Peace in El Salvador

Your editorial on the tentative agreement between El Salvador’s Cristiani government and the FMLN (“Salvador’s Salvation: Has It Finally Arrived?” Sept. 27) was misleading in that it suggested that the role of the U.S. and specifically the U.S. military in El Salvador was that of trying to promote peace and prevent bloodshed. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, the United States has been the prime sponsor of terror in the region; we have given over $4 billion of our scarce tax dollars to the Salvadoran government in the form of military aid and other assistance over the last 10 years; the result has been over 70,000 killed (the majority, as reported in The Times, by the army and government-supported death squads).

We have also been instrumental in providing training and advice to the very people known to be doing the killing; typical was the finding by a congressional task force headed by Rep. Joe Moakley (D-Mass.) that five of the nine soldiers arrested for the massacre of the six Jesuit priests in San Salvador 18 months ago were trained at Ft. Benning, Ga.

FREDRICA SACKETT

San Diego