Another Win for Word Power : * U.S. Must Focus on Aiding Nicaragua Now, and Do It Zealously

This week’s demobilization of the Nicaraguan rebel army included a powerful act of symbolism for all Central America. When the Contras’ weapons, last fired only weeks ago, were sliced in half by blowtorches, it proved the power of words over the roar of cannons. It was words--dialogue, peace negotiations--that convinced both sides in the Nicaraguan conflict to hold elections, to accept the outcome and, finally, to beat their swords into plowshares.

Not once in the eight years of the civil war did military pressure bring the Sandinista government and the Contra leadership face to face. Superpower posturing didn’t lead to solutions, either. The conflict simply exhausted Nicaraguans, who were more concerned with putting food on the table and keeping sons out of the fighting.

Not until the Iran-Contra scandal left Washington with a Central American policy vacuum did Nicaragua’s political agenda revert to the region’s leaders: Most notably former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for authoring the peace plan that led to Nicaragua’s elections. And only after U.S. military aid to the Contras was cut off did they finally sit down to seriously negotiate.

United States policy-makers, in particular, must understand the value that simple dialogue played in bringing this long war to an end. Negotiations must also be pushed in nearby El Salvador, where a shorter but bloodier civil war still rages with U.S. taxpayers footing the bill for the government side.

Nicaragua’s new president, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, must scramble to forge national unity among those who have spent a decade doing battle with one another. And she must salvage her country’s economy, shattered after years of war. That’s where U.S. policy-makers must focus their efforts to help Nicaragua now. And they must do so with all the zeal they showed while supporting the Contras for far too long.