Basic HTML Version
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, APRIL 29, 1983
PAGE 10
America. If we cannot defend ourselves there, we cannot expect
to prevail""e°lsewhere. Our credibility would collapse, our alli
ances would crumble and the safety of our homeland wourcr-be
.E..!:!!
at jeopardy.
We have a vital interest, a moral duty, and a solemn respon
sibility.••• It is a duty that falls to all of us--the President,
the Congress, and the people•... Who among us would wish to bear
responsibility for failing to meet our shared obligation?
Immediately after the speech, key congressional critics denounced President
Reagan's Central American policies as a "formula for failure" leading, said
one (in Vietnam analogy), to "a dark tunnel of endless intervention." Sen.
Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) said in a televised speech billed as a Demo
cratic response to Mr. Reagan's address that "instead of trying to do some
thing about the [economic and social] factors which breed revolution this
administration has turned to massive military buildups at a cost of hun
dreds of millions of dollars."
The WALL STREET JOURNAL (April 29) editorially labeled the Dodd response
"defeatist and specious," adding:
This thesis is completely bogus. Despite poverty in El Salvador,
the elections last year made clear that there is virtually no
popular support for the guerrillas.•.• Central America's growth
during the 1960s and early 1970s was extraordinary, allowing
large numbers of people to..•forrn a substantial middle class....
Mr. Dodd argued that if we continue to support El Salvador, we
will "find ourselves once again on the losing side," waging "a
conflict which cannot be won." The Salvadorans•..are prepared to
go on fighting for their freedom, but Mr. Dodd wants to give�-
stand in
Marxist
Central
of the
Interestingly•..he also claimed that "all Arnericans
agreement" on the need to oppose the establishment of
states, Soviet military bases or Soviet missiles in
America and "to defend our security and the security
Americas, if necessary, by military means."
Curious words••.• Sen. Dodd and apparently his party intend to
thwart small efforts now, such as aid to El Salvador and the
anti-Sandinista guerrillas. But they also promise to prevent the
spread of Central American communism later, when it will surely
require far more massive American effort. They do not mean the
second promise, of course, but they are likely to find themselves
carrying it out nonetheless•••. Mr. Reagan asks smaller efforts
now, when conceivably American combat troops might not be needed.
£.!�denies his request, Congress will not make war less likely;
g
will make war more likely.
The President's critics almost universally call for the U.S. to put pres
sure on the embattled Salvadoran government to work out a negotiated
settlement with the rebels. Few in the news media (overwhelmingly sup
portive of the critics) point out the hypocritical absurdity of a freely
elected government negotiating with a minority guerrilla front trying to
overthrow it by force.
The U.S. government would never stand for such