U.S. Army School of the Americas
- Accomplishing the Mission under Fire -

COL (ret) Ken LaPlante


"A fine power is always heralded by great pain" Don Juan in A Separate Reality

Around a large conference table sit senior military representatives from more than 25 armies of the Western Hemisphere. All are attending a weeklong, biennial training and military education sub-conference to the Conference of American Armies. Deputy Directors of Training or the ADCSOPS-equivalent for their respective armies comprise the majority of participants. This day the conference attendees have suspended their planned multinational training and education business to discuss the rather large gathering of quite a vocal group composed of US and foreign citizens at the front gate of the post. The host of the conference facilitates a lively and direct discussion on the situation and matter-of- factly points out that the demonstration is a fine example of the freedoms enjoyed by U.S. citizens. The facilitator notes that the people gathering outside of the military post possess a permit allowing their demonstration. He also points out that the situation is one for the local government and law enforcement agencies to address and that, should the people decide to violate law and cross on to the military base, they then become the responsibility of U.S. Federal Marshals supported by U.S. Army Military Police. He uses the situation to drive home the point of the actions of a professional military in a democratic society. The year is 1994. The location is Fort Benning, Georgia. The host of the conference is Commandant of the U.S. Army School of the Americas (USARSA), an Army colonel, and the event at the front gate is the 5th annual demonstration by special interests groups wanting to close the School. 1 

Figure 1 - U.S. Army School of the Americas, Fort Benning, GA
Unless you have been lying beside Rip Van Winkle or assigned on a security detachment in Antarctica for the past 8 to 10 years then the terms USARSA or SOA (School of the Americas) should sound familiar to you; but, if you are like 95% of the U.S. military, your knowledge of this U.S. military training and education institution is probably limited by what you may have read or heard, publicly, about the School. Unfortunately most of the information available in the public domain is the negative type generated by critics of the USARSA. USARSA or SOA are the common acronyms that refer to the U.S. Army school charged by US Public Law 100- 180 to provide military education and training to military personnel of Central and South American countries and Caribbean countries. 2  The USARSA mission statement expands this charter to include providing sound, doctrinally correct training and education to the militaries of Latin America and the Caribbean while promoting democratic values and respect for human rights and fostering cooperation among multinational military forces. The USARSA presents over fifty Spanish language versions of the same professional education and training courses presented to U.S. Army and other U.S. military personnel at our Army proponent schools. The curriculum includes courses in leadership and management like the Army Command and General Staff Officer course as well as tactical, civil-military relations and technical courses. The students range from corporals to colonels as well as their civilian and law enforcement equivalents from throughout Latin America, the Caribbean and the U.S. The USARSA has a faculty and staff consisting of 278 outstanding military and civilian personnel of which some 46 are guest instructors from the militaries of the region. The USARSA is a valuable instrument of U.S. foreign policy to the region and directly supports the regional engagement strategy of the Commander-in- Chief (CINC), U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM). 3 

The question becomes one of relevance: is the USARSA vital to the attainment of U.S. National Security goals and objectives? If so, then it should continue; however, if it isn't then perhaps it is no longer needed. The U.S. Government position is that it is a valuable tool for U.S. foreign policy issues in the Western Hemisphere; however, there is an ever-growing group of critics opposed to the USARSA as well as all US military assistance to foreign countries. The USARSA is, unfortunately, the critics' focal point for this emotional political issue.

Figure 2 - Father Roy leading the annual demonstration at Fort Benning's main gate
Since the early '90s, the School has been the target of an intense and growing campaign to close it. For almost ten years the Army, the USARSA, its faculty, staff, students and their families have borne the brunt of outrageously false allegations from a myriad of special interests groups that disagree with various aspects of current and former U.S. foreign policy in the area of security assistance to the nations of our hemisphere (and generally to the world at large). They use the School as their focal point, their symbol to gain media attention and support for their principal causes: social justice and anti-US imperialism in the Americas (as they see it). 4  Initially, the critics' used false allegations and misrepresentation of facts to focus attention on the misconduct by Latin American military personnel who had attended a course or courses at the USARSA. The critics' adopted an illogical guilt-by-association position for the USARSA. Only recently have their central organizers begun to openly blame the School (and thereby its faculty and staff) of actually teaching criminal misconduct in the form of torture, rape and coup executions classes. There is no logic in the critics' focus on the USARSA -- their position is based on emotions and their perception that militaries have no place in a modern, peaceful society. In July and August of 1999 the unsubstantiated allegations were loudly repeated, this time on the floors of the US Senate and the House of Representatives. 5  Unheeded are the findings of over twelve external inspections and investigations that found no wrongdoing on the School's part and that actually note the outstanding nature of the training and education presented, especially the USARSA human rights classes. 6  In fact, a human rights activist attended the USARSA 1999 Human Rights symposium and noted that the critics are working to close "the leading center of human rights training for the military." 7  - - Ironic, no?

