House Vote on Contra Aid

Well, here we go again. Another Contra-aid vote, this time against. Last time--pro. What next?

Everyone knows that the Contras, no matter the amount of aid we give them, cannot defeat the Sandinistas. So why keep on? Freedom fighters? So claims Reagan. Most of us know that basically they are the old Somoza bunch bent on restoring the former dictatorship.

So where are we? Obviously our government is more comfortable with a fascist one-party government than with a communist one-party government. Actually, what is the difference? A one-party government means a dictatorship, whether from the right or the left.

We succeeded in ousting Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala and got a rightist government. We succeeded in ousting Salvador Allende in Chile and got Augusto Pinochet. Are we or the peoples involved better off? You ask them.

And now we seek to oust the Sandinistas--for what, another one-party rightist dictatorship?

So where are we? Damned if I know. Cuba has had its communist government for more than 25 years and we’ve succeeded in living with it and surviving nicely. Why should it be any different in Nicaragua?

Like everything else, no easy answers or solutions. Why don’t we just live and let live?

JACK H. CHESNER

North Hollywood