thursday, march 12, 1981
daily nebraskan
page 5
El Salvador the place to halt America's retreat
Washington - The great American retreat
began in 1973. Congress, falling upon a
mortally-wounded president, stripped him
of the authority to punish Hanoi with air
power if Hanoi violated the Paris peace
accords. Then, in as dishonrable a deed as
ever committed by an American Congress,
our former allies, still in the field, Saigon
and Phnom Penh, were denied the wea
pons needed to defend themselves.
Hanoi, with a more reliable ally than the
U.S. Congress, was resuscitated from
Richard Nixon's punishing air strikes, re
armed and re-equipped. Two years after
the last Ameiican soldier had left South
Vietnam, the communists launched their
second offensive. This one succeeded. As
predicted by President Kennedy, when he
enunciated the "domino theory," South
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were absorb-
ucEianan
ed into an Indochincse communist federa
tion. The brutality in the South, which
sent millions fleeing into the South China
Sea, had been predicted. The barbarity of
the conquering communists in Cambodia
exceeded the wildest imaginings of the
American people.
Listening to a U.S. Congress whining
about "no more Vielnams," the Russians
ferried 20.000 Cuban troops across the
Atlantic to Angola. From there, two in
vasions were launched into Zaire, and
preparations made for a drive southward
into Namibia.
In the Western Hemisphere, Castro saw
the American paralysis induced by the
Vietnam debacle. The tiny island of
Grenada fell to a Castroite coup. And
('astro personally coordinated the guerrilla
forces in Nicaragua. Romanticized by the
customary organs of the American press,
the Sandinistas overthrew the Somoza
government, which had been cut adrift by
its old friend, the United States.
"Now there are three of us!" exulted
Castro on his triumphal entry into
Managua.
By Jan. 20. Castro hoped to add a
fourth. With Cuba as privileged sanctuary
and principal source of weaponry, and
Nicaragua as transshipment point, the guer
lillas in the mountains of Fl Salvador
launched their offensive last fall, to present
President Reagan with a fait accompli
Inaugural ion Day.
They failed. Their support among the
people was less than hoped: the opposition
Battleground
Continued from Page 4
Under terms of the lease, the decision as
to whether the Ratt. himself, will be a bas
tion of democracy or an emerging demo
cratic people's republic will be left to the
Hip of a coin.
His loyal royal subjects will then be
come, respectively, either Soviet-armed,
Marxist -Leninist fanatics or American
supplied running dogs of capitalist expan-
of the central government greater than
anticipated.
So, now, President Reagan and Secre
tary of State Gen. Alexander M. Haig have
shoved in their chips on the side of the
central government. The war for Fl Salva
dor has become one the United States can
not lose.
The world knows the junta there is
America's creature, that the economic and
social reforms undertaken were drafted
at the Department of State, that the guer
rillas are not democratic reformers, that
their M-I6s, Uxis and Soviet mortars were
not manufactured in the hills. If Fl Salva
dor goes, the communists will roll up Cen
tral America from the Panama Canal to the
oil fields of Mexico. If the Yankees cannot
contain Cuban expansion in Central Amer
ica, our own backyard, how credible our
hair-chested commitment to contain Soviet
expansion in Russia's back yard, the
Persian Gulf?
Whatever the military cost in advisers,
air power and economic aid to Fl Salvador,
it ought to be paid. Our objective there
should not be simply eradication of the
guerrilla movement, but the removal of
Soviet influence from the Western Hemis
phere. With an infusion of weapons from Fl
Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, the
Sandinistas can be given a taste of the
medicine they have force-fed their neigh
bors. But, ultimately -and the sooner the
better the United States must cut out the
hemispheric cancer of Fidel Castro. We
cannot go about Latin America putting out
one fire after another-without confronting
the arsonist, Castro, the hired man of the
Soviet Union.
Given the weakness of Castro's econo
my, the vulnerability of his overextended
adventures in Africa, the hostility and
hatred of so many of his own people, the
vast distance from his patron, Cuba itself
should be vulnerable to precisely the pres
sures it has applied against other nations.
America's allies in Furope and Lit in
America, after being shown evidence of
Cuban involvement in Fl Salvador, should
be pressured to join an American economic
quarantine. Arms should be shipped from
America's allies and collaborators Fgypt.
Israel. China to the I 'nil a guerrillas in
Angola who can make Castro pay a price
in blood tor continued occupation of that
country. The South Africans should be
urged, clandestinely, to include Cubans in
their attacks on the Soviet-supported in-
sionism. They will then set out to happily
cut the Rail's throat and he will happily
retire to his new villa on the French
Riviera. So all the Phynkians will be happy.
As for Secretary Haig and Foreign
Minister Gromyko, each has vowed never
to back down even should this confronta
tion in Phynkia last 100 years. The other
members of the U.N. certainly hope so.
(c) Chronicle Publishing Co. 1981
nebraskan
UPSP 144-080
Editor Katriy Chenuult, Managing Editor :
Torn Mc Neil, News editor: Val Swmlon, Associ
ate news editors Diane Andersen, Steve Miller.
Assistant news editor Bob Lanmn. Night news
editor Kathy Stokebrand. Maqazme editor Mary
Kempkes, Entertainment editor Casey McCabe.
Sports editor Larry Sparks, Art director Dave
Luet)k'. Photography chief: Mark Billmqsley.
Assistant photography chief Mitch Hrdlicka
Editorial page assistant: Tom Prentiss
Copy editors Mike Bartels, Sue Brown. Pat
Clark. Nancy Ellis. Dan Epp. Beth Headnck.
Maureen Hutfless, Alice Hrmcek. Jeanne Mohatt.
J.time Piqaga. Tntia Waters
Business manager Anne Shank. Production
manager Kitty Policky; Advertising manager
Art K Small. Assistant advertising manager Jeff
Pike
Publications Board chairman Mark Bowen.
4 73A212 Professional adviser Don Walton.
4 73 7301
The Daily Nebraskan is published by the UNL
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du'inq the fall and ;prmq semesters, except
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Address Daily Nebraskan. 34 Nebraska
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68M0
Bill Cosb says:
"Help keep Red Cross
ready to help.
When a tornado
hits 1,000 miles away.
Or a t ire breaks out
next door."
. - - 1 1
mini n I i irnr MMi ii inn - "k
tar!
F1
i
American
Red Cross
surgents of SWAPO, inside Angola. A
Radio Free Cuba established in Florida
could encourage the anti-Castroites on the
island to adopt the tactics of the people
of Poland. Among the refugee population
here, certainly, there can be recruited
young men for guerrilla operations on
Castro's island.
To halt the long American retreat,
America needs a victory, somewhere, over
a Communist revolution. In that sense, Fl
Salvador, where Cuba is committed, far,
far from the source of Soviet strength,
represents an opportunity. All talk of
compromise, of coalition government,
should be set aside and this particular
revolution strangled in its crib.
(c) 1981 by PJB Enterprises, Inc.
Distributed by The Chicago Tribune N.Y.
News Syndicate, Inc.
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