THE ADMINISTRATION'S TRAGICOMEDY: NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000606120058-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2010
• Sequence Number: 58
• Publication Date: May 25, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000606120058-5
3WASHINGTON POST
25 May 1985
Richard Cohen e
y
I ragicorn
T~-- A dininistration's
Nicaragua
With the Reagan administration, the
more things change. the more they re-
main the same. Despite the presi-
dent's landslide victory, the "liberal"
press is still lambasted for being too
influential. Despite a crop of young
people who yearn for nothing else than
businesses and homes of their own, we
are told that values will have to be
taught in the schools. And despite a
religious revival that the president
himself has proclaimed, the adminis-
tration says all is lost unless prayer is
returned to the schools.
Some of this is funny, some of it is
not. But where things get both tragic
and funny is Nicaragua. Talking to a
group of lawyers the other day. Secre-
tary of State George Shultz finally said
what heretofore had only been whis-
pered: the United States might have
to send troops to Nicaragua. This
"aeonizin choice." Shultz said. cowl
result from the very taiiure of Lon-
ream to aid the so-called contras-the
Ct a created army which. in a feat of
creative packain? is called "freedom
f7 -
."
biters
t s not t difficult to see what Shultz is
telling Congress: Either supply the
money for others i gh a have fighting odo the
someday,
fighting ourselves. What he does s of
explain, though, is why a wody what
do the fighting. In other is the threat that prompts a secretary
of state even to suggest that Amer-
icans will once again have to kill and
be killed in yet another foreign coun-
try?
Aside from brandishing words such
as "communist," Shultz supplies no
answers, and history instructs that we
do not need to make war on a nation
just because its stamps bear the pic-
ture of Karl Marx. But even aside
from that, Shultz's remarks come at a
peculiar time. After all. the adminis-
tration can claim that things are going
its way in Central America. The clear
and present danger clear and
Nicaragua is a lot less
present than it might have been.
Take the situation in El Salvador.
The foremost accusation against Nica-
evolu-
ragua is that it is."exporting
tion" to its neighbor to the north-
the Gulf of
arms and supplies across
Fonseca to the waiting Salvadoran
guerrillas. But the Salvadoran guerril-
las are reeling, falling back on d eeperor-
ate tactics, and both the government
and its army are resurgent. As if that
were not enough, we are also told that
the Salvadoran right, often so ruthless,
is also in a state of disarray.
pone-w the idea whose sup-
posedly time has come
in El Salvador.
As for Nicaragua itself, it reels. Its
economy is a shambles. Draft evaders
take to the hills. It has to rely almost
entirely on Moscow for its economic
nd it is surrounded by
a
sustenance,
hostile neighbors with armies-and
air forces-bigger than its own. It's
hard to see that it represents a threat
to anything other than the lingering
belief that revolutions from the left
are always wonderful ideas.
Nevertheless, Shultz raises the.
prospect of war. He does so not a
week after the president of Honduras
was assured that the United States
stood ready to come tot his aid should
he get into a scrap
,This is yet another intimation of
American involvement since it is the
Hondurans who shelter the contras.
Sooner or later any nation-Nicara-
gua included-would seek to destroy
its enemies. no matter where they
might be harbored.
For some time now. Shultz has been
having an identity problem in which he
sees himself as the secretary of de-
His speeches-and not Caspar
Tense
.
Weinberger's-are muggy with mar-
tial airs while it is Weinberger who
warns that war is about killing and
should be entered reluctantly. It is im-
possible to say who speaks for the
president, but in this case it appears to
be Shultz. When the president pounds
his desk in an anti-Nicaragua fury. it is
Shultz who responds with talk of
troops.
As with so much else in this adminis-
tration, results take a back seat to ide-
ology. It hardly seems to matter that
Nicaragua is less of a threat now than it
was, say, two years ago. What really
matters is that it exists-yet another
Marxist state in the Western Hemi-
sphere. It is certainly clear to Managua
-and maybe even to the Contadora
nations-that nothing but the eradica-
tion of the Sandinista regime will ap-
pease Reagan. Listen to Shultz. It's not
Nicaragua he's warning, it's us.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000606120058-5