CRISIS IN THE CARIBBEAN : Ubiquitous CNN Again Proves That It Plays a Nearly Indispensable Role in Crises : Media: Global gains give network a critical--and sometimes trivial--presence on world stage.

Here’s a scene from the new world of diplomacy and war: Former President Jimmy Carter and Haitian strongman Raoul Cedras are in tense negotiations in Port-au-Prince. Whenever the omnipresent television set, tuned via satellite to Cable News Network, carries the latest word on the Haitian crisis, the room falls silent.

Here’s another scene: It is 3 a.m. Monday. The crisis has been defused. CNN President Tom Johnson is speaking by telephone with Carter, who is back at the White House. They agree that the former President will appear for an interview four hours later--a broadcast that, it turns out, will occur before Carter has had a chance to brief President Clinton.

The White House, a well-placed CNN source said dryly later Monday morning, was not pleased.

In an arena once dominated by secret cables, public threats and private messages, the revolution in global communications is playing a new role--one that is at times critical, at times trivial. And, by the accounts of those who have played central roles in such national security crises, CNN has become a nearly indispensable participant.

For example, when Clinton spoke to the nation at 9:30 p.m. EDT Sunday, he said: “Our objective . . . has been to make sure that the military dictators leave power and that the democratically elected government is returned.”

Five other times in his seven-minute speech, Clinton referred to the “dictators” in Haiti.

At a moment when it remained uncertain whether the Haitian triumvirate on whom the negotiations had focused would stand by the deal, such language created serious anxiety within the American negotiating team.

Indeed, CNN reported that it had a transcript of such a conversation between Carter, who was flying back to Washington, and an assistant, Robert Pastor, who remained in Port-au-Prince.

The risk was this: Lt. Gen. Cedras, the Haitian army commander, Brig. Gen. Philippe Biamby, the army chief of staff, and Lt. Col. Michel-Joseph Francois, the powerful police chief of Port-au-Prince, might undo the plan for them to leave office, out of pique at the way they were being described by the President.

Enter CNN, and Carter’s media savvy. By 7 a.m. Monday, Carter was being interviewed by the network and using the opportunity to point out the need to respect the agreement and to remind the Haitian leadership that it “was negotiated with dignity for both sides.”

Certainly not every step in a diplomatic crisis is played out in full view of television cameras. The negotiations in Haiti on Saturday and Sunday were behind closed doors.

But swift reporting of developments--such as CBS News’ interview with Cedras immediately after Clinton threw down the gauntlet Thursday to the Haitian junta in a White House speech--and the very public nature of those reports creates an atmosphere that can deny the key players in Washington or other crisis centers the time and maneuvering room they enjoyed in earlier days.

That instantaneous feedback increases the pressure on officials and the network.

“I was especially concerned CNN was seen all over Haiti and it was being viewed in real time,” Johnson said. “I wanted to make sure we didn’t in any way compromise the security of the operation.”

Johanna Neuman, who is writing a book on the impact of media technology on international affairs, said that for more than 100 years, political leaders have had to adjust during crises to technological developments: Abraham Lincoln had to contend with the telegraph hastening reports of the Civil War and the radio speeded up reporting on World War II to Franklin D. Roosevelt and the rest of the nation.

In this light, she said, global live television is merely the latest communications development to play into--and possibly tie--the hands of policy-makers. It lets them reach directly to the American people for support and speak at the same time to a Saddam Hussein in his bunker in Baghdad. “It’s a tool and they learn to use it as a tool,” she said.

But the pressure to be on top of the story at every turn can lead to some less-than-enlightening developments. Take, for example, the scene that played out near the entrance to the White House West Wing on Sunday, well before the resolution of the crisis.

State Department Spokesman Mike McCurry and Tom Donilon, the assistant secretary of state for public affairs, grew tired of waiting at the State Department for the negotiations in Haiti to conclude. So they headed to the White House to kill time and munch pizza with colleagues.

“So we went over there . . . and walked by (CNN correspondent) Wolf Blitzer and waved as we went in, and by the time we were in eating our pizza, he announced breathlessly to the waiting world that there must be something significant developing because Assistant Secretary Donilon and the department spokesman from the State Department had just wandered in,” McCurry told reporters Monday afternoon.

He added in a wisecrack addressed to CNN’s senior White House correspondent: “Sorry, Wolf, it was pepperoni.”