Trade Embargo on Nicaragua

So Reagan is playing it tough with Nicaragua. Don’t you believe it. Bombastic rhetoric and economic sanctions to the contrary, our President and his Foggy Bottom bedfellows are playing the same old nickelodeon on the same old corner of Cover Story Drive and Appeasement Way.

If Reagan really meant business in Central America, he would cut off trade with the Soviet Union and halt our direct financial support of its Communist block-busters. As it is, making faces at Ortega and his gang is about as effective as using a tissue to wipe up the water from an overflowing sink without shutting off the faucet.

After all, what is the difference between dealing with the Soviets and the Sandinistas? We send wheat, computers and all manner of industrial hardware to the Soviets and we buy gulag-slave-labor-produced goods in return. Thus we give the Soviets the wherewithal to support Ortegas, Jaruzelskis, Karmals and a herd of other terrorists worldwide.

By their fruits indeed we know them. Until our foreign policy stands for freedom more consistently, the President’s talk and cosmetic actions may appear palatable, but the produce will continue to smell to high heaven.

LLOYD LEIDERMAN

Simi Valley