Basic HTML Version
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, FEBRUARY 26, 1982
PAGE 8
military assistance to beleaguered El Salvador would "absolutely not"
involve American combat troops.)
The President's proposed economic program--an additional $350 million in
aid, plus decreased import limitations on products from the region--clearly
has political objectives. "Make no mistake," said Mr. Reagan. "The well
being and security of our neighbors in this region are in our own vital
interests." He said nearly half of the U.S. trade flow, two-thirds of the
nation's oil imports and more than half of the strategic minerals brought
into the United States� through the Panama Canal or the Gulf of Mexico.
The President said the United States shares "a common destiny" with the
some two dozen nations that rim the Gulf-Caribbean area, which he termed
the "third border" of the United States. The President said those nations
"are under economic-siege" because of spreading political turmoil in the
region. "Our economic and social program cannot work if our neighbors can
not pursue their own economic and political future in peace but must divert
their resources, instead, to fight imported terrorism and armed attack."
Mr. Reagan described in blunt words the challenge of "brutal and totalitar
ian" Communism in Central America, Communism which has proved to be a
colossal economic failure wherever it has been tried. (Of course, Commu
nism is a political success because it gives leaders who adopt it a monopoly
of power.)
"A new kind of colonialism stalks the world today and threatens our inde
pendence," the President said. "It is brutal and totalitarian. It is not
of our hemisphere but it threatens our hemisphere and has established foot
holds on American soil for the expansion of its colonialist ambitions."
Mr. Reagan said "the dark future is foreshadowed by the poverty and repres
sion of Castro's Cuba, the tightening grip of the totalitarian left in
Grenada and Nicaragua, and the expansion of Soviet-backed, Cuban-managed
support for violent revolution in Central America. The record is clear,"
he said. "Nowhere in its whole sordid history have the promises of Commu
nism been redeemed."
If the United States does not act promptly in defense of freedom, continued
the President, "we will face more totalitarian regimes, more regimes tied
militarily to the Soviet Union, more regimes exporting subversion, more
regimes so incompetent yet so totalitarian that their citizens' only hope
becomes that of one day migrating to other American nations as in recent
years they have come to the United States."
Does a Fearful Public See the Danger?
The big question is: Does the American public, much less America's allies,
see the "big picture" the way the President clearly does? One wonders.
"The Fire Next Door" headlines the cover story of the latest issue of NEWS
WEEK magazine. In a poll in that article, 45% of the Americans who were
described as "aware of the situation" in El Salvador felt that the U.s.
should stay completely out of the dispute (36% said the U.S. should be in
volved); 89% said U.S. troops should not be committed; 60% said that even
military supplies should not be sent.