75-09-A5
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Red Sea
TranscriptThe Soviet Union is moving toward full control of the Red Sea. I'll be right back. You may have thought that the Soviet Union had enough to celebrate with the conquest of Indochina and the recent leftward tilt of Portugal. If so you'd be wrong. Political developments in the Middle East and near the vital Horn of Africa could give the Soviets military control of the major commercial passage between Asia and Europe. There are three pieces to the puzzle. The first is the imminent reopening of the Suez Canal which will greatly reduce the time it takes the Soviet Union to get its ships into the Mediterranean. With the canal open the Red Sea becomes the naval gateway to Europe but the Red Sea itself is difficult to enter at its opposite or southern end. A power which can control the Gulf of Aden can prevent traffic into the Red Sea and thus close off the shortest link between Asia and Europe. Shipping which does not utilize the Red Sea and Suez Canal has to go all the way around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa. Two countries face onto the Gulf of Aden, one in Africa the other in Asia, on the extreme southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. These countries are Somalia and South Yemen. They are both newly independent Muslim countries though South Yemen is Arab and Somalia predominantly Negro, but these two vitally located countries also have one other thing in common: they are both close to being satellites of the Soviet Union. South Yemen with its British-built Port of Aden recently held a conference of its ruling National Front party. The major decisions all went in favor of the pro-Soviet faction headed by National Front Secretary General Abdel Fattah Ismail and against the more independent faction led by President Salem Robaya Ali. The party decided on a popular front-type merger with the communists and the far left Ba'ath party. At also decided to reject an offer of Arab aid financed by Saudi Arabia in favor of continued dependence on the Soviet Union. The Arab offer was contingent upon the government's adoption of a policy more independent of Soviet wishes. Finally the ruling party decided to redouble its efforts against the neighboring conservative Sheikhdom of Oman which is nearly as vital to access to the oil-rich Persian Gulf as South Yemen is to the Red Sea. To give an idea of how left-wing the government is, already South Yemen is the only Arab country which has persecuted the Muslim religion. The situation in Somalia the country that dominates the Horn of Africa has gone even further, according to a report by the respected Institute for the Study of Conflict. The institute found that quote, "The expanding Soviet presence amounts on the evidence of factual reports from the country to a process of gradual satellization." Unquote. The group estimates that there are 3600 Soviet nationals in Somalia, Soviet advisers in the office of the president and KGB officers running the Somali police and increasingly the army the Russians reportedly have unhindered access to both sea and air bases in the country. We in the West continue to ignore events of this sort but the Soviet push for power goes on and on. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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