Too Many Contras

With the encouragement of President Reagan, some members of Congress are working to clear the way for a second contras front, extending the battle against Marxist rulers from Nicaragua to Angola. This is a reckless and unwise move, certain to do more harm than good.

The Senate already has approved legislation that would lift the legislative prohibition on U.S. aid to UNITA, the guerrilla force battling the Marxist government of Angola. Some Republicans in the House, fearful that the Senate initiative may not survive a conference committee, plan a similar action as an amendment to the foreign-aid bill.

This mischievous move is being encouraged by the Administration just as Reagan personally encouraged a conclave last month of anti-communist guerrillas meeting at a rebel encampment in Angola. Both initiatives are serving once again to divert the nations of Southern Africa from the priorities of getting on with independence for Namibia and bringing concerted pressure on South Africa to end its apartheid policy. And they are serving to cloud the American commitment against terrorism and the rule of violence.

The congressional sponsors’ motivation is ideological. They seem to see any Marxist government as an instrument of Soviet policy, as the enemy of America. And they see Angola, like Nicaragua, as particularly menacing because both are hosts to Cuban forces. They ignore the fact that the U.S.-supported contras in Nicaragua, like the South African-sponsored UNITA guerrillas in Angola, are the principal justification used by the Marxist rulers of Nicaragua and Angola for maintaining Cuban forces. And they risk weakening regional peace efforts, as they did last month when they opened the way for a resumption of assistance, albeit not arms, to the Nicaraguan insurgents.

Administration officials defend their support of lifting restrictions on covert aid to UNITA in Angola as a matter of principle, saying that they support all legislative action that eliminates restrictions on the ability of the President to pursue foreign-policy objectives. There are no current plans for aid to UNITA, according to the State Department.

The legislative initiative follows the President’s message last month to Lewis E. Lehrman, the New York Republican who was an organizer of the meeting of leaders of UNITA as well as guerrillas from Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Laos. Reagan praised them for struggling “to free their nations from outside domination and an alien ideology,” and added: “Their goals are our goals.”

That was a threat. It was a call to arms on three continents. It was a marshaling of CIA intervention around the world. If the President was serious, he needs to explain the details to Congress. If he was posturing, Congress would be wise to leave the legislative restrictions on guerrilla aid in Angola in place, just as it has maintained the ban on arms for the contras in Nicaragua.