An exchange on Nicaragua
Lawrence, Regina & Berman, Paul
I have been a subscriber to your journal for over a year and have found it enjoyable and stimulating. However, the Summer 1990 issue contained an unpleasant surprise: a highly questionable piece...
...3) In attempting to debunk the theory that the contra war caused Nicaragua's economy to sink, Berman ignores the quite interrelated effects of the economic aggression Nicaragua has experienced...
...I hardly expected a journal named Dissent to echo it...
...However, the Summer 1990 issue contained an unpleasant surprise: a highly questionable piece by Paul Berman about the Sandinista loss in Nicaragua's February elections...
...pressure in which they were carried out...
...Berman is to be blamed for his quite selective attention to the facts surrounding Nicaragua's economic decline and the Sandinistas' ill-fated rule...
...I had looked forward to Dissent, thinking there would be an informative article about those elections and the context of intense U.S...
...Berman's generous observation that "democratic instincts have never been absent from the [Sandinista] Front" somehow manages to gloss over the reality of two very clean multiparty elections administered by the Sandinistas during their rule, in the last one of which they allowed a foreign-funded coalition to win and take power...
...Berman would do well to examine the statements of United States officials responsible for the military aggression directed at Nicaragua, for it was clear to them what the economic, and hence political, effects of the military effort Nicaragua required to repel that aggression would be...
...This is not necessarily to excuse Sandinista abuses and distance from the people, but Washington's low-intensity warfare against Nicaragua should not be overlooked in explaining those phenomena...
...For instance, he cites the 30 percent unemployment rate and says that it cannot be explained by reference to military enlistment, yet ignores its most direct cause: the devastating effects of the U.S...
...4) Berman simplistically observes that after the "ceasefire" of 1987 (the families of people abducted, tortured, and killed by the contras after 1987 may disagree that a ceasefire was in place at all), the economy continued to decline, while, again, failing to note the most obvious reason for that decline...
...The effect of military expenditures on any economy is a highly debated subject, but it is certainly arguable that when 50 percent of a nation's budget is diverted to defense, the economy, especially an underdeveloped one, may be bled to death, regardless of how much foreign aid is forthcoming...
...He does not acknowledge that Nicaragua had to actively seek aid from many countries after the United States blockade, and that some countries may have been more inclined to give aid precisely because they disagreed with United States policy...
...2) Berman downplays the draining effect of the military budget required to fight the contras and to prepare for the possibility of United States invasion via Honduras (a factor most United States analysts tend to overlook that has been all too real for Nicaraguans), saying that "the effect of the defense budget was to limit what was nonetheless a growth in funds at the government's disposal...
...The editors of Dissent are to blame for printing such an article...
...I instead found an attempt to paint the Sandinista defeat as having little or nothing to do with United States policies of aggression...
...But Berman's article does nothing to enlighten the readers of Dissent about the politics and consequences of low-intensity conflict, which is slated to be the warfare of choice for the United States in the 120 • DISSENT Communications 1990s, and of which Nicaragua has been a test case to which considerable resources have been devoted...
...5) Finally, Berman ignores the effects of military and economic aggression on the behavior of the FSLN, even though those in charge of that aggression openly stated that one of their goals was to bring about unpopular moves and repression on the part of the Sandinistas and thus create division in the country...
...This is a theme I could have found in my local newspaper...
...I can say from personal experience as an observer of the February elections that for nearly every Nicaraguan I spoke with, regardless of his or her political standing, the major issues of this election were the draft, the war, the economy, the embargo, and relations with the United States...
...Therefore, his statement that "the actual effect [of the blockade] was to prevent capital from flowing at a higher rate than it did" is questionable...
...embargo, which overnight robbed Nicaragua of approximately 80 percent of its foreign trade...
...The Sandinista electoral loss in February can at least arguably be examined in this light, and should be if we are concerned at all with United States foreign policy...
...All of us deserve criticism for something, and some of his observations were interesting...
...Among the many things wrong with Berman's article I would include the following: (1) He assumes that aid from sources other than the United States would have flowed at the same rate had the United States not blocked credits to Nicaragua...
...But the reader should not have to submit a list of so many obvious shortcomings of an article found in your journal...
...I am not opposed to Berman's criticism of the FSLN...
Vol. 38 • January 1991 • No. 1
