THE ADMINISTRATION'S TRAGICOMEDY: NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201200015-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: May 25, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/25 :CIA-RDP90-009658000201200015-4
Richard Cohen
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-
I tration says all is lost unless prayer is
~I 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
"aQOnizin choice." Shultz said, coup
result from the verv failure of Gon-
ress to aid the so-called contras-the
CIA created armv which, in a eat of
creative packagin? is called "freedom
fi hters."
t s not difficult to see what Shultz is
telling Congress: Either supply the
money for others to do the fighting or,
someday, we might have to do the
fighting ourselves. What he d has to
explain, though, is why anybody
do the fighting. In other words, what
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 natiai
just because its stamps besr the pic-
ture of Karl Man:. But even aside
from that, Shulti s remarks come at a
peculiar time. After all, the adminis-
WASHINGTON POST
25 May 1985
~istrazl~rl ~ ~ ~ ~ u~~~~+~__
ar
t Cas
d
tration can claim that things are going
its way in Central Ameriea~ Th ~a by
and present danger alleg Y Po
ss clear and
l
e
Nicaragua is a lot
present than it might have been.
Take the situation in El Salvador.
The foremost accusation against Nica-
ragua is that it is "exporting revolu-
?
tion to its neighbor to the north-
arms and supplies across Salvador n
Fonseca to the waiting
guerrillas. But the ~l back on desper-
las are reeling, fallmg
ate tactics, and both the government
and its army are We age also told that
were not enough,
the Salvadoran right, often so Nlodera~
is also in a state of disarray.
tion-wonderful moderation-is sup-
posedly the idea whose time has come
in El Salvador.
As for Nicaragua itself,l't reels. lts
economy is a shambles. Draft evaders
take to the hills. It has to rely almost
p
no
His speeches-an
fense
.
Weinberger's-are muggy with mar-
tial airs while it is Weinberger who
warns that war is about killing and
should be enteredvhou speaks Ifor the
possible to say ars to
president, but in this case it appe
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 adiriinis'
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. lt's not
' Nicaragua he's warning. it's us.
entirely on Moscow for its economic
sustenance, and it is surrounded by
hostile neighborer than mown. It s
air forces-bigg
hard to see chat 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 with Nicaragua.
he get into a scrap
?This is yet another intimation of
American involvement since it is the
Hondurans who sheltnation cNicara-
Sooner or later any
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-
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/25 :CIA-RDP90-009658000201200015-4