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Nam Vet Reports From the Front: Nicaragua And U.S. Terrorism

By Rick Tingling-Clemmons

Far too many of us face joblessness, homelessness, hunger and a sense of helplessness while our country's valuable resources are wasted trying to deny to the people of Asia, Africa and Central America their right to create a more just and humane life for themselves. The people of Nicaragua have been struggling since 1979 when they overthrew the ruthless dictator Somoza to raise their standard of living. At the same time they have been forced to fight a war of survival against the U.S.

The response of the U.S. government to the determination of the people of Nicaragua has been both embarrassing and appalling. Rather than supporting the rights of the Nicaraguan people to self-determination (as opposed to U.S. determination) by providing the country with medicine, educational assistance, and the like, our government has chosen to wage war on this country of 2.7 million people simply because they have chosen not to be exploited.

Reagan's refusal to obey the verdict of the World Court condemning the CIA-sponsored mining of Nicaragua's harbors, the huge increase in U.S. militarization of Honduras, the prolonged U.S. military maneuvers in that region, the continual violation of Nicaragua air space and territorial waters, and extensive economic sabotage all have brought us closer to a full-scale war involving U.S. troops and materials, costing money badly needed at home. Both the country of Nicaragua and our communities are targets of undeclared wars in which the attacks have been definitely stepped up since the Reagan administration has been directing the fire. As a Vietnam era veterans, I see history repeating itself all-too-clearly as the U.S. intervention takes the form of the CIA training, supporting, supplying and directing counter-revolutionary forces under the command of the former Somoza National Guard. These so-called Contras have raped, mutilated, murdered and terrorized peasants, teachers, religious and medical workers, blown up daycare centers, school buildings and medical centers.

The Sandinistas, on the other hand, have provided a good example for their neighbors throughout the Americas. Their accomplishments are many. They have reduced DDT levels in mothers' breast milk from one of the highest in the world (under Somoza) to one of the lowest: developed democratic institutions; reduced hunger and malnutrition; given land to peasant cooperatives; created adult education programs reducing their illiteracy rate from 56% to 12%; built hundreds of schools; provided free and accessible healthcare for everyone; reduced infant mortality by 1/3; eliminated polio, and built hospitals and clinics. All of this has been accomplished in five years. It is this threat of a "good example" which has caused the Reagan Administration to be so hostile toward Nicaragua. And despite the U.S. position of attempting to overthrow the government of a country that has never done anything to the U.S., Nicaragua has continued to maintain full diplomatic relations with this country.

When President Reagan charges Cuba and the Soviet Union with causing and directing the Sandinistas revolution, he is attempting to deny the Nicaraguan peoples' knowledge and experience under the U.S. supported Somoza tyranny which kept the people poor, sick, illiterate and hungry. He is attempting to deny that a country of poor people has the right to choose whether their resources should be used to benefit one family or to eliminate hunger. He is also attempting to deny and ignore the historical role that the U.S. has played in the history of Nicaragua.

History

From 1926 to 1932 Augusto Cesar Sandino, the inspiration of the present-day Sandinistas, led a victorious guerilla army against U.S. Marines in Nicaragua. To withdraw from that war, U.S. agents arranged to have Sandino assassinated, and brought to power the infamous Somozist National Guard which served the Somoza family's greed for money and power; the Somoza's lasted from 1933 until they were overthrown by the Nicaraguan people under the leadership of the Sandinista National Liberation Front in 1979.

President Reagan would have us believe that the Nicaraguan revolution was an act of subversion by the USSR. By the same logic the American Revolution was an act of French subversion against the British rule. The Nicaraguan revolt in 1979 was an act of liberation from both economic and political repression, just as was the American Revolution of 1776. The people of Nicaragua now control their own natural resources, markets and labor power.

Tour by Veterans Delegation

During the week of July 1-8, 1984, 8 Vietnam-era veterans were led on an information-sharing/fact-finding peace mission to Nicaragua under the auspices of VAICA (Veterans Against Intervention in Central America). Six of us had served in Vietnam and Southeast Asia from 1964-72 collectively. Although a diverse group, we had much to unite us. We were multi-racial, or differing social and political persuasions, men and women, largely working class, community activists who were united on the question of peace and took stands against U.S. inventionist policies in Central America in particular and other parts of the world in general. Our delegation delivered medical supplies to an Army Hospital in Managua; had a talk with the publisher of La Presnsa newspaper in Corinto; visited the CIA-bombed oil refinery and rehabilitation center for prostitutes, as well as the Momomba volcano; swam in the Pacific Ocean; interviewed and talked with army officers and personnel in Managua and Ocota; and toured the historical sites of Leon, Massaya and Esteli.

