Weakness & Deceit

US foreign policy was neatly summed up by a commentator on 'Newsnight' recently. A country is like a game of poker in which you play a hand and then cut your losses and get out if things don't work out while the European stance is arguably more socialistic. Little seems to have changed then, judging by this horrifying book, burning with indignation by Raymond Bonner. The Reagan administration has been deemed culpable by some over Central American injustice, but the 'weakness' of the title applies as much to the decisions made by the Carter administration, despite avowedly making human rights the 'soul of our foreign policy.' America could not conceive of any popular revolution as not instigated by the Soviet Union. Ironic then, that this book should show the importance of religion, not as a take it or leave it life style choice of the privileged west, but as a vital cohesive force against the forces of Nazi tyranny, which this undoubtably was. It is still inexplicable to me that a nation could make such an enormous sacrifice in fighting Facism during the war, only to come to this deplorable conclusion. Do the ends justify the means? Mr Bonner leaves us in no doubt.

I couldn't put this book down. Bonner has identified the major players in US-El Salvador relations in that time period and done an excellent job of contrasting the "party line" (the propoganda from the State Department and much of the press) from what he saw on the "front line" while living in El Salvador as a reporter for the NY Times. This book is not for the week of stomach, as it very graphically describes the fates of many people who died in the struggle. He has done an incredible job of organizing declassified documents and press clippings to show how the American public was deceived.