The Cold War's Last Battlefield: Reagan, the Soviets, and Central America by Edward A. Lynch

Author:Edward A. Lynch [Lynch, Edward A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: International Relations, Russia & the Former Soviet Union, United States, Latin America, Central America, 20th Century, Political Science, Executive Branch, American Government, History, General
ISBN: 9781438439495
Google: CQcAAAAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 14611774
Publisher: SUNY Press
Published: 2011-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

A Democratic Breakthrough

After the confrontation between Bush and the Salvadoran generals, the administration benefited from some good news from El Salvador as 1984 opened. The Salvadoran army was steadily improving and demonstrating its ability to take the fight to the guerrillas. The FMLN, for its part, had to resort to kidnappings and forced conscription to fill its depleting ranks. Stories in liberal newspapers about the growing burden of refuges in El Salvador could not avoid mentioning that most of the refugees were fleeing rebel-held territory. The FMLN leadership announced its intention to try to disrupt the presidential election, scheduled for March 25. In so doing, the rebels seriously undercut their democratic credentials and made their supporters' job in the U.S. court of public opinion much more difficult.

The election was shaping up as a one-on-one confrontation between Roberto D'Aubuisson, an avowed rightist, and José Napoleón Duarte, a centrist with strong connections with Congress. As the long-time rivals became frontrunners, Reagan faced another harrowing choice. A victory by D'Aubuisson would almost certainly mean an end to U.S. military support for El Salvador, making a rebel victory more likely. D'Aubuisson himself admitted as much during the campaign, promising nervous Salvadorans that if he won, and the U.S. cut off funds, he could replace them with funds from right-wing Latin American governments. Moreover, D'Aubuisson backed free market economic policies that members of the natural ally faction were convinced would permit El Salvador to prosper.

Duarte, for his part, was the best face of Salvadoran democracy to put before the American people and their elected representatives. However, he favored the land reform program that would ruin agricultural exports in El Salvador, nationalizations that would frighten foreign investors, and other economic policies that would cement U.S. leverage in place. Moreover, Duarte was already identified as Washington's favorite Salvadoran. His election as president could embolden the rebels, who were already portraying him as a puppet.

In addition, Reagan had only one means of intervening in the Salvadoran election, and that was to provide money, clandestinely, to Duarte's Christian Democratic Party. The best mechanism for doing so was through an international organization of Christian Democratic parties, sponsored by the West German Christian Democrats. Should word leak out of American money going to Duarte, however, especially in a close election, Reagan's entire political investment in a democratic El Salvador could be wiped out. In short, Duarte was potentially dangerous to El Salvador's long-term future, but D'Aubuisson was unquestionably poisonous to its short-term future. Reagan decided to permit the CIA to transfer funds to Duarte, through the West Germans. A decisive victory by Duarte would permit the U.S. government to later contend that its intervention was not crucial to the outcome.

In pursuing this risky policy, Reagan knew he could count on the assistance of the foreign policy professionals. D'Aubuisson, with his talk of surviving without the United States and his commitment to economic policies that had proven successful elsewhere, was anathema to the leveraged ally faction. Its members were willing to do practically anything to harm him politically.

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