho- logical Operations in Guerrilla Warfare). It advised insur- gents to use assassination as a tool to frighten Sandinista political leaders. This caused a furor in the Congress, as assassination was dimly viewed by U.S. citizens and politi- cians, and the CIA was forced to recall the pamphlets and hold an investigation into their publication. In November 1984, Nicaragua was again on the mind of Americans. U.S. intelligence had reported the Soviets were shipping several high-performance MIG-21 fighters. The Reagan administration had previously threatened to use force if such aircraft were delivered, but the shipment was identified as being MI-24 helicopters before action could be taken. WITH BOWED HEADS, ex-Nation- al Guardsmen charged with the murder of four American Nuns in El Salvador hear the jury give its unanimous guilty verdict. EL SALVADORAN OFFICIALS ex- amine weapons captured from left- ist rebels. El Salvadoran officials suspect that the arms shipments came from Nicaragua and Cuba. 28 A U.S. MILITARY advisor instructs El Salvadoran soliders in small arms use in a training base in Hon- duras one of several U.S. bases in that nation. NEWS