Thank you for the letter from your Public Relations Dept. replying to my cartoon and to my letter to Mr. Savimbi [AtE Jan 86]. I am sure you will realize that with 4 pages per month I cannot reprint all of your letter, but I will reply to its main points.
The minor points:
1) You have been in Angola since 1957, long before it became a Soviet-subservient Marxist state. Should we then excuse Chase-Manhattan (which refuses loans to South Africa, but has a branch office in Moscow) on the grounds that they did business with the Tsar before 1917?
2) If you simply pulled out, you would lose your assets and others would simply step in. True; but who asked you to pull out? Last summer the Freedom Research Foundation (Box 4174, Malibu, CA 90265) sent you a number of detailed proposals how to use your leverage with the Angolan government, which depends on your oil to finance 35,000 Cuban troops. Their suggestions included pressure to stop further bloodshed, start negotiating with the rebels fighting colonial repression, and calling for the withdrawal of all foreign troops.
3) At no time have you lobbied for the government of Angola. That conflicts with my information. You have, for example, called for recognition of Angola's colonial government in congressional hearings; and I find it hard to believe that the hundreds of millions of dollars loaned for oil exploration to that government by the Export-Import Bank were granted, at the US taxpayer's risk, without your active help.
But now to the major point. You write "The US government has consistently supported and encouraged the Chevron/Gulf presence in Angola. Recently, the US State Department said it 'feels strongly that US business participation in Angola is in the long-term interest of both our nations and of all Angolans.'"
That sounds like the State Department all right. But are you a corporation of free men who have raised capital from stockholders to do honorable business to the best of your conscience, or are you a government agency obedient to the whims of spineless careerists like Chester Crocker [the State Department official who has aided the Soviet viceroys in Angola, Mozambique and Ethiopia]? If it is the latter, let me recall that since your letter was written (Jan 13), Mr Crocker has displayed his infinite flexibility. Human Events (Feb 8) reports his press conference in which he "strongly suggested that it might well be in the national interest for ... Chevron Oil to pack up and leave." He also said "It has not, according to our perceptions, accelerated the negotiation process
¾the fact that you have Gulf-Chevron working there. The presence of our companies helps to generate foreign exchange, you know, which can be used for imports of military hardware."So there is your reward for your loyal servility. Now will you act to protect your corporation and its shareholders from their most implacable enemies, or will you wait until this chameleonic jellyfish reverses course once more?
Please stop weaving the rope that will hang you.
Sincerely, P.B.
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Vol. 13, No. 7
Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive Volume: Issues Issue/No.: Vol. 13, No. 7 Date: November 29, 2004 04:15 PM Title: Onward and outward
Copyright © 2004 - Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
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