Yet, in the face of this monumental and stressful situation and all of its unsettling distractions, the School's faculty and staff have continued to successfully perform its assigned missions in outstanding fashion.

The USARSA currently is a U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) education and training institution located on Fort Benning, Georgia. It arrived there after a series of intense discussions between the Republic of Panama and the US as to the future of the USARSA. Behind the scenes the real issue was who would have, post-Panama Canal Treaty, the senior position of Commandant. The Panamanian Defense Forces wanted Panama to provide the Commandant and to fill other key faculty and staff positions. The U.S. Army disagreed. The end result: the U.S. Army, after an analysis of various U.S. and foreign locations and in compliance with the terms of the 1977 Panama Canal Treaty, selected Fort Benning, Georgia and relocated the School in 1984. 8 

The USARSA was born in the Republic of Panama. In 1946, the U.S. Army established the USARSA fore-bearer, the Latin American Center -- Ground Division (US Training) at Fort Amador, Panama. This training center was to train U.S. Army forces in a jungle environment as well as to continue the contact and cooperation between the U.S. militaries and Latin American militaries established during World War II. Three years later, Latin American military leaders requested that the U.S. expand its training offerings from the original aircrew, radar operation and vehicle maintenance training courses. The U.S. agreed and the Army renamed the center the US Army Caribbean School -- Spanish Instruction and relocated to the other side of the Panamanian Isthmus (the Atlantic side) on to Fort Gulick near the city of Colon, Panama. There the US Army courses were expanded and increasingly taught in Spanish until 1956 when the School offered all of its courses in Spanish.

In the early 1960s, President John F. Kennedy initiated a hemispheric security policy to protect the Alliance for Progress in the Americas and to contain the spread of communism. This led to the Army expanding the role of the School to include more tactical and operational courses in addition to its original technical ones. In July 1963 the institution became the U.S. Army School of the Americas.

The School's curriculum has always supported and continues to support the requirements of the regional commander-in-chief and U.S. Latin American policy. During the Cold War, the curriculum supported the US policy of containing the spread of communism and seeking to promote democracies and free market based economies. At the end of the Cold War, the U.S. Government changed its foreign policy and the School transformed its curriculum to support the new Engagement policy. This policy focuses on creating a more secure, prosperous, and democratic world for the benefit of the American people by assisting the region stabilize emerging democracies based on free-market economies supported by a professional military fully subservient and supportive of civilian control, the rule of law and respect for human rights.

Since 1946 over 60,000 military officers, Non-commissioned Officers (NCOs), law enforcement personnel and governmental civilians have attend professional education and training courses at the School. The USARSA has reacted to the needs of the region as specified by CINC, SOUTHCOM. When the Organization of American States (OAS) asked the U.S. to assist in its Central American demining effort, the Department of State asked the Department of Defense for help. The Army received the task to prepare a Train-the-Trainer course in demining operations and the USARSA came through in record time developing and presenting the initial course that served as the basis for the on-going OAS initiative. In 1996, SOUTHCOM asked for a course in counter-drug support operations for military and law enforcement personnel in the region. Again, the USARSA came through with the assistance of DEA. Today, the USARSA continues to instruct military and law enforcement leaders in these type operations. Its curriculum reflects the US priorities in the region. 9 

