‘Fed Up With Weak Whimpers’

Huggins announces that he’s “fed up with the weak whimpers of the left-leaning politicians and physical cowards” opposed to Reagan’s Central American policies. His letter reminds me of Steve Allen’s angry-man routine on television. If it weren’t so serious it would be funny.

As the founder of Vietnam Veterans Who Don’t Want Their Sons to Die for Nothing, obviously one of the groups Huggins despises, I’d like to point out a few facts. Perhaps Huggins will hear them over the noise of his rattling sabers.

He says that with air support and the 101st Airborne Division he could take Nicaragua in three months; if Cuba gets involved, he’ll need two more divisions. Nicaragua is about the same size as South Vietnam. At the height of the war we had half a million men--10 times more than Huggins is asking for--plus unlimited close air support. We still couldn’t win in the South. Why? Because the very units that Huggins is asking for aren’t capable of destroying a guerrilla force that is determined to defend its country against an outside invader.

As for having “one arm tied behind us” in Vietnam, that generally refers to policies limiting attacks on North Vietnam from whence the guerrilla supplies came. Is Huggins suggesting we correct that alleged error by bombing Daniel Ortega’s sources of supply, Havana or Moscow?

All these facts, of course, don’t mean that we wouldn’t make the same mistakes all over again. There are still a lot of men in this country--even some who hold elective office--who feel the need to prove to the world that “mine is bigger than yours.”

Only trouble is, they won’t have to go. Instead, they want to send my son and your son and someone else’s son to die or be maimed in the name of what they perceive to be our national honor.

MICHAEL HIRSH

Calabasas