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From: tim@unc.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Dems, Reps, Vietnam, and Isolationism
Message-ID: <5685@unc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 9-Aug-83 18:48:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: unc.5685
Posted: Tue Aug  9 18:48:41 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 10-Aug-83 19:09:52 EDT
References: orca.31
Lines: 26


    The insistence that the problems of Central America are imported
from the Soviet Union is at variance with the feelings of many experts
who have studied the region.  It seems most likely that the problems
are domestic.  The Soviets ARE supporting Communists there, it is
true, but we are supporting Fascists and plutocrats.  (I use both
terms literally.)  There is no indication that the problems have their
origin with either of us.  American intervention can only lead to
increased Soviet support in the region, as the endangered Communists
there are forced to turn more and more to outside aid in order to stay
afloat.  Thus we are creating the situation we fear, just as we did in
Vietnam by building up the North Vietnamese.

    The Soviet Union is without doubt a repressive dictatorship and a
vastly inferior country to the United States, but this isn't a Western
in which all bad guys wear black hats and cause all the trouble.
Reagan is a fanatical anti-Soviet, and sees their influence everywhere
that he sees anything bad, much as Christians blame the devil for all
the problems of the world.  Such an overly-simplistic foreign policy
can only lead to disaster.

___________
Tim Maroney
duke!unc!tim (USENET)
tim.unc@udel-relay (ARPA)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill