‘Bypassing Peace’ in Nicaragua

The Administration’s announcement that it will ask Congress for $270 million in additional aid to the Nicaraguan contras is an insult to the American people who are anxious to see peace, not war, in Central America.

It is also contemptuous of Congress, most of whose members have made it clear that they want to give the peace plan, put forward by five Central American nations including Nicaragua, a chance to succeed rather than strangling it at birth as the Reagan Administration would do.

However, the Administration’s action is not surprising, for every time in the past when there was a glimmer of hope of a peaceful solution to the CIA-sponsored war in Nicaragua, our government, obsessed with the vain hope of overthrowing the elected government of that country, has backed away.

Your editorial was entirely correct when it stated that Shultz’s proposal “would doom both the plan and the hope for peace in Central America.”

Let us hope that this blatant attempt to avoid a peaceful settlement in Nicaragua and, indeed, to bring peace to the entire region, including El Salvador, will be stopped by the aroused voice of the American people who will not be fooled by the Administration’s rhetoric.

GEORGE SLAFF

Los Angeles