Word: dissented
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STRANGELY enough--for it was a missile aimed at the Carter administration's policy--the "El Salvador Dissent Paner" infiltrated Washington D.C. the day after Ronald Reagan's landslide victory. With an awkwardly revised introduction acknowledging Reagan's victory tacked on, the 30-page document appeared nevertheless, slipped by invisible hands under the door of every State Department office. The same day, it arrived in plain white envelopes, no return address, at the offices of capital lobbies and church and human rights groups involved in the national effort to change U.S. policy toward the tiny Latin American country...
...White House press office had been gathered together for an emergency briefing. Informed of the widespread assault of the "phony" document, the staff was then solemnly told, "The document's contents are harmful if believed true." And so the government began its long seige on the "El Salvador Dissent Paper." In reality, it started off as a low-key affair. State officials told their media contacts (who, not surprisingly, had received the report as well) that the document was undoubtably a fake. After all, it said it was an official dissent paper. Patently absurd, they argued. Dissent papers--usually used...
Realizing the government's worst fears, however, the dissent paper didn't go away. True, concientious capital reporters, wary of its mysterious origins, mentioned the document's appearance only once, but the report's authors had guaranteed its longevity by sending it to those organizations who would revel in its conclusions--among them that the United States halt aid to the junta of Jose Napolean Duarte and consider aiding the leftist guerrillas. If the government was going to quietly wish the report farewell, church and human rights groups had a very different idea. Before long, they were xeroxing the document...
...DIDN'T TAKE LONG for the dissent paper to reach the battle ground of a policy debate not new to Washington D.C. As State officials themselves would admit, it is no secret in the capital that dissension surrounds the government's policy of backing up El Salvador's civilian-military junta. While liberal politicians have doubted the wisdom of propping up yet another regime bound to fall and then turn against the United States, groups outside the government have also called for a change in policy. Human rights organizations have charged the government (especially Carter's human rights-touting administration...
Before the appearance of the "El Salvador Dissent Paper," few members of capital-based groups felt they had a real chance of changing U.S. policy, although many hoped that the murder of three American nuns and a lay missionaryworker there might push the government into reevaluating its policy. Even these hopes were dashed when--in the early evening of November 6--Ronald Reagan's presidency turned from a fear to a reality. A firm supporter of the U.S. backed junta in El Salvador, Reagan's election could only be seen--by those in favor of halting aid to Duarte...