Word: contra
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Both North and his former boss at the National Security Council, Rear Adm. John Poindexter, are targets of an investigation by the independent counsel in the Iran-Contra affair...
...fervently hope my colleagues at this great bastion of academic freedom will not conclude from this incident that they should duck controversial issues to avoid being smeared in this fashion. Only a few days ago you reported a remark by a Tufts student who disrupted a speech by a Contra representative: "No free speech for Fascists." What we have here is a milder version of the that did serious damage to America's colleges and universities in the heyday of Senator Joseph McCarthy. A new McCarthyism of the left will have the same chilling effect upon freedom of expression...
...even if the Arias plan were still a going concern, a question remains: Why should the U.S. allow its interests and policies in Central America to be determined by others? House Speaker Jim Wright was asked about putting contra aid in escrow, to be released depending on future Sandinista behavior. Perhaps, said Wright, but only "if we're willing to abide by the determination of those Central Americans themselves . . . rather than allowing someone in the State Department simply on his whim to say who is complying...
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...
...Democrats, the Arias plan came just in time. It is the new anchor for the anti-contra case, a case that is running out of the usual arguments. It was variously said that the contras could not win, had no support and even less legitimacy. Yet after one year of full U.S. funding, they have had considerable success in the field. The Sandinistas find themselves stretched and on the defensive. Most ominously, the internal opposition is talking to the contras about what the Sandinistas fear will be a "united front" of the kind they used to topple Somoza. That...