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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, APRIL 26, 1985
PAGE 11
either of two additional proposals which would have given only humanitarian
aid, directly or indirectly, to the anti-Sandinista forces. In a gesture
of "gratitude" to the House, the Sandinistas announced they were sending
home. 100 Cuban military advisors (Washington claims there are 3,000 Cubans
in Nicaragua) plus arranging for the release of 107 prisoners charged with
"counterrevolutionary crimes."
A couple of weeks ago, I attended a debate in Los Angeles on the question of
congressional aid to the contras. There were six participants, three on
the right (pro-aid), three on the left. One of the latter was actor Ed
Asner, president of the Screen Actors Guild. His hatred for President
Reagan was so evident, it flashed like a beacon. He always referred to the
chief executive as "Reagan," (usually with a pejorative push in his pro
nunciation) never President Reagan, or Mr. Reagan, or even "the President."
Another panelist, Congressman George Brown of Riverside, California, while
not such a doctrinaire leftist, expressed the prevailing liberal view of
the House of Representatives. He denied that the U.S. was confronted with a
spreading political cancer in Central America. He admitted that there were
Cubans and other communist agents in Nicaragua, but he said, "None of them
pose a threat to U.S. security. If you see this then you see this as some
thing that few members of Congress see." Congressman Brown saw President
Reagan's concerns as fundamentally flawed in the larger context: "We' re
putting millions [of dollars] into the fight against the Communists around
the world.".
Of itself, a Communist Nicaragua, or even El Salvador would not pose a
direct immediate threat to the u.s.--except, of course, that the
Nicaraguans are building a 10,000 foot long air strip of the type that was
so worrisome in Grenada.
Long-range missiles based in Central America
would be only eight minutes from U.S. targets. Nicaragua would be, claimed
a participant on the other side, an "earthen aircraft carrier." However,
experts stress that the real threat comes from a solidified Nicaragua
becoming a staging ground, a regional headquarters for the further spread
of Communism up to the north, through Mexico, and south, enveloping Panama
and the Canal, and into the northern tier states of 'South America,
including a vulnerable Colombia.
The arguments of Asner, Congressman Brown and Blase Fontaine (a pro-Marxist
ex-Maryknoll priest) were countered by Dr. Alejandro Bolanos, a Nicaraguan
refugee. He pointed out that the top Sandinista command were all dedicated
Marxist revolutionaries, many of them educated in the East Bloc. "Coman
dante" Ortega, for example, is a graduate of Patrice Lumumba University in
Moscow. Dr. Bolanos charged that Americans and their representatives in
Congress were naive as to the real intent not only of the Sandinistas, but
the Cubans and Russians. "Wake Up America!" he shouted in conclusion to
his remarks.
The April 25 editorial titled "The Politics of Inaction" in the WALL STREET
JOURNAL had a lot to say about the real nature of the threat in Central
America, and especially how the Sandinistas have cleverly campaigned in the
U.S. for their position:
We now know more about the current condition of the American
political process. It has become, more than ever before, inter
nationalized. And some of the players have no high regard either
for democracy or the future well-being of the U.S.