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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, APRIL 20, 1984
Last week the House of Representatives scheduled a full debate on the issue
of the CIA-backed plan of mining the harbors of Nicaragua. Presented over
the "C-SPAN" government TV cable channel, the debate quickly elevated it
self to the broader policy of what, if anything, the United States should do
in the burgeoning Central America crisis. Those Congressmen on the left
claimed that the U.S. "should not act as the Soviets or the Cubans act,"
that Washington should take the "high moral ground." (Those espousing the
"high moral ground," generally speaking, are the same crowd of legislators
who support government-funded abortion, ERA, gay rights and other liberal
domestic policies.) Those on the right side of the aisle, such as the elo
quent Henry Hyde of Illinois, vehemently argued that the U.S. must act
forcefully, and soon, before utter disaster strikes.
Central America,
proclaimed Mr. Hyde (or one of his supporters), is destined to become "the
crisis of the decade."
For Congressmen, Senators especially, to claim they didn't know about the
mining operations, notes the WALL STREET JOURNAL in its April 17 lead
article, is the height of hypocrisy.
The Senate, including many anti
mining opponents, had just recently approved funds for "covert" operations
against Nicaragua. They were told about, and didn't object to, the mining
strategy--until it was made public. Then they ran scared. The JOURNAL
opined:
What we have learned in the mining episode, unhappily, is that
the...hypocrisies neatly capture the sense of the Congress. The
collective judgment of Congress agrees that something must be
done about Nicaragua...• But the Congress of the U.S. was spooked
by a few newspaper stories revealing that the CIA was doing what
every serious person in the world already knew it was doing. Now
it threatens to come back and cut off the funds for all purposes,
replacing the Monroe Doctrine with the Brezhnev Doctrine--that
once a Marxist-Leninist dictatorship is established it cannot be
challenged. And 1n Justifying this in private, thec:ongressmen
will blame the American voters, despite all the elections in
which voters preferred American strength to American weakness.
The result will be spreading turmoil in Central America, perhaps
eventually including war with American participation, and growing
doubts in all the world's trouble spots about America's role as a
superpower-.-The Wrights and Moynihans of Congress [ Representa
=
tives Jim Wright of Texas and Daniel P. Moynihan of New York]
know this, which is why they are wi11ing to spend mi11ions of
dollars. But they are not willing to spend a single ounce of
courage.
The "Dear Comandante" Letter
The JOURNAL also blasted the "Dear Comandante" letter that ten congressmen
had written to Comandante Daniel Ortega, head of Nicaragua's ruling Junta.
The letter said, in part,
Dear Comandante: We address this letter to you in a spirit of
hopefulness and good will.
As Members of the U.s. House of
Representatives, we regret the fact that better relations do not
exist between the United States and your country. We have been,
and remain, opposed to U.S. support for military action directed
against the people or government of Nicaragua...•