Fuming and Fussing

President Reagan has begun pounding desks to express his frustration over Congress’ refusal to vote money for anti-government rebels in Nicaragua. If he is so determined to press on with that ill-conceived and unrealistic policy, Congress must say no just as adamantly.

The desk-pounding incident was reported by Republican leaders in Congress after a meeting with the President at which Reagan said that he was angry about having his foreign policy stifled by a “committee of 535.” Reagan is given to theatrics, so it is likely that the outburst was staged to pressure congressmen who are wavering on the issue of aid to the Nicaraguan rebels.

Reagan’s request for $14 million in covert aid for the contras was narrowly defeated last month, and since then Administration officials have been scrambling to find other ways to get it approved. The Senate will likely vote soon on a plan to give the contras $32 million in non-military aid for two years. A similar proposal in the House, which would grant the contras $42 million, may be voted on next month. It would be a serious mistake for either plan to be approved. By compromising with Reagan on Nicaragua, Congress would give him a license to thrash about in Central America, aimlessly yet dangerously, for a few more years.

Reagan is frustrated about Nicaragua not because Congress refuses to vote a comparatively small amount of money for rebels who have no chance of winning. The President is angry because he cannot do what he really wants to--overthrow Nicaragua’s revolutionary government.

But while the Marxist drift of the Nicaraguan revolution is unfortunate, it is no cause for undue alarm. Nicaragua is, after all, a small, poor and war-ravaged country of only 3 million people. While the Sandinistas are unpleasant to deal with, they pose no threat to this nation’s security. By dealing with them patiently now, the United States can help calm their anti-Americanism and perhaps even overcome it once their revolutionary ardor fades.

Reagan’s problem with Nicaragua is that he has confused his overheated rhetoric about the Sandinistas with reality. He insists that they are a dire threat when hardly anyone else in this country, and among our allies in Latin America, believes that. Congress resists his efforts to get more deeply involved against the Sandinistas because opinion polls show hardly any support for Reagan on Nicaragua. And our Latin American allies have gone off on their own, trying to settle the Nicaraguan crisis by diplomatic means, through the Contadora Group.

Left with no way to get at the Sandinistas directly, Reagan is reduced to attacking them verbally and making symbolic gestures that look dramatic but have little effect, like the recent trade embargo. As this process is prolonged, it becomes increasingly clear that Reagan has no real policy toward Nicaragua, at least not in the sense that the word implies some cohesive strategy. Instead the elected leader of the most powerful nation on Earth is reduced to petty harassment and bloody terrorism against a weak foreign government, then fuming and fussing because his own people won’t go along with such bully-boy tactics.