‘Fanning the Flames--Again’

Your editorial “Fanning the Flames--Again” (July 31) is a travesty against the legitimate aspirations of the people of Nicaragua. We must support the Contras with both humanitarian and military aid. We must do this for two reasons. We encouraged them to risk their own lives and fortunes to bring freedom to their country. Without the Contras’ pressure on President Daniel Ortega and his Cuban-backed junta, the Nicaraguan people will be forced to endure many more years of secret police, rule by terror and oppression.

Ortega has made a mockery of the Arias peace plan just as he already makes a mockery of your statement that the Sandinistas’ totalitarianism is latent.

Your continued knee-jerk phrase “Reagan’s dirty little war” is really beneath the dignity of so respected a newspaper as The Times. One of the greatest foreign policy failures in recent times was President Jimmy Carter allowing Ortega and the Cubans to steal the Nicaraguan revolution.

D. RAY

Agoura Hills