TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/031290/0312107.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 3.4 KB | 78 lines

                                                                                NATION, Page 15

THE PRESIDENCY

Credit Where Credit Is Due


By Hugh Sidey


    While the political and military combatants were waging
peace down in Managua last Thursday, the U.S. Senate was raising
hell into the night about who should get credit. Democrats
wanted to hail Chamorro and Ortega. Republicans liked the former
but wanted to zing the latter for suggesting that he could
continue to govern "from below." Kudos were lofted for former
President Jimmy Carter, arbiter of the ballot box, and Costa
Rica's President Oscar Arias Sanchez, who won the Nobel Peace
Prize for devising a regional peace plan. Then minority leader
Bob Dole added his footnote to history: "There would not have
been an election if President Reagan had not been around here
keeping everybody's feet to the fire for eight years."

    Until now, it has been hard for Reagan to reap anything but
blame for the sad events in Nicaragua. Reagan inherited a
Marxist on the march in Managua. He embraced the contras as
"freedom fighters," slapped on trade sanctions and thoroughly
riled Congress and foreign policy elitists. Then some of his
stumblebums devised the Iran-contra scandal. He is still paying
for that fiasco.

    Time for a little fairness. The end result of the Nicaragua
episode seems to be what the U.S. has vainly sought all over the
globe in its support of freedom; few American lives were
committed or lost, with a cost of only $300 million in U.S. aid
for the contras. Nicaraguans sustained the fight until
conditions outside and inside the country were ripe for a shift
of power. Compare Viet Nam -- 58,000 Americans killed, $150
billion spent, the nation rent in bitterness, a bitter defeat.

    Most U.S. operations in Latin America have been like
tragicomic operas among the banana trees. Recall John Kennedy's
Ivy Leaguers running around in their chinos and sneakers, trying
to cloak the Bay of Pigs disaster while massive U.S. power sat
unused off the bloody beach. Or Lyndon Johnson pouring 20,000
troops into the Dominican Republic, after exaggerating to
reporters about headless bodies lying in the streets, blood
running in the gutters and bullets whizzing through embassy
windows.

    Reagan's invasion of Grenada was most notable for the 8,600
medals that were handed out to 7,000 troops. And it was not that
long ago that George Bush sent 24,000 American soldiers into
Panama, in December. Twenty-six Americans died, and it took 15
days to take custody of Manuel Antonio Noriega.

    But now and then there does emerge a constellation of
events that seem to create a sort of magic. Jimmy Carter
spotted Ortega's militarization. The national debate forced
U.S. restraint, the news media enforced a kind of rough honor
system, and the global communist pretense collapsed. Finally the
world came to watch the election showdown. Hungry and
poverty-ridden people quite naturally opted for change through
the dignity of the ballot box.

    Some of the battered warriors who marched the long way with
Reagan called him up last week to thank him, among them George
Bush and Dan Quayle. And there was a note in the mail from one
of the world's master power brokers. Richard Nixon sent his
personal well-done. If Reagan deserved some of the knocks he got
on that journey -- and he did -- then he deserves some of the
credit for the final tally.