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From: mjk@ttrdc.UUCP (Mike Kelly)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: My article on Nicaragua
Message-ID: <160@ttrdc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 29-Apr-85 18:38:33 EDT
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Posted: Mon Apr 29 18:38:33 1985
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 >From: rrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo)
 >Do the Soviets think the Sandinists are Marxist-Leninists (many are
 >obviously Marxists of one flavor or another; read their public state-
 >ments)?  Does it really matter (for Soviet policy toward Nicaragua)?

Good point; probably not.  However, I think that it is clear to anyone
who looks at the evidence that Soviet involvement in Nicaragua in
particular, and Central America in general, is pretty minimal.  This
fact doesn't stop the Reagan Administration from raising the Soviet
boogeyman. (Of course, facts have got in the way of very little the
Reagan Administration wants to do, but that's another article...)

What the Reagan Administration clearly seeks is the same authority
over Central America the Soviet Union has over Eastern Europe.  It
holds to itself the right to veto any government it disagrees with (viz
Grenada), forcibly if need be.  

The evil is not the Marxists in the Nicaraguan government (I never said
there weren't any, just that the government policies are not Marxist),
but the morally bankrupt policy the Reagan Administration has taken towards
all of Central America.  Where were such noted fans of Central American
democracy as Ronald Reagan, George Schultz and Cap Weinberger when the
Somoza regime was ruling Nicaragua with active U.S. support?  Where was
their concern about fair and free elections then?   

It is little surprise to me that the Nicaraguan government isn't too
crazy about the U.S.  If I were them, I'd be pissed as hell at a
government that supported a dictatorship in my country for decades.  But
that's beside the point, and most people in the Nicaraguan government 
realize that.  They seek friendly relations with the U.S.  They do not
seek to be a U.S. puppet.   Nor do they seek to be a Soviet puppet.  
Despite Reagan Administration rhetoric, which seems to equate acceptance
of any Soviet assistance with mainlining heroin, only U.S. actions will
drive the Nicaraguans into the Soviet bloc.  Tell me, what choice does
that government have when the Reagan Administration:

	- funds terrorists dedicated to overthrowing the country,
	- mines its harbors,
	- cuts off all economic assistance,
	- pressures its allies to freeze out the Nicaraguans (mostly
	  unsuccessfully, thank goodness, which is further testimony
	  to how isolated the Reagan policy is in the world),
	- *and now* talks about an economic blockade because the
	  Administration is in a snit over loosing a funding battle
	  in Congress.  The U.S., by the way, accounts for about 20%
	  of Nicaragua's foreign trade.  An economic blockade would
          be pretty serious.

It's becoming a matter of *survival* for the Nicaraguan government.  I
agree that it wasn't very politic of Ortega to go to Moscow the day after
the contra vote, but I understand wanting to send the message.  My God,
imagine the feeling of impotence knowing that the future of your country
was being debated in Washington, where you have no influence.  It's hard
to consistently pass up the little ways you have of thumbing your nose
at the emperor.

Mike Kelly