The question you raise about Reagan is an interesting one, but I think it demands more generosity of spirit to get an interesting answer than you are likely to find there. As for me, I know Reagan was intelligent and underestimated - I doubt he was ignorant of the broad parameters of Iran/Contra, although I also doubt he involved himself in the details.
I think arming the Contras was a Good Thing - a very good thing, for the people of Nicaragua and the rest of Central America. I think the Boland Amendment was an unconstitutional limitation on the powers and prerogatives of the Executive branch. But politics being what they are, I don't blame Reagan or his administration for not putting it to the test.
The problem with Nicaragua and Central America in general, at the time, was that the entrenched powers were people like Somoza, who was a bastard - and the only people who had the guts to oppose these bastards, for the most part, espoused the Marxist ideology. For a long time we didn't care about the day to day lives of the people in Central America as long as the powers were anti-Communist. As we saw in Cuba, the people supported Fidel, even though all that happened was exchanging one Strong Man for another - which was the way it always happened in Central and South America - except that the Strong Man in Cuba was better to the ordinary people than the prior Strong Man, Batista. Yes, Fidel was an oppressive son of a bitch, but he built schools and hospitals.
The Chamorros represented an alternative, democracy loving, capitalistic but not oppressive. I think we did the right thing, partly because Somoza stayed in power because we supported him, so we needed to help clean up the mess. |
