U.S. Policy in Central America

I heartily agree with your June 9 editorial “Hands Off,” favoring proposed legislation by Congress prohibiting “covert U.S. involvement” in Nicaragua’s forthcoming February elections. However, one of your statements deserves further elucidation.

You mentioned “the mess the revolutionary government has made of their nation’s economy” but said nothing of the most likely reasons for this mess. They include hostile acts by the United States, such as the embargo instituted by the Reagan Administration prohibiting any exports to and imports from Nicaragua; the Contra war, financed from the start by our government and still being financed on a standby basis by “humanitarian” aid to the Contras; covert actions probably still going on but unreported by our CIA; openly hostile acts perpetrated no doubt by our CIA, such as the mining of a Nicaraguan harbor and the bombing of oil refineries, and a natural disaster: the complete destruction of the seaport city of Bluefields and the forest around it by Hurricane Joan.

In regard to the last named disaster, our government, under Ronald Reagan, kept “hands off” in the worst possible way, in violation of our longstanding tradition of generosity in such cases toward other nations regardless of politics (e.g., Chernobyl, Armenia, etc.), publicly refusing to contribute a dime toward reconstruction and did all it could to prevent private groups from sending aid. Reagan’s political principles sank to this low level because of his determination to overthrow the Nicaraguan government by any and all means, fair or foul.

DON L. HEAD

Los Angeles