Basic HTML Version
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, APRIL 29, 1983
PAGE 11
policy in the United States itself--look what the F.B.I. did to the violent
Black Panther movement in the 1970s. Yet some U.S. lawmakers expect other
smaller democracies to pursue such a recipe for disaster.
President Reagan did, however, leave himself exposed to his critics when he
stressed, admittedly to lay the "ghost of Vietnam" to rest, that "there is
no thought of sending American troops to Central America; they are not
needed--indeed, they have not been requested there." One sharp congres
sional opponent jumped on this immediately, saying that if U.S. troops are
not needed, then perhaps U.S. security is not so endangered as the Presi
dent claims. Of course, this person could oppose sending troops anyway.
The President may have been too quick, say some of his supporters, to fore
close an option that may indeed become necessary.
News Media Response--Pro & Con
The news media also performed
its
own now customary and
peculiar role
of
second-guessing the President. In an attempt to "balance" what the Presi
dent said, the media paraded out all the overseas opposition as well. ABC's
"Nightline" presented an "opposing viewpoint" from a Soviet spokesman, live
via satellite from Moscow. The "Today Show," the morning after, gave air
time to Nicaragua's Foreign Minister, who branded part of the President's
comments, naturally, as "lies." Another Nicaraguan spokesman appeared on
"AM America."
� is happening to America?! Fat chance
£E_
any U.S. spokesman being given
time to rebut Yuri Andropov.£!! Soviet television!
Comments from the political commentators on the President's speech--right
left, pro-con--are just beginning to come in. Here are excerpts from a few,
most of them given prior to the speech, dealing with the issues of the
President's address. George F. Will, writing in the April 22 LOS ANGELES
TIMES minced no words about the serious threat now facing the United
States:
Events in Central America� spinning rapidly toward
a
decisive
moment
Tn
U.S. history. None of the fictions that were used to
rationalize acceptance of defeat in Vietnam can be used regarding
Central America. The threat there is close, clear� indisput
ably communist. There the United States will show--w1ll learn-
whether 1t 1s any longer capable of asserting the will a great
p � wer requires, or whether the slide into paralysis is irrever
sible••••
There is a war raging, and if all the substantial, determined
military assistance is one-way, there can be but one result. The
result will be a communist Central America and an Iran just�
wade across the Rio Grande.
The following is from a column written by noted geopolitical strategist,
Brian Crozier, in the April 29, 1983 NATIONAL REVIEW:
I am worried about El Salvador. In my case•••the concern is
essentially a strategic one•.•• What �orries the liberals, mean
while, is not the ultimate possibility of another Cuba in the
Caribbean region, but the thought that the United States will