VFW Chapter Hits U.S. Role in Nicaragua

A maverick chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, critical of U.S. foreign policy in Central America, has sent an emissary with a copy of its statement to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

Believed to be the first time a VFW post has violated bylaws prohibiting posts from supporting positions that differ from those of the national body, the statement charges the Reagan Administration with increasing tensions in the area.

Many of the 50 members of Bill Motto Post 5888 in Santa Cruz are veterans of the Vietnam War.

Their statement said the United States should stop supporting guerrillas trying to overthrow Nicaragua’s Sandinista regime. It said the nation should begin a policy of nonintervention and self-determination in Central America.

During VFW conventions in 1983 and 1984, the national organizations strongly approved President Reagan’s policies.

Dean Metcalf, who drafted the statement, said, “Everybody knows somebody who died for nothing in Vietnam” and it is time for “the lesson that we paid for in blood to be learned.”