WILL THE CONTRAS BE OUR NEXT BETRAYAL?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000200910003-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 19, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: January 30, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200910003-0
A01CLE ?PPEARED
PATRICK BUCHANAN
Will the
Contras
be our
next
betrayal?
e are now coming up on
the 10th anniversary of
the fall of Saigon. Well
before the grim day of
remembrance, however, a vote will
be taken in Congress that should tell
the world exactly what lessons the
Americans took home from that
disaster.
Before April, the decision will be
made on whether or not to cut off the
military assistance vital to another
ally in the field, whether to abandon
Nicaraguans encouraged, equipped,
and armed by the United States, and
sent back to their country to recap-
cure the revolution that had been
hijacked by Communists.
The betting here is that the United
States will ditch the Contras the way
we did the Kurds, the Vietnamese,
the Cambodians, etc.
All the unmistakable signs are
appearing. There are more and
more stories of alleged Contra
atrocities; there are more and more
impassioned invocations of interna-
tional law; there are angry commen-
taries asking how the United States
could allow itself to be besmirched
by association with such thuggery.
Whenever the left becomes espe-
cially strident in its appeal to
"human rights:' you may rely upon
it, some beleaguered friend of the
United States is about to be thrown
to the wolves.
The Peace Movement would hail
such a vote as a "voice of sanity" in
the capital, a vote of confidence in
"negotiation, rather than confronta.
tion." Serious men, however, will not
be put off with such piffle.
WASHINGTON TIMES
30 January 1985
The Sandinistas are not simply
some run-of-the-mine local fascists
and anti-Americans, hell-bent on
ruining their economy with their
own particular Marxist economic
texts.
They are aligned with and are
part of the Soviet Empire. They are
reaching out for assistance to every
malodorous anti-American regime
on earth, not excluding Qaddafi's
Libya or the Ayatollah's Iran. They
are not going to be bought off with
American aid - we have tried that
already - and they are not going to
be bluffed out of their revolutionary
ambitions by SR-71 overflights or
battleships steaming up and down
their coasts.
There is no longer any doubt; if
ever there was, about who these peo-
ple are. Arturo Cruz foe of
Somoza, former junta member, and,
ambassador to the United States -
has fled Nicaragua and come out for
civil war. .
What the war for- Nicaragua has
become, then, is a battle between the
anti-Communists and democrats in
the hills, who are supported by the
United States, and a Marxist-
Leninist revolutionary regime in
Managua, supported by the Soviet
Union, Cuba, Libya, East Germany,
and Iran.
In some ways, the audacity of the
Soviet Union has to be admired.
Post.6renada, surely some foreign
policy specialists must have warned
the Politburo that there was nothing
Moscow could do, at such a distance,
to prevent America's liquidation of
the beachhead in North America;
that it was probably unwise to invest
Soviet prestige; that a Soviet arms ;
buildup would only give Washington
an excuse; that the Sandinistas
should probably cut a deal.
But Moscow gambled. Directly in
the wake of the Reagan landslide,
they rushed into Corinto helicopter
gunships which could tip the bal-
ance decisively against the guerril-
las supported by the United States.
Moscow had seen the American
investment, and carefully raised the
bet. Not only has Washington not
responded, Congress is ready to
throw in the American hand.
If the Contras are abandoned,
Honduras will become host to a
deserted, embittered army of some
15,000 and Honduras will move to
the top of the enemies list of a victo-
rious Managua anxious to settle
accounts with the neighbor that gave
sanctuary to its enemies. As for
Costa Rica, democratic and dis-
armed, sandwiched between.Nicara-
gua and Panama, the governing elite
s hould watch the vote carefully, and
is it goes as expected, begin
checking out the real-: estate in
Miami.
Already, a hopeful new strategy of
wooing Nicaragua is being chatted
P. Since America is so wealthy and
near, it is argued, and the Soviet
eventually Managua's rulers will see
that their only hope of progress lies
in association with the United States.
So it was said of Cuba. .
What this cynical argument -
everybody has his price -overlooks
is the character of the Due Believer.
.The Ortegas and Ibmas Borge are
'dedicated revolutionaries; they are
no more going to sell out their
revolutionary dreams and ambitions
for American money than Barry
Goldwater or Ronald Reagan would
sell out their conservative ones.
If the Contras are abandoned, Mr.
Reagan will be left with this stark
choice: either adjust to the perma-
nent existence of a Russian military
beachhead and revolutionary base
camp on the North American con-
tinent - or send in the Marines.
Patrick Buchanan is a nationally
syndicated columnist. .i
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200910003-0