With an assist from Duarte, Reagan reassures Congress and critics The Reagan Administration wants to give billions of dollars to Central
America, it says, to support liberty and political pluralism. Yet
democracy in Central America is a patchy business at best. From among
the few authentic democrats in the region, the U.S. has staked most of
its money and hopes on Jos Napolen Duarte, who will assume El
Salvador's presidency on Friday. Last week he came to Washington for
four days to justify that investment, and succeeded: Duarte won the
hearts and minds of conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats, of
President Reagan and severe Reagan critics. “No one could talk to him
for half an hour without believing in him,” said a high State
Department official. “He exuded credibility.” Just so: a day after
Duarte returned home, where his army is firing a million rounds of
ammunition a week in an unending war against leftist guerrillas, the
House voted overwhelmingly to send El Salvador $62 million in emergency
military aid, without conditions. Reagan had prefaced his press conference last week with a stern speech
in favor of more aid for Central America, and then faced a flurry of
questions about his policies around the world. Indeed, the various,
precarious strands of foreign policy dominated Washington's agenda all
week. Pugnacity from Moscow and aerial assaults by Iran and Iraq on
shipping in the Persian Gulf naturally prompted concern, even
skittishness. “Mr. President,” his final press conference inquisitor
asked, “how do you account for the fact that so many people . . . think
that during the last 3 years the world has moved closer to war?”
Reagan had been prepped by two mock press conferences with his staff.
“That is because that's all most of the people have been hearing . . .
that I somehow have an itchy ringer and am going to blow up the world,”
he said. Have Reagan's foreign policies actually made the world “a little safer,”
as he suggested last week? The American voters' answer to that question
may be crucial in next fall's presidential election. Reagan's political
advisers worry about a contagion of war fears. “We think the talk is
getting carried away,” says one White House aide. Reagan's soothing,
rather lighthearted press-conference manner was meant to calm those
national jitters.
