Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-8zxtt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T02:28:37.863Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

From Reagan to Bush: The Transition in US Policy Towards Central America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

William M. Leogrande
Affiliation:
Professor of Government at The American University, Washington, D.C.

Extract

Many foreign policy analysts in the United States expected a shift in US policy towards Latin America when George Bush succeeded Ronald Reagan as president. Though Bush had been a loyal supporter of Reagan's policies throughout the preceding eight years, Bush nevertheless seemed more pragmatic than his mentor. Whereas Reagan was the leader of the Republican Party's right wing, Bush was a scion of the East Coast Republican establishment, stronghold of the party's moderate centre.

Type
Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Gutman, Roy, Banana Diplomacy: The Making of American Policy in Nicaragua, 1981–1987 (New York, 1988).Google Scholar

2 Chardy, Alfonso, ‘Bush Narrows Field to Replace Abrams; Policy Rift Surfaces’, Miami Herald, 27 01 1989.Google Scholar

3 Bohning, Don, ‘On Latin Policy, The Administration Remains Adrift’, Miami Herald, 7 05 1989.Google Scholar

4 ‘U.S. Support for. Democracy and Peace in Central America’, Selected Documents, no. 36 (Washington, D.C.: Department of State, 1989)Google Scholar includes the text of the bipartisan accord and remarks by President Bush and Secretary Baker at the press conference announcing it.

5 Devroy, Ann, ‘Bipartisan Accord Reached on Contras’, Washington Post, 25 03 1989.Google Scholar

6 See, for example, McManus, Doyle, ‘Baker Urges Western Europe to Pressure Nicaragua’, Los Angeles Times, 14 02 1989.Google Scholar

7 McManus, Doyle, ‘New U.S. Policy on Contras Told’, Miami Herald, 25 03 1989.Google Scholar

8 Goshko, John M., ‘Quayle Criticizes 5-Nation Pact on Contras' Guerrillas’, Washington Post, 25 02 1990.Google Scholar

9 Kempster, Norman, ‘U.S. to Stand by Contras, Bush Vows’, Los Angeles Times, 17 02 1989.Google Scholar

10 Oberdorfer, Don, ‘Baker to Contras: No Raids’, Washington Post, 15 03 1989.Google Scholar

11 Boudreaux, Richard, ‘U.S. Contra Formula Gets Regional Support’, Los Angeles Times, 1 04 1989.Google Scholar

12 Pichirallo, Joe and Hoffman, David, ‘U.S. Wants Contras to Keep Arms Until Nicaraguan Voting’, Washington Post, 30 07 1989.Google Scholar

13 Speck, Mary, ‘Sandinistas, Opposition Reach Sweeping Election Agreement’, Washington Post, 5 08 1989.Google Scholar

14 Goshko, John M., ‘Quayle Expresses Caution on Plans to Disband Contras’, Washington Post, 22 08 1989Google Scholar; Uhlig, Mark A., ‘Dispute Highlights Difficulty of Disarming Contras’, New York Times, 21 10 1989.Google Scholar

15 Hockstader, Lee, ‘Ortega's Move Designed to Rivet Attention on War’, Washington Post, 29 10 1989.Google Scholar

16 McReynolds, Martin, ‘U.S. Senate Condemns Threat by Ortega to End Cease-fire’, Miami Herald, 1 11 1989.Google Scholar

17 Boudreaux, Richard, ‘Ortega Summit Action Carries Heavy Political Risk’, Los Angeles Times, 30 10 1989.Google Scholar

18 Goshko, John M. and Hoffman, David, ‘Bush Urges Gorbachev to Aid Peace Effort’, Washington Post, 31 03 1989.Google Scholar

19 The text of Baker's statement is in ‘U.S. Support for Democracy and Peace in Central America’, Selected Documents, no. 36 (Washington, D.C.: Department of State, 1989).Google Scholar

20 Oberdorfer, Don, ‘Soviets Call for Stability in Central America’, Washington Post, 3 10 1989.Google Scholar

21 Marquis, Christopher, ‘U.S. Cuts Funds; Contras Close Miami Offices’, Miami Herald, 29 09 1989.Google Scholar

22 Pear, Robert, ‘Bush Aides Say CIA Will Avoid Secret Role in Nicaragua Election’, New York Times, 4 10 1989.Google Scholar Press reports indicated, however, that the CIA had already provided $5 million to the opposition in 1989 before the agreement was reached. Marquis, Christopher, ‘Nicaraguans Ask: Who Fills the Campaign Chests?’, Miami Herald, 10 10 1989.Google Scholar

23 Pear, Robert, ‘U.S. to Help Anti-Sandinista Parties’, New York Times, 25 04 1989.Google Scholar

24 Pear, Robert, ‘U.S. to Pare Aid in Nicaragua Vote’, New York Times, 29 09 1989Google Scholar; McReynolds, Martin, ‘U.S. to Send Funds for Nicaragua Vote’, Miami Herald, 9 12 1989.Google Scholar

