Basic HTML Version
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, APRIL 26, 1985
PAGE 9
ON THE WORLD SCENE
CONGRESS GUARANTEES COMMUNIST FOOTHOLD April 23, 1985 will go down in his
tory as a pivotal milestone in the decline of American power and prestige.
The House of Representatives defeated a $14 million aid package for the
Nicaraguan anti-communist counterrevolutionary forces, commonly known as
the contras. The Senate had earlier in the day approved the legislation,
but it was nullified in the House.
All sides acknowledged that the vote represented a stinging defeat for the
Reagan Administration's Central American policy. "Few votes will� be
.2.2 important to the national security of the United States,�. Reagan
warned last week. "A vote against our proposal would hasten the consolida
tion of Nicaragua as a Communist terrorist arsenal." Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R
Illinois) likened the refusal to finance the contras to "a neighbor seeing
a crime on the street and pulling the shade. We don't want to get in
volved." The issue of U.S. security "cannot wait until we have a fight at
our own borders," declared California Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Cali
fornia). Opposition Democrats, in general, did not agree.
In Nicaragua, of course, the scene was one of relief, if not jubilation.
The government radio declared the House vote "a disastrous defeat for Pres
ident Reagan." The Sandinistas had done their own fair share of lobbying in
order to ensure the outcome by inviting key House and Senate members to
visit Nicaragua to "hear their side." They also "campaigned" hard over the
three U.S. television networks. Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega, an avowed
Marxist revolutionary, was seen on all three networks on the eve of the
vote.
NBC gave him prominent air time, in an extensive interview and
profile conducted on-the-spot by anchorman Tom Brokaw.
As one former
Vietnam correspondent for AP said: "Today it is almost mandatory to
interview guerrillas--you get to� the other side."
Perhaps it's ironic that the "green light for revolution" in Central Ameri
ca was given just as the nation was taking note of the tenth anniversary of
the fall of South Vietnam. In fact Secretary of State George Shultz, in a
speech marking the 10th anniversary of America's lost effort, warned that
Central America is in danger of going the way of Indochina if the United
States repeats its earlier policies.
"The ordeal of Indochina in the past decade--as well as the oppressions en
dured by the people of Cuba and every other country where Communists have
seized power--should teach something," Shultz said. "Do we want another
Cuba in this hemisphere? How many times must we learn the same lesson?" He
added: "Broken promises. Communist dictatorship. Refugees. Widened So
viet influence, this time �.2Y! " very borders: Here is your parallel be
tween Vietnam and Central America.
Shultz was scathing in his assessment of the results of U.S. withdrawal
from Vietnam. "Our retreat created a vacuum that was exploited by our ad
versaries," Shultz said. "The Soviets••• took advantage of� inhibitions
and projected their power to unprecedentecr-lengths: intervening in Angola,
in Ethiopia, in South Yemen and in Afghanistan. The American weakness
turned out to be the most destabilizing factor on the global scene," he
said, adding that "the larger lesson of the past decade is that when America
lost faith in herself, world stability suffered and freedom lost ground.