THE RIGHT BOOKS

Speaking at the University of Virginia this past December, Ronald Reagan conceded that perhaps the greatest disappointment of his Presidency was his failure to favorably resolve the crisis in Central America. Far from diminishing in intensity, the conflict has widened in recent years as the Sandinistas have been permitted to retain power in Nicaragua, becoming the region’s leading source of Communist insurgency. Indeed, as James R. Whelan and Franklin A. Jaeckle argue in their new book, The Soviet Assault on America’s Southern Flank (Regnery Gateway, $17.95), “The very stability and safety of the United States itself is at greater risk now from our southern flank than ever before in our history.” In some four hundred pages of text, the authors provide a comprehensive overview of the current situation and dispel many of the myths generated by our own news media.

It is easy to forget that as recently as the mid 1970s, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua enjoyed political stability and previously unknown levels of economic prosperity, and were firmly allied with the United States. Conditions in Central America, as elsewhere, took a sharp turn for the worse after Jimmy Carter became President in 1977. The authors point out that “Carter brought to the Presidency an innocence of historical perspective perhaps without parallel among our modern Presidents. . . . Carter approached every new international crisis as if it had no roots.” Carter made “human rights” the theme of his foreign policy. In practice, this theme became an ideological bludgeon to be used against governments—many of them with a long record of friendship with the U.S.—that fell into disfavor with the New Left activists who filled the policy-making ranks of the Carter Administration.

WL

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Wayne Lutton

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Speaking at the University of Virginia this past December, Ronald Reagan conceded that perhaps the greatest disappointment of his Presidency was his failure to favorably resolve the crisis in Central America. Far from diminishing in intensity, the conflict has widened in recent years as the Sandinistas have been permitted to retain power in Nicaragua, becoming the region’s leading source of Communist insurgency. Indeed, as James R. Whelan and Franklin A. Jaeckle argue in their new book, The Soviet Assault on America’s Southern Flank (Regnery Gateway, $17.95), “The very stability and safety of the United States itself is at greater risk now from our southern flank than ever before in our history.” In some four hundred pages of text, the authors provide a comprehensive overview of the current situation and dispel many of the myths generated by our own news media.

It is easy to forget that as recently as the mid 1970s, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua enjoyed political stability and previously unknown levels of economic prosperity, and were firmly allied with the United States. Conditions in Central America, as elsewhere, took a sharp turn for the worse after Jimmy Carter became President in 1977. The authors point out that “Carter brought to the Presidency an innocence of historical perspective perhaps without parallel among our modern Presidents. . . . Carter approached every new international crisis as if it had no roots.” Carter made “human rights” the theme of his foreign policy. In practice, this theme became an ideological bludgeon to be used against governments—many of them with a long record of friendship with the U.S.—that fell into disfavor with the New Left activists who filled the policy-making ranks of the Carter Administration.