Escalating arms sales to the Third World

Moderator

Krogh, Peter F. (Peter Frederic)

Person Interviewed

Bond, Robert D.

Burt, Richard

Kelly, John

Abstract

Examines Venezuela's request to purchase sophisticated F-16 fighter jets from the United States and the growing sale of arms to Third World countries.

Description

In 1981 the Venezuelan government made a request to purchase 24 F-16 fighter jets from the United States. Although Venezuela was historically a stable ally of the United States, the Reagan administration's eventual sale of the F-16s marked a drastic shift from the policies of the three previous presidents, each of whom had each refrained from selling sophisticated arms to Third World countries. In spite of this restraint, however, arms shipments to the Third World nearly doubled between 1975 and 1979, begging the question, are American interests well served by selling sophisticated weaponry to Latin America and the rest of the Third World? In this episode, host Peter Krogh sits down with John Kelly, a professor at Georgetown University on leave from the State Department, Richard Burt, Director of the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, and Dr. Robert Bond, a specialist on Latin America at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, to discuss the case for selling advanced weaponry to Latin American countries, as well as the growing sale of arms to the Third World.