aw
v mm nfc VF d---m mM -
U.S. push sends
Ortega to Soviets
Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega's
meeting with Soviet President Kon
stantin Chernenko yesterday was not
a happy event for Western observers,
but it shouldn't have been much of a
surprise.
The United States was largely re
sponsible for that conference. Our gov
ernment, indirectly, did everything but
buy Ortega's plane ticket.
Former U.S. Ambassador to the Uni
ted Nations Andrew Young has des
cribed the model for Third World
Moscow romance. Young says that
many Third World revolutions are rebel
lions against exploitative regimes, pop
ular revolts against oppression. The
rebels have two places to go for assist
ance, the USSR and the United States,
via various stooge nations. Since the
United States is more often than not
the muscle behind the oppressive gov
ernments, rebels turn to the Soviets,
not necessarily out of any affinity to
Soviet doctrines or methods, but by
the process of elimination.
Nicaragua fits that model only too
well. The United States backed the
Somoza regime, turning its head on
that government's abuses for the sake
of keeping Nicaragua in the fold. How
ever, it was Somoza, not Nicaragua,
who was in the fold, and the Sandi
nista rebellion united the government
with the people.
The United States has stood firmly
behind the counter-revolutionary Con-
tras, pseudo-covertly. in their efforts
fjr. rv-j'
AC ) Lf ' rSA -flMOVS DEATH
vr- 1 if ARH TOTALLY FALSEf 11 j
AIE TOTALLY FALSEi,,
ft a M n mi f n if lllt
COMRAPEANPROP0lfy
x
1
I 1 v i.
? i
I J I 7 f ' 1
1M I TrsJ l rU
.1 iilftli
to disrupt the Sandinista government's
essays at rebuilding Nicaragua, going
so far as to conduct its own terrorist
campaigns such as mining Nicaraguan
harbors. Reagan administration offi
cials have made only forked-tongue
offers at negotiation with Nicaraguan
officials, claiming a desire for peace
talks while simultaneously pressing
for increased aid to the Contras and
further direct American involvement.
Nicaragua's attachment to Moscow
is not good for Nicaragua or for Cen
tral America. The Soviet Union does
not have good intentions and will not
have a positive influence. The cost of
its aid to the Sandinista government
could well be dear for the Nicaraguan
people. But when American officials go
searching for a culprit, when we want
to know who is responsible lor Ortega
being in Moscow now, we need look no
farther than Washington. And in five
years, we may well be able to say the
same of the latest example of Young's
model for Western aid to Soviet ex
pansionism, El Salvador. One thing
about the United States we sure
know how to flog a dead horse.
Christopher Burb&ch
Wliate Moose leitln
ainsie to racii
i issues
Several years ago, when my career
was going nowhere, I had lunch with
an editor and asked why I had not
been promoted. Women and blacks, he
said. And I, true liberal that I am,
nearly collapsed in a paroxysm of guilt
that soon turned to outrage. Why me? I
asked.
The editor had no answer. He had
quotas to meet, once mandated by
progessive social policy, not to men
tion potential legal suits. It hardly
mattered to him whether the women
and the blacks being promoted at my
expense were younger or older than
me, had started their careers before or
after me, or were then doing better or
worse work than I was. Not only were
they not true victims of discrimina
tion, but even if they were, I was not
their persecutor.
gan administration is wasting them by
the millions.
- Statistics are hard to come by, but
it's the assumption of experts that the
chief reason for the decline in black
enrollment is the reduction in federal
aid both real and perceived.
It would be one thing if the Reagan
administration were fighting quotas
while simultaneously doing everything
in its power to overcome the effects of
past and present discrimination.
But it is not. Instead, it is vocal and
energetic in battling quotas, and down
right lethargic when it comes to pro
grams such as student aid which could
be of assistance to blacks. By rhetoric,
by legislation, by court suit, the admin
istration has all but told blacks that it's
ere else could they turn ?
Slowly, ever so slowly, the lies the
Reagan administration has been tell
ing the American people for so many
months are being exposed.
MMMMMBMMMHMMiMMHBEBMBBBMHBIIIMIIIIwlllll IHIHM HHBMBBMB3
Richard
Cohen
O O d Vlf 1
As a result, I have since had a very
personal perspective on the issue of
quotas or affirmative action wha
tever the fancy term for a situation
where someone is helped on account
of race or sex at the expense of some
one else. That's why a little cheer went
up within me when the Supreme Court
reversed a Memphis affirmative action
plan that was substituted for a tradi
tional seniority system.
But it was really just a little cheer
because, the previous week, newspap
ers had published yet another episode
in a long-running American horror
story: the plight of blacks.
Since 1978, the number of blacks
enrolled in college has actual declined
from 10.8 percent of all undergrad
uates to 9.8 in 1932.