Despite the importance of USARSA's training and education offerings to the region, there are individuals and groups that continue to view any U.S. military assistance as a form of imperialism; who seek the abolition of all military forces, including the U.S. military; and who truly believe that if the USARSA did not teach any courses, the hemispheric social-economic situation would improve. They, as American citizens, are free to voice their opinions. The U.S. Army and U.S. Government disagree with their positions. The Army and the U.S. Government see the USARSA as an important shaping tool for foreign policy and whose support to the US regional foreign policy has assisted in attaining the current hemispheric situation of emerging and stabilizing democracies with professional and supportive militaries. 10  The Army recognizes that some personnel who received training or education at the USARSA have been alleged or implicated or even found guilty of atrocious crimes and human rights violations -- and no one in the U.S. Army defends these acts. Most of the individuals have been found innocent or not guilty by either military or civilian trial or by a national pardon while others have been found guilty and jailed or cashiered from federal service -- rule of law in action. However, the 500 individuals that critics mentioned as cited for alleged misconduct represent less that one percent of the total USARSA graduates meaning that over 99% of people who trained or attended courses at the School perform to acceptable standards in a quiet, professional manner and then go on to be productive members of their respective societies. To claim that attendance at a USARSA course is the cause for a former student's criminal conduct or that the faculty and staff taught or teach criminal conduct is baseless and impugns the honor of all US military personnel. As a young student at Dickinson College so aptly put after attending a recent debate on the USARSA, "to hold the SOA responsible for the acts of its graduates would be like holding U.S. high schools responsible for the crimes committed by their graduates currently residing in U.S. prisons". Let me provide an example: In 1980, in El Salvador, four American churchwomen were murdered. This was a despicable crime. In 1993, the UN Report on the Truth for El Salvador identified four El Salvadoran military men as the perpetrators of this crime. The USARSA critics point to this event as additional proof that USARSA is at fault. However, the UN report never refers to the USARSA and closer examination into the facts on their USARSA training reveals that of the four accused, one attended a basic engineer course in 1963, one attended a supply course in 1966, one gave a lecture at the USARSA in 1985 and one attended a civil-military operations course in 1980. It is difficult to identify the cause and effect relationship that the USARSA critics like to make using the example. Of course the critics never analyze any allegation; it appears that any allegation or citing of someone who has attended a USARSA course is sufficient proof to proclaim the USARSA as guilty of training Latin American militaries in torture, rape, coups procedures and other problems found throughout our hemisphere. The U.S. Army does not now nor has it ever condoned this crime or any other the proven criminal actions by personnel trained at the USARSA or any U.S. Army facility. The U.S. Army abhors these situations and works tirelessly to ensure that these situations do not happen again.

The critics continue to use their illogical cause-effect standard to publicize their position: attending the School of the Americas results in atrocities in Latin America. They have no other evidence to support this position rather they use calculated and unsubstantiated allegations misrepresentation of fact such as this: Military officer A was mentioned in Report X as allegedly committing a human rights abuse or other crime. This individual also went to the USARSA. They conclude that the School must have trained him to commit the specific act. As an example let me present the following: The critics of the USARSA like to point out that former Argentine Junta leader, Leopoldo Galtieri graduated from the USARSA and went on to lead the military junta responsible for the deaths and disappearances of over 5,000 Argentine citizens during their internal anti- Communist action. Lacking in the critics' declaration is the fact that Galtieri attended an Engineer Officers Basic course for three weeks in 1949, a full 31 years before his position as leader of the 1980s Argentine Junta 11. As Paul Harvey says, "and now you know the rest of the story".

