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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, DECEMBER
16,
1986
PAGE 17
It is in the face of this buildup that Washington's political
establishment has once more embarked upon an aid-to-the-
contras debate.... The record of Congress on the Nicaraguan
question
is
perhaps the most convincing chronology available
to demonstrate why Con ress
is
not equipped to manage
U.S.
+
er than accepting responsibility or
restrictions, z d + c o q a F
s a t an
reTiped a s E
-
Ra
9proach to Nicara ua has been to enact
viola- the
trying to z o n d u 7 a F i c y
is
we areagain seeinF,
1s
abroad, and at home.
---
President Reagan had succeeded in retrieving for the executive branch
some of the constitutional authority in the areas of foreign policy
which had been lost in the aftermath of Vietnam and Watergate. Now,
reports the December
15
U.S.
NEWS
&
WORLD REPORT, "the pendulum, much to
Reagan's chagrin, is almost certain to swing in the opposite direction,
toward
-
even stronger surveillance
b~
lawmakers. The President who
so
badly wished to reverse the post-Watergate trend toward more checks and
balances on the Oval Office may have served mostly to reinforce it."
The end result of the contra connection is already predictable. An
anti-contra American journalist, Pete Hamill, perhaps said it correctly,
in the December
1
LOS ANGELES TIMES:
NO
matter what else happens in the unraveling melodrama in
Washington, one thing now seems certain: The Sandinistas
--
have won their war
-
against
-
the contras. The fighting will go
on for a while, soldiers and civilians will die, schools and
7
granaries and bridges will be destroyed.
---
But if the qoal
-
of
war is victory, this one
is
over.
----
I-
-
To which the December
8
U.S.
NEWS
&
WORLD REPORT added:
The consequences for Reagan's Central America policy could be
disastrous. Some in Congress surely will argue for
withholding what's left from the
$100
million, especially if
it turns out that any of the diverted money was looted by
contra leaders. The estimated
10,000
rebel troops, most of
them barely tolerated guests in the Honduran jungle, could be
left as wandering gunmen while their wealthy leaders retire
to villas in Miami. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev could
well find the political ground more fertile when he visits
the area next year.
Yet the issue that drove Reagan to his current policy and his
aides into scandal will remain. Either this President
or
a
successor may face the tough task of finding a way short of
covert action to prevent consolidation of a Marxist regime on
the mainland of North America.
Speaking of
Mr.
Gorbachev, the Soviet leader is indeed planning a trip
to America's backyard early this coming year. One of his stops will be
in Nicaragua, where the Sandinistas are certain to give him a triumphal
i
welcome. Aspects of the General Secretary's itinerary were outlined in
-theOctober
31
DAILY TELEGRAPH of Britain: