Word: central
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Leninists with announced plans for a 600,000-man military. As the President of an unarmed country whose ultimate protector, the United States, has proved itself utterly vacillating in dealing with these Leninists, Arias is hardly a free agent, let alone a philosopher king. He is less the detached Central American pondering the fate of his continent than he is President of a defenseless principality looking to secure its future...
Given Congress's performance over the past seven years, any Central American must anticipate that the future will include a Nicaragua run by Sandinistas. To be the architect of a plan that saves the Sandinistas from the contra threat (and, en passant, softens some of the rougher edges of Sandinista rule) will serve Arias and Costa Rica well in a Central America destined to be dominated by Nicaragua...
...Hamilton concludes that the contras should now be cut off. Such a leap of illogic can only be achieved by appeal to the sacred text of the Arias plan. The contras have gathered support, established their legitimacy and forced open some political space. Why then destroy them? Because the "Central Americans" wish...
...doubtful whether, before Nicaragua is fully democratized and thus demilitarized, this is indeed the wish of Nicaragua's neighbors. But assume that it is. Assume further that proximity gives Central Americans greater moral cachet than North Americans to decide Nicaragua's future. What then gives a Costa Rican more moral authority to decide the fate of Nicaragua than 12,000 to 15,000 Nicaraguans fighting to liberate their own country and asking only for the materials with which...
...Arias plan has become the great totem of the current Nicaragua debate. But it is no substitute for an American foreign policy. Americans still have to ask themselves the basic questions. Questions of national interest: Can the U.S. risk the domination of Central America by a Soviet client state? And questions of national purpose: Is it right for the U.S. to support a guerrilla force fighting a Leninist dictatorship? "Central American" answers to these questions are conflicting and cacophonous. In deciding its own answers, ! America might want to listen to various of these voices. It is not obliged...