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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MARCH 14, 1986
Last year•••Congress was able to limit aid to the contras to
bandages while Moscow was providing its puppet regime with
gunships. As a result, the apostles of defeat are saying with
self-fulfilling accuracy: See? The contras are losing, and no
mass appeal can be generated behind a losing cause; therefore,
let's not throw good money after bad ••••
Under assault from the self-victimizers, the Reagan White House
will be tempted to settle for half the money requested, or
support that is limited to half bandages and half small arms.
That sort of Solomonic compromise would be a bigger mistake
than outright surrender•••• The usual compromise, resulting in
a policy of hand-to-mouth armed annoyance, would be met with
scorn in Managua and would signal the rebel leaders that we
consider them pawns rather than players.
Latent support crystallizes when the possibility of victory is
real; unless we open up that possibility with powerful
armaments, we guarantee failure.... [Let there be] no slow
starvation of the contras; .nQ. piecemeal involvement of the
U.S.; no sure defeat brought about by the debilitating,
demoralizing dribbling of aid .QY•••defeatists. Instead, let us
have a fair test of whether enough arms and training, delivered
in time, will enable anti-Communists to turn out the corrupt
and repressive Ortega regime.
The real lesson of Vietnam has not been learned:
That a nation cannot
fight halfheartedly, with a "draw" rather than victory as the goal,
reluctantly increasing its commitment only in reaction to the forces
applied by the other side. This policy leads only to moral attrition and
eventual defeat.
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is also
disturbed by America's skewed foreign po!icy. He wrote in the March 9 LOS
ANGELES TIMES:
The American conduct in the Philippines has not been matched by
a comparable attitude against noisome regimes in Africa or the
Middle East, not to speak of the Communist Bloc.
Ethiopia
continues to receive economic aid despite plausible reports of
genocidal practices; the secretary of commerce calls for
increased trade with the Soviet Bloc. None of these governments
will ever be charged with fraudulently counting votes, since no
opposition candidate will survive to that stage of the
political process.
Only in the Philippines•••was civil and
military disobedience actively encouraged by U.S. spokesmen••••
I have grave concerns about the implications of these actions
for the future, especially if this special case emerges as a
general strategy.
It should be noted that one group of
countries was conspicuous by its refusal to join the general
self-congratulation.
Neighbors of the Philippines such as
Indonesia, Thailand or South Korea know that some of their
domestic
practices--though
less
flagrant
than
Marcos'
practices--could not stand the kind of scrutiny recently
applied in Manila. Will they become the next targets of a new
American strategy? Wi.
11 opposition groups seek to trigger U.S.