25 Pear, Robert, ‘Clash of Experts Blurs Policy on Central America’, New York Times, 24 08 1989.Google Scholar

26 McManus, Doyle, ‘U.S. Gets Ready for Likely Sandinista Election Victory’, Los Angeles Times, 24 02 1990.Google Scholar

27 ‘Results of the February 25, 1990 Election’, Barricada International, 10 03 1990.Google Scholar

28 Uhlig, Mark A., ‘Cease-Fire Begins in Nicaragua as the Contras Agree to Disarm’, New York Times, 20 04 1990.Google Scholar

29 Eagleburger, Lawrence, ‘U.S. Assistance to Panama, Nicaragua’, Current Policy, no. 1264 (Washington, D.C.: Department of State, 1990).Google Scholar

30 Pear, Robert, ‘Extremist Gains Seen in El Salvador’, New York Times, 29 01 1989.Google Scholar

31 Pear, Robert, ‘Quayle Meets Salvador Party Leader and Urges Respect for Human Rights’, New York Times, 14 06 1989.Google Scholar Bush had sent Quayle on an earlier mission to El Salvador in February to deliver essentially the same message. By most accounts, Quayle acquitted himself well in this first diplomatic outing, except that he fumbled his public statement, saying, ‘We expect them [the armed forces] to work toward the elimination of human rights, elimination of human rights in accordance with the pursuit of justice’. Of course, he meant to say the ‘elimination of human rights abuses’. Gruson, Lindsey, ‘Quayle Pays Visit to San Salvador’, New York Times, 4 02 1989.Google Scholar

32 The FMLN continued to launch spectacular assaults on individual garrisons every six months or so by quickly amassing several hundred combatants, attacking, and then dispersing before the Air Force could respond. But there were no broad, sustained offensives of the sort that so disabled the army in previous years.

33 Secretary of Defense Richard B. Cheney, quoted in Farah, Douglas, ‘127 Dead in Salvadoran Rebel Drive’, Washington Post, 13 11 1989.Google Scholar

34 On 12 January, as if in response to the detention of soldiers for the killing of the Jesuits, a rightist death squad in Guatemala kidnapped and murdered Hector Oqueli, the number two official of the Salvadorean social democratic National Revolutionary Movement (MNR). Oqueli was one of the MNR's most effective spokesmen and a respected official of the Socialist International. His murder attracted little attention in the United States, where he was not well known, but it was just as destructive to the prospects for peace as the killing of the Jesuits.

35 Congressional Record, 6 02 1990, p. S897.Google Scholar

36 Gordon, Michael R., ‘General Says Salvador Can't Defeat Guerrillas’, New York Times, 9 02 1990.Google Scholar

37 A role for the UN was first urged by the five Central American presidents at their summit meeting in Costa Rica on 12 December 1989. ‘U.S. Supports U.N. Effort to Arrange Salvadoran Peace Talks’, Washington Post, 3 02 1990.Google Scholar

38 ‘Testimony of Bernard W. Aronson, Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, to the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs, Committee on Foreign Affairs, United States House of Representatives, January 24, 1990’, (Washington, D.C.: mimeograph, 1990), p. 5.Google Scholar

39 Hoffman, David, ‘Noriega's Drug Questions Ignored, Report Says’, Washington Post, 9 04 1989.Google Scholar

40 Gruson, Lindsey, ‘Panama Says Aid Campaign Is Intended to Break Treaties’, New York Times, 25 04 1989.Google Scholar

41 Branigin, William, ‘U.S. Campaign to Oust Noriega Appears Nearing a Dead End’, Washington Post, 9 02 1989.Google Scholar

42 Sciolino, Elaine, ‘General Sees Lack of Panama Policy’, New York Times, 24 02 1989.Google Scholar

43 Weinraub, Bernard, ‘U.S. Sees Failure on Noriega Policy’, New York Times, 29 07 1989.Google Scholar

44 Ullmann, Owen, ‘Bush Calls for Revolt in Panama’, Miami Herald, 14 05 1989.Google Scholar

45 Hoffman, David and Goshko, John M., ‘U.S. Presses Effort to Oust Strongman’, Washington Post, 1 09 1989.Google Scholar

46 Dewar, Helen, ‘Senate Gives Warning on Canal Transfer’, Washington Post, 2 06 1989.Google Scholar

47 Dowd, Maureen, ‘Bush, Under Fire, Defends Role in Panama Crisis’, New York Times, 7 10 1989.Google Scholar

48 Panama Canal Treaty quoted in Walsh, Edward, ‘Inevitable Political Fallout Begins After Panama Treaties' Passage’, Washington Post, 20 04 1978.Google Scholar

49 Goshko, John M. and Isikoff, Michael, ‘OAS Votes to Censure U.S. for Intervention’, Washington Post, 23 12 1989.Google Scholar