I hope that this article will aid in breaking conspiracy of silence and misinformation, a conspiracy of government and big business who have cooperated in printing and broadcasting unfounded charges and outright lies about what is happening in Nicaragua, simply ignoring the impressive gains they have made in five short year, not only without U.S. help but against U.S forces. The U.S. government first under Carter and now Reagan has responded negatively to the many accomplishments of this courageous people and has used economic pressure (blocking international loans) and military might in an attempt to undermine a Nicaragua that it did not control.

I believe that the U.S. government missed an opportunity to build real friendship with the Nicaraguan people and opted instead to continue to take the side of the past exploiters. The reason for this choice was pure and simple: to maintain the power achieved by controlling the natural resources, labor power and markets of Nicaragua as the U.S. has done since the turn of the century throughout Central America.

Nicaragua's War Against Poverty

On July 20, 1979, Tomas Borge declared, at a victory rally attended by over 250,000 people, that a new war was to be waged "against backwardness, against poverty, against ignorance, against immoral destruction."

Days earlier, millions in the U.S. had watched film clips of ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart being casually and ruthlessly murdered by the Somozist National Guard, the mainstay of repression under Somoza's rule. We watched children being gunned down, saw tanks attacking poor neighborhoods, saw the bombing of schools and hospitals. Despite their economic stranglehold on the country, none of the Nicaraguan business groups favored by the U.S. had the popular support of the Sandinistas. Thus, it was the workers and peasants who were doing the fighting and dying who won the revolution and the proceeded to found a government that represented them and their interests—not those of the U.S. White House. The Carter Administration had tried to convince the Organization of American States to send a "peacekeeping" force that could keep the Sandinistas from winning the war (similar to the Marines in Lebanon). They were surprised by negative response from their traditionally willing partners. But, they were unaware of how much Somoza was disliked by his neighbors—even more than the Sandinistas.

The trauma of Vietnam was yet fresh in the memory of the American people and evoked a deep-felt opposition to the use or even suggested use of U.S. troops in support of yet another corrupt dictatorship, thereby preventing direct U.S. military intervention. So the stage was set for the CIA to step in and continue its war against self-determination for the Nicaraguan people.

For 45 years the history of the Somoza family and their National Guard was a success story in blood and corruption. Although corrupt and repressive dictators, they had the full support and approval of their "Big Brother"—financial interests in the U.S.—as well as the U.S. government. As President Franklin Roosevelt once said of Anastasion Somoza Garcia, "Somoza may be a S.O.B., but he's our S.O.B."

Generally the Somozas ran the country as if it was their personal property (which it was until the revolution) adding to the family coffers and helping U.S. bankers to get super profits in exchange for back-up military support.

A Threat to Tyranny

The U.S. government—the Reagan Administration in particular—has continually accused the Nicaraguan government of being "nondemocratic" because they did not convene an election immediately following the revolution (the charge was also frequently leveled at Grenada before the invasion). Yet the Nicaraguan government has targeted this year for their elections, just five years after their revolution (it took 13 years for the first election after the American Revolution). In addition, it is the direct participation of Nicaragua's working people in the political life of their country that has set and molded the course of the Nicaraguan Revolution. Nicaraguans vote every day: by participating in national discussions on the new labor laws; by participating in the national consultations on education; for leaders of their unions and mass organizations; by participating in the Sandinista Defense Committees; by volunteering for the cotton harvest; by joining the militias. In this fashion, the Nicaraguan people enjoy a much greater say and degree of participation in decisions that affect them than we do as citizens of the U.S.

Real democracy requires, in today's technological world, a population that can read, a population that has access to information. It requires a population that has the opportunity to organize itself, to begin running its new society, to chose and see who its leaders are, and generally to understand the issues in the Nicaragua. This has been the task that the Nicaraguan government has been carrying out in preparation for its election: preparing its people to participate to the fullest extent possible. Unlike the U.S., Nicaragua has more than two political parties, and is preparing for an election that included everyone (the first U.S. election clearly excluded woman, Blacks and Native Americans). There is a serious question for the American population to decide: how best to help the Nicaraguan people? The answer is by helping the current Nicaraguan government provide food, shelter, clothing, jobs, education and medical care for all its inhabitants, not be helping the Reagan Administration to deliberately undermine the legitimately constituted government of Nicaragua is one that must be dictated by U.S. citizens, not by a coalition of government and big business that continues to be interested solely in profit, regardless of its human costs.

—Rick Tingling-Clemmons
VVAW-Washington DC