Gorbachev’s Gesture

The Bush Administration may be dubious about it, but Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev made an important contribution to the peace process in Central America when he decided to halt weapons shipments to Nicaragua’s Sandinista government recently.

For several years now, efforts by Latin American nations to arrange peace treaties among Nicaragua and its neighbors have been stalled by a lack of cooperation from the superpowers. The most stubborn resistance came from former President Reagan who, despite a lack of support in Congress and from the American public, aided the Contra campaign to overthrow the Marxist regime in Managua. Given all the prestige Reagan invested in the Contra war, the Soviets not surprisingly used the Central American crisis to keep the United States preoccupied in its back yard. It was an easy, and relatively cheap, process. The Soviets shipped Nicaragua helicopters, tanks and other weapons that, while out of date by Warsaw Pact standards, are far more potent than any weapons neighboring nations like Honduras and Costa Rica have.

The Central American arms race had a destabilizing effect on the entire region, a point often made by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who said all outside arms shipments into the region had to end before peace could be achieved. Arias’ argument was finally, if temporarily, accepted by President Bush, who agreed to limit aid to the Contras to humanitarian assistance. Earlier this month, prior to the first meeting between Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, Gorbachev sent Bush a letter informing him that the Soviets had stopped sending arms to the Sandinistas. At their meetings in Moscow, Shevardnadze reaffirmed that decision to Baker.

Unfortunately, the reaction in Washington has been suspicious and even unseemly. White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater, for example, dismissed the Gorbachev letter as “a PR game” There undoubtedly is an element of public relations in the Soviet move, but what counts is the impact it will have in Central America. Administration officials should react to Gorbachev’s decision with enthusiasm rather than cynicism.