The School has taught sound U.S. Army doctrine to the exacting standards of our TRADOC institutions and in the highest spirit of Army ethics and values. In over 50 years not one person has come forward to say that he or she received illegal training or presented illegal training at the School. Case in point: the USARSA critics like to point out their "smoking gun" seven U.S. military training manuals they have titled "the torture manuals". What the critics of the USARSA fail to mention is the fact that the so-called torture manuals were developed external to the USARSA. They do not point out that only four of seven manuals arrived at the USARSA with a new instructor. Nor do they mention that through administrative error and oversight, the manuals were not screened and were handed out to a total of 48 students but that no material from them was ever included in lesson plans. The critics also fail to mention that it was the Department of Defense that first identified these manuals as questionable, executed two special investigations, concluded that the manuals had out-dated and questionable material, and ordered the recovery and destruction of the manuals. One interesting and little known fact is that of the 48 students attending USARSA courses who received these manuals, not one has been cited for any conduct unbecoming a professional military officer. 12  These are examples of the distortion of facts used daily by critics of the USARSA. Unfortunately between 1996 and 1999, the U.S. Army went into a hunker-down posture with respect to its public affairs campaign on the truth for the USARSA and failed to maintain the aggressive pace of the effort. This reduction in effort permitted USARSA critics with practically an unencumbered effort. As has been proven time and time again in our recent history, an allegation levied against a US Government agency is usually presumed to be true if the agency's response is weak or non- existent. In 1999, that all changed. The Army, led by Secretary Caldera, is engaging the critics with the truth and with a plan for the future and not the past. The critics are learning that their allegations against the USARSA can not stand up to a direct and truthful debate in an open forum. Some critics will always believe what they will regardless the truth and it is long past time become part of the solution and to move into the future.

What you need to know and to understand is that the USARSA and its faculty and staff have presented and continue to present solid U.S. training and education in the highest tradition of the Army's standards -- period.

So why does the U.S. continue operating the School? Simply put - the U.S. Government wants it (the Administration, the Department of State, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Southern Command, the Drug Enforcement Administration to name a few) as it supports the attainment of U.S. goals and objectives for the region and thus supports our National Security Strategy. This training, presented in Spanish, permits the U.S. to reach a broad spectrum of military and civilian personnel in our backyard and permits the establishment of personal and professional ties that have served and will continue to serve in our national interests and the interests of the region. USARSA graduates have used their acquired skills and knowledge to support disaster relief operations in Central America after Hurricane Mitch. Others served on the successful multinational observer force, MOMEP, in Ecuador and Peru. Still others cooperate together in the regional counter-drug effort. The current USARSA Commandant recently told one telling anecdote. At the USARSA's annual international night a student attending the Command and General Officer's course told the current Commandant that this was his first real exposure to the military officers of his neighboring countries and he had realized that they are not threats to his county and that they have similar concerns as his. He said that he realizes that his country and theirs should and could work together in cooperative efforts. Now this is one student that the system reached!

The USARSA curriculum is reviewed by various U.S. governmental agencies, including a distinguished Board of Visitors, to ensure that its offerings conform to U.S. law and policy and fully support the CINC's goals and objectives for the region. Recognizing the need to continuously review, update and expand the USARSA curriculum in order to stay relevant, the Army's Training and Doctrine Command and the US Southern Command conduct annual reviews of the USARSA course offerings relative to each course importance to the SOUTHCOM Strategy. This review results in additions, deletions and modifications of the classes and courses and ensures that the U.S. Army fully supports the needs of the regional CINC. 13 

Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera recently directed the development of a plan that will expand and transform the USARSA into an institution for the 21st century in order to continue meeting the needs of the US in the region. The plan will give the American citizens and institution they can understand and support while continuing to provide the unparalleled education and training to the best and brightest military, law enforcement and civilians of this hemisphere to ensure continued democracies supported by professional security forces.

You may very well ask -- OK, so what? Well, this is an issue that, while small in the scope of the resource picture of the federal budget, is large in the politico-military arena. Remember that the end-state of the critics of the USARSA is the termination of all U.S. military training and other assistance to foreign militaries followed by the abolishment of military forces. This issue has already spilled over into the U.S. military training and education deployments. You should, therefore, understand this issue, the USARSA and the other U.S. military schools that provide training and education to foreign personnel and be able to articulate the reasons it is a sound foreign policy idea. You should also be able to provide "the rest of the story" when you encounter people who repeat unsubstantiated allegations that impugn the ethics and the values of the soldiers, sailors and airmen serving at the USARSA. You could and should let your congressional representatives know that while you understand there is disagreement on foreign policy at the national level the School is a professional and exemplary education and training institution that does not merit to be the public example as the cause for all the ills of our hemisphere. You should request that your congressional representatives support the institution and work to enhance and expand its valuable contributions to the hemisphere.

