The Delta Democrat-Times from Greenville, Mississippi • Page 5

Guantamo Bay Last toehold in the Caribbean A A A A Cuba (UPD--Besides its Army, Air Force and Navy bases in the Panama Canal Zone, the United States has only two military establishments to protect the Caribbean approaches to (he canal and the southern United Stales. This unique, -15 square-mile Naval base on the southeast coast of Cuba only U.S. base on communist soil--is one and the naval station at Roosevelt Houds, Puerto Rico, is the other. Both conceivably could go the way of Panama. Navy officials here will not comment on the possiblity of eventually giving up "Gitmo" ami Roosevelt Roads, saying it is a political problem on which only Washington can speak.

But they and knowledgeable sources in Washington do not disguise concern "at the prospect of a diminishing U.S. role in the Caribbean in the face of a Soviet naval presence in waters which have been regarded as an American lake for more than a century. Guantanamo Bay, one of the world's great deep water harbors, may prove a final Cuban bargaining point in the full restoration of diplomatic relations with the United States, a process that has already begun. Cuban leader Fidel Castro has referred to the U.S. base established by a lease-treaty with the Cuban government of the time in 1903 as "a dagger plunged into the heart of Cuban soil." But a he a i Panamanian a a Torrijos last year be topatienl with the Americans on the canal, Castro has said he is not going to try to take Guantanamo Ray by force "as long as they are stronger than we are." But he adds Guantanamo is "a piece of land Cannon kills one, injures six KOLLA, Mo.

(UPD--A homemade cannon used in a fnilernily rile or; Ihu i i Missouri campus exploded Tuesday nighl, killing CHIC btudent and injuring six others. Missouri Highway Patrol dispatcher David Colgruve said today the cannon was fired during party celebrating the Kappa Alpha fraternity's initiation of its lit I It; i group, the Daughters of Lee. "H's apparently a custom ol theirs to fire this homemade camion and the cannon exploded," Colgrove said, "sending pieces of shrapnel and metiil throughout the group and one person was killed and six were injured." Randall Cruslals, 21 of Florissant, was dead on arrival at St. Johns Hospital in St. Louis.

He had suffered severe head injuries. which we will never give 1 Roosevelt Roads, which does not have the deep water harbor or facilities of Guantanamo, was until recently regarded as secure. But "Yankee go home" political factions could alter that picture as the island a a i commonwealth a or independence. In any case, naval experts estimate it would take billion to fit out Roosevelt Roads with equivalent training, docking and repair facilities as at Gitmo. Underlying the concern for the security of the Caribbean is frequent Soviet Air Force activity, including non-stop, long-distance flights from as far away as Murmansk in Arctic Russia, an intermittent Russian naval presence and the possibility the Red a a a a a a submarine servicing facilities in one of Cuba's harbors.

While a small group of reporters were visiting this base last week, the U.S. and Cuba established "interest section" diplomatic missions in Washington and Havana after a more than 16 year lapse. "And so the process has begun," said Philip C. Habib, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, who represented the United States al the Havana ceremonies. It remains to be seen whether the process towards full diplomatic relations and the solving of all problems includes the continued U.S.

presence ul Guatanamo Bay and what the Soviets will do then. Analysts say Soviet naval objectives in the Caribbean appear obvious: challenge the current dominance of the United States, expand Soviet influence in Latin America and "defend" Communist Cuba. Since the 1962 missile crisis when U.S. warships threatened to stop and board Soviet vessels if they tried to deliver missiles to prepared sites in Cuba, the growing Red fleet has carried out a cautious IHII persistent probing exercise. Only this summer, in June and July, the Soviets sailed a small task force consisting of a cruiser, two destroyers and an oiler into Cuban waters, making a show visit al Havana but staying clear of Guantanamo Bay.

Signi icanlly, were no submarines this time. The last i i oslcnliously pulled into Cienfuegos, sonic 350 miles up the coast from Guanlanamo Day and already fitted as a Soviet nuclear base, came in 1974. Accompanied by a tender, which had apparently joined it at sea, the Golf class, dieselpowered sub was said to have carried intermediate range missiles with nuclear warheads. During the 19G2 missile crisis, the Soviets agreed not to introduce any offensive missiles into Cuba or establish military or naval bases there. i a a i a verbal--never published--agreement in 1970 between Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko to include i i i a nuclear-powered, nuclear missile carrying submarines.

The Soviets now boast the largest submarine fleet in the world. includes 78 nuclear and diesel submarines carrying a total of 845 missiles as compared to a U.S. strategic force of 41 i submarines carrying 6-J6 missiles. The number on both sides does not include attack submarines, where the Soviets again exceed in undersea vessels. Satellite photographs as far back as 1970 clearly showed that the Soviets did intend Cienfuegos as a submarine base with a tender, two support barges capable of handling radioactive wastes from nuclear powered submarines, a rescue ocean tug moored off an area containing barrack-type buildings and a typical Russian touch: a soccer field and tennis, volleyball and basketball courts.

A submarine net was installed inside the harbor, which is a key Cuban naval base. Tliis led to a While House warning to Moscow not to build a strategic submarine base there and the Kissinger-Gromyko agreement. But visits by Soviet warships had already begun in force and were intensified in the following years. The vanguard included eight ships which went to Havana in July-August of 1969--a guided missile cruiser, a missile frigate, a missile destroyer, two attack submarines and three 1 support ships. On the way -jn, the flotilla passed close to Key West, i-nroute into the Gulf of Mexico.

Although Soviet warships keep clear of Guantanamo Bay, their merchant ships enter the U.S. deep water port regularly cnroute to an inner, Cuban harbor whore they load sugar cane. Capt. David W. DeCook, commander of Cruantanmo, and his aides said that so far this a 12 a ships right of them Soviet-had come through what is known as the "Watergate" into the inner harbor.

The Georgetown Center for Strategic and I a i a i in Washington says that by sending warships into the Caribbean on a regular basis "Moscow has acquired potential bargaining leverage for pushing back forward naval deployment from waters close to the Soviet Union." In a study to be publisFied later this month, the Center said that Moscow may offer to limit ils naval presence and Cutia may agree to deny Soviet use of Cienfuegos "as a potential trade-off for U.S. withdrawal from Guantanamo." "The Panama negotiations could be cited as a precedent for Cuba's efforts to change the status of Guantanamo," it said. "The United States must strive to keep the two issues separate. If i does not, then it could find itself in a position where it is being pressured to withdraw from its facilities, not only in the Caribbean but elsewhere in the region, e.g, Roosevelt Roads, as well as perhaps in other regions of the world." WE'RE MOVING We Will Be Closed Friday Saturday SEPTEMBER 23 and 24 We Will Reopen Monday, September 26th In Our New Home Colony Square, Hwy. 1 South Watch for Our Grand Opening Mtiry A.

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