If you're talking unemployment and
desperate poverty, college education is
a mere nothing even though it's
essential to the expansion ofthe black
middle class. But the numbers repres-'
ent countless personal tragedies, real
people who could have done some
thing with their lives. A mind might be
a terrible thing to waste, but the Rea-
Pcgo 4
Last week an article in the New York
Times told about a former CIA employee
whose area of expertise was Central
America. He worked for the CIA up
until this year and he thinks, contrary
to the claims of the Reagan adminis
tration, that the Sandinista govern
ment represents no threat to its Cen
tral American neighbors.
How could it be? The Sandinistas are
too busy fighting off the U.S.-backed
Contras to have time to worry about
anything else.
Much will be made of Nicaraguan
leader Daniel Ortega's visit to Moscow
this week. Where else are the Sandinis
tas to turn? The government of the
United States, by its hostile statements
and aid to the Contras, has made clear
its attitude toward the.Sandinistas.
Look at it this way: There's two
banks the bank of Ronald and the
bank of Kcnstantm. Senor Ortega owns
a small failing business. He needs a
loan to get his business back on its
feet. But the bank of Ronald is "trying to
run him out of business. So he has to go
to the bank of Konstantin.
There are other chinks in the armor
as well A new book, "And Also Teach
Them To Read" by Sheryl Hi." dhon, tells
how the Sandinista government has
struggled to eliminate illiteracy in Nica
ragua. To a great degree it has been
successful, bringing the illiteracy rate
down from 50 percent to 12 percent.
Hirshon, an American, still teaches
Nicaragua. She writes passionately, but
honestly, about the Sandinistas' strug
gles to organize the literacy crusade.
It's impossible to read this book and
not feel that the people of Nicaragua
are better off now than they were
under Somoza.
Incidentally, the Latin American
country with the highest rate of liter
acy is Cuba. Say what you will about
the Cubans, at least they can read the
Wall Street Journal.
Sooner or later the lies will catch up
with Reagan. They always do. Already
the administration's lies about the
mining of Nicaraguan harbors has
drawn the criticism of Barry Gold
water. Goldwater is hardly a flaming
liberal or pinko but he is a decent man.
Most people are when they know the
truth and the blinders are starting to
come off.
This is all the more fortunate since
Reagan looks to be heading for a land
slide victory in the fall. It's important to
get the message across that the fall
election is not a referendum on send
ing Marines into the streets of Mana
gua. Otherwise, Reagan will be temp
ted to try more of his Wild West diplo
macy. As someone once said, "Seek the
truth and it shall set ye free." In this
case it may set the people of Nicaragua
free, too.
unsympathetic to their problems. What
really gets its dander up, though, is the
occasional white who suffers in an
attempt to remedy past discrimina
tion. It is important for the government
to stand up for the individual to
assert, as it did in Memphis, that a
person is not just a member of a race
but foremost an individual But it is
just as important to recognize the
problems of racism and do something
about them.
If quotas and the like are to be dis
carded, then at the very least the pie
of opportunity for blacks (and for
women) has to be expanded. So far,
this administration has been interested
in doing one and not the other. It
summons up oodles of outrage for the
victims of reverse discrimination, but
almost none for the victims of tradi
tional discrimination. The effect is that
when it comes to both social conscience
and outrage, the administration has a
quota of its own.
And blacks need not apply.
1S54, Washington Post Wtirs Group
t t ts Daily -n
EOITOR
GENERAL MANAGED
PRODUCTION MAASS'S
ADVE8TISIHG fcAN.0S
ASSISTANT
ADVEBTISiNO MANAGGH
CifCUCAflOM MANAGER
ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
ENTeJtTAIKMfNT EOITC
COJ DESK SUf5f?VISOJV
W!ft EDITOR
con LDITOSS
N1QKT NEWS fOITOA
ASSISTANT
NIGHT NEWS EDITOR
PHOTOaAPHER3
ASTIST
PUBLICATIONS 83ARO
CHAIRPERSON
PROFESSIONAL ACVIStR
Tswityns ,--
t itmrn
Jaw j ; (.s
4mm itai
Dtonna tsH
Jeff &&&s&t
Cmfn Jo, 47i-87I
ton Wan, 47-731
Th Dally Ncbratkan (USPS 144-CRQ) it "MbHtfxwJ by tt
UNL P&tcttof! Sord Monday through fnrwy tti th toll
nd spring v.rt ind Tuiy and Friday in tfM
tummsf MMtorii. col during vacation.
PiMtftr r ancoutajad to tuemtf story kJew and com
ment g th Daily NJrtMn by piwin VS-SSIS bftTwaon
P m- Monday nVougn Friday. Tf public tito
bsa to th Pu6iciion Bwwd, For Information, eall
Cirta Jonnaon, 5.
Poalmatiar Simd addraca chanoa to t Daily NB
Jtan, 34 Nabraakt Union, l0C R SU Lincoln. N-.
ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 14 DAILY KIESASKAN
Daiiy Nebraskan
Tuosday, Juno 19. 1984
- ,c