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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MARCH 18, 1983
PAGE 12
ordinate areas.
This reminds one of the famous article written by the
former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, George F. Kennan, who was the
principal thinker behind President Harry Truman's post-war "containment"
policy. The U.S., wrote Kennan in 1947 (in an article in FOREIGN AFFAIRS
magazine under the pseudonym "X") must oppose Soviet expansion
by the adroit and vigilant application of counterforce at a
series of constantly shifting geographical and political points,
corresponding to the shifts and maneuvers of Soviet policy.
This shifting and maneuvering has never stopped. But America has seemingly
grown weary of the struggle. Many cannot see that there even is a struggle
still under way--and that it's getting dangerously close to home.
And of course, President Reagan finds himself face to face with the para
lyzing ghost of Vietnam, which in essence says that it is useless for the
United States to resist "national liberation" movements in other countries
and areas. It makes little difference whether the revolutions are com
munist-supported or not; they are usually rationalized by liberals as being
"just." This reasoning, of course, provides a clear path to the enemy, even
though in most cases it may start out from a weak position. As the March
21, 1983 U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT analyzes the relatively small (6,000 men)
revolutionary force in El Salvador:
For all their recent success, the insurgents do not claim
victory. Their stated objective, they say, is not to defeat the
Salvadoran Army on the battlefield, but
!2
force its disintegra
tion through loss of morale and will to fight. [ Breaking the
enemy's will to resist is the aim of all warfare.)
Vital as U.S. military aid may be for El Salvador's Army, in the
end its success or failure will depend even more on whether the
troops can be convinced that they are in a conflict worth fight
ing--and winning.
President Reagan's critics in Congress are urging him to put pressure on
the El Salvadoran government to negotiate with the rebels--despite the fact
that the rebels, fully aware of their numerical disadvantage, repeatedly
reject such offers. Congressional and House liberals continue to view the
conflict in El Salvador as a home-grown "civil war" and one isolated to that
nation only. They reject all warnings of a "domino theory" in Central
America despite the fact that the domino theory did indeed become reality
in Southeast Asia (the toppling of Laos and Cambodia along with South
Vietnam).
Those paralyzed by the ghost of Vietnam were surprised, but probably not
dissuaded when on March 13, El Salvador's leftist guerrillas declared they
were "proud" of their ties to Cuba and Nicaragua and admitted they were part
of a regional struggle. Their boast was reported over our UPI wire in a
dispatch from San Salvador:
The statement by the rebels' clandestine Radio Venceremos
[Victory] appeared to be a tacit acceptance of charges made by
captured guerrilla chief Arquimedes Antonio Canada, interviewed
in a government television program last week •...