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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, APRIL 26, 1985
"The litany of apology
!2;,
Communists, � condemnation for America and�
�
friends, is beginning again," Shultz said. "Can we afford to be naive again
about the�onsequences when we pull back, about the special ruthlessness of
Communist rule?"
Despite Grenada, American elected leadership is still paralyzed by the
"Vietnam syndrome." There is no national consensus on what to do about
Nicaragua� Such indecisiveness would not have happened years ago, as ex
plained in a UPI report on April 24:
Not long ago, a president would have sent the U.S. Marines into
Nicaragua and kept them there until a friendly government was in
charge.... But Reagan knows an invasion would cause a huge
uproar. It would anger most of Latin America, fuel anti-American
sentiment elsewhere, make it even harder to deal with Congress
and bring demonstrators back into the streets in this country••••
So the President is trying to unseat the Marxist-led Sandinistas
by subsidizing their opponents.
The Communist superpowers do
this all the time, calling the rebellions they aid "wars of
liberation."
Columnist George F. Will put the pivotal Congressional action in the broad
est strategic context. It signalled, he maintained, the end to the 38-
year-long (interesting number) policy of containment.
He wrote in his
April 21 syndicated column:
This is the most important congressional moment since May, 1947,
when Congress supported U.S. intervention-through-aid on the
anti-communist side in the Greek civil war. Congress thereby
transformed containment . from a theory into a policy.
Con
gress•••has forbidden even modest financial support for the
military effort of a mass movement prepared to do the dying to
prevent consolidation of the second Soviet satellite in this
hemisphere and the first on this continent. The evisceration of
containment is complete....
--
--
In 1947 President Harry
s.
Truman told Congress: "I believe it
must be the policy of the United States to support free people
who are resisting subjugation by armed minorities or by outside
pressure."••• An armed Nicaraguan minority, sustained by outside
forces (Soviet, Cuban, East German, etc.) is Sovietizing
Nicaragua in the way that was being done in Eastern Europe in
1947••••
In 1947 Congress had fresh memories of the terrible price paid
because of nonresistance to Hitler at the time of the remilitari
zation of the Rhineland. Today the historical memory of many
members of Congress consists entirely of Vietnam and its putative
lessons.
But congressional management of u.s. policy toward
Central America--too little aid, too late7 pursuit of the chimera
of negotiated settlement•••is a recipe for another Vietnam:
another protracted failure. - -
--
On Wednesday, the day after the crucial Senate and House votes, the House
nailed the door shut on support for the contras by refusing to support