Reagan’s ‘Scandal’

My thanks to Wattenberg for inadvertently providing some humor in his article. He claims that the Irangate scandal is relatively minor compared to some of the ones that have afflicted past American Presidents, which may or may not be true.

However, in his glowing praise of Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, he claims that a square in Nicaragua will be named after him some day when that country is “free,” whatever that means.

I’m sorry, Ben, but the chance of that happening is about as great as a square in this country dedicated to Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, complete with a statue.

Here, in a nutshell, we can see the type of thinking that got the Reagan Administration into so much trouble--trying to make the rest of the world fit one’s preconceived ideas. When you ask me to believe that our intervention will bring democracy and eternal happiness to the people of Nicaragua, our intervention in Chile or our previous invasions of Nicaragua come to mind as examples of the real results: misery and despotic governments.

S. ASIMOW

Glendale