Here are two very informative web sites to assist you in your education and discovery of the "rest of the story". The first is the official US Army web site at http://www.army.mil; go to it then hyper link to U.S. Army School of the Americas' web page. The second is Congressman Mac Collins' web site at http://www.house.gov/maccollins/soa.html. Both provide a wealth of fact-based information on the USARSA.

The CINC, U.S. Southern Command, put it best in his July 22, 1999 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when he stated, " because of the School's critical importance to the United States Southern Command and the United States' interests in the Hemisphere if I were to lose it {the School of the Americas} today, I would have no option other than to resurrect it tomorrow at considerable expense and with an unacceptable loss in the continuity of one of the centerpieces of our regional engagement strategy" That is how critical to the region this institution has been, is and will be for the U.S.

The USARSA, thus, is a vital U.S. foreign policy tool that provides an outstanding professional product needed by those charged with obtaining US National Security Strategy goals and objectives; a product modeled after the finest, most respected military in the world -- the U.S. Armed Forces.
"You can prevent your opponent from defeating you
through defense, but you cannot defeat him
without the offense"
Sonshi

Ken LaPlante is a retired Army colonel who has served as a Latin American FAO in and around the Hemisphere since 1980 as an instructor at the USARSA, a PEP in Paraguay, a Senior Service College student in Argentina and as the Military Group Commander - Venezuela and Guyana. He served on the Army staff as the Latin American Branch chief for the Politico-Military Division of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations. He is currently employed by Core Processes, Inc supporting the Army's Office of the Deputy Under Secretary for International Affairs as a Senior Military Analyst and their USARSA Subject Matter Expert.

Endnotes

1. Personal observation of the author attending the Training and Military Education Conference (TMEC), Conference of American Armies, Fort Benning, Georgia November 1994.BACK

2. Title 10 US Code, Section 4415 (b).BACK

3. DA/DOD Report on the U.S. Army School of the America, January 2000, p.4 and DA Certifications and Report on the U.S. Army School of the Americas, January 1998, p.4. BACK

4. Father Roy Bourgeois' Letter to the Editor, What about their interest?, The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Aug 10, 1999 and Roberto Fabricio's article, "Opposition enjoying increasing popularity", The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, October 4, 1999.BACK

5. Congressional Record -- Senate, June 30, 1999, p. S7846-S7847 and Congressional Record -- House, July 29, 1999, p. H6700. BACK

6.DA Certifications and Report on the U.S. Army School of the Americas, January 1998, p.8, and DA/DOD Report on the U.S. Army School of the Americas, January 2000, p.25BACK

7. Amelia Simpson's article, "Much-Maligned School Teaches Human Rights", LA Times, November 18, 1999.BACK

8. The author served as the Deputy Director of the Department of Combat Operations, USARSA in 1983 and was involved in various aspects and issues on the School's future.BACK

9. DA Certifications and Report on the U.S. Army School of the Americas, January 1998, p.25BACK

10. President Clinton's March 4, 1999 Letter to Representative Mac Collins (R-GA); The July 24, 1999 letters to key Congressional Member from the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy; the DEA Acting Administrator's July 1999 letters to key Congressional Members; Joint Department of State/Department of Defense letters of July 13, 1999 to key Congressional Members; Secretary of Defense letters of July 24, 1999 to key Congressional Members and the July 16, 1999 joint Secretary of the Army/Chief of Staff, Army letters to key Congressional Members.BACK

11. School of the Americas Watch Web page at: http://www.soaw.org/grads/arg-not.htmlBACK

12. DA Certifications and Report on the U.S. Army School of the Americas, January 1998, p.20; DA Certifications and Report on the U.S. Army School of the Americas, January 1998, Executive Summary, p I; DOD IG Report No. PO 97-007 dated February 21, 1997, Training of Foreign Personnel -- Phase I, Appendix C, Evolution of Inappropriate Materials; and a conversation with Colonel Glenn Weidner, Commandant, USARSA, August 1999.BACK

13. DA/DOD Report on the U.S. Army School of the Americas, January 2000 BACK

2000, Foreign Area Officer Association
Springfield, Virginia
Maintained by LTC Steve Gotowicki.
http://www.faoa.org