Dear Editor
Dear Editor Nicaragua We are all free to draw whatever conclusions we wish about U.S. policy toward Nicaragua, but our conclusions should have a factual basis. Having read Walter Goodman's article...
...But under Somoza, La Prensa was normally able to publish without censorship, the Catholic Church was permitted to have a radio station, and Cardinal Obando y Bravo, despite his open opposition to the Somoza government, was not harassed in the exercise of his normal pastoral duties...
...In general, the claim that anti-democratic dictators come under pressure "through no doing of ours" underestimates the powerful democratic thrust of contemporary American cultural and political life and denies the increasingly evident efforts of the United States government to support democratization around the world...
...The three top political leaders of the United Nica-raguan Opposition are not deserving of the smear Goodman levels at them...
...When it comes to Right-wing insurgents, Abrams turns wishful...
...The fact is, when credentialed democrats are put forward by Left-wing insurgencies, people of Abrams' tendencies suspect, sensibly, that they may prove to be figureheads...
...At the same time, the U.S...
...Very interesting...
...5. Goodman claims that "Congress has yet to sec convincing evidence" of Nicaraguan support for the guerrillas in El Salvador...
...Yet today's resistance is well over three times the size of the Sandinista forces at the victory over Somoza in 1979...
...He is wrong on both counts...
...The fact is that the rebels were certainly receiving aid, a lot of it, and from several countries...
...he also claims that any such support stopped in 1981...
...Having read Walter Goodman's article on Nicaragua ("A Different Case," NL, February 24), I offer some comments that should be of interest...
...Even in its leadership, however, former National Guardsmen are in the minority...
...My conclusion is, the Administration's pro-contra crusade is not inspired by the deplorable human rights practices of the Sandinistas or the democratic nature of the contras or any direct threat that Managua poses to its neighbors, much less to the United States...
...Washington's war against Managua represents an overheated approach to one of many areas of conflict with the Soviet Union...
...The fact is, Congress has demonstrated with votes that it is not convinced the activities of the Sandinistas are so threatening as to justify the military aid desired by the Administration...
...The issues on any front of that conflict are what means are justified, what costs are tolerable, what results are likely...
...We continue to have abundant evidence of these activities, and Congress remains convinced as ever that Nicaragua is supporting subversion of El Salvador...
...4. As the article points out, the resistance is largely an army of campesinos...
...The fact is, one repressive regime has been succeeded by another in Nicaragua, but it is evident from our relations with countries such as Chile, Paraguay and Honduras that human lights records don't have much to do with Washington's campaign against the Sandinistas...
...Over 20,000 resistance fighters are in the field today, without any American military aid for over two years...
...Washington, D. C. Elliott Abrams Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Walter Goodman replies: Entertaining though it is to be lectured on the use of facts by a representative of the Reagan Administration, Elliott Abrams' letter is typically slippery...
...was aiding Somoza...
...It is with regard to those considerations that, it appears to me, the Administration ease for arming the contras fails...
...What he is really saying is that if only the Sandinistas would stop taking Soviet aid and the contras could get as much United States aid as he would like us to give, the Sandinistas would be driven out of Managua tomorrow...
...The fact is, Abrams' high estimate of the potency of the rebels has little to back it up...
...while implying that the U.S...
...2. It is true that like Somoza, the current Nicara-guan regime used the trappings of democratic political culture, including rigged elections, to create a sense of legitimacy...
...voted with the majority in the Organization of American States asking Somoza to step down, and had cut off military assistance to Somoza and even prevailed upon Israel to halt an arms shipment to him...
...1. Goodman's treatment of Nicaragua emphasizes that Somoza was beaten in battle by rebels without aid from the U.S...
...Today all are targets of Sandinista repression, as are Protestant churches, labor unions and other independent institutions that refuse to align themselves with the Sandinista government and its Communist philosophy...
...Congress declared in a 1984 law that Nicaragua is "providing military support (including arms, training, and logistical, command and control, and communications facilities) to groups seeking the overthrow of the Government of El Salvador and other Central American governments...
...3. To say that the United States "wants to mount a rebellion" against the Sandinistas blithely ignores the fact that Nicaraguans have already done so...
...he appears to be less concerned about the continuing Somocista power in the contra military than Srs...
...In 1982, then Chairman Edward P. Boland of the House Intelligence Committee found "persuasive evidence that the Sandinista government of Nicaragua is helping train insurgents and is transferring arms and financial support from and through Nicaragua to the insurgents...
...the major military obstacle is a Soviet-armed force that is six times larger than anything Somoza ever had...
...Cruz and Robelo...
...They are Adolfo Calero, who was jailed by Somoza for his opposition activities, and Arturo Cruz and Alfonso Robclo, who proved their loyalty to democratic values by leaving their positions on the governing junta after Somoza's downfall when the Sandinistas took an early turn toward repression and Soviet bloc alignment...
...They are further providing the insurgents bases of operations in Nicaragua...
...If our government's desires were their sole motivation, this lack of aid would have sent a discouraging message and caused their ranks to shrink, not grow in number...
Vol. 69 • May 1986 • No. 8
