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Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
(1) Liberals were the ones in favor of free elections in El Salvador.
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They were for cutting military aid and letting the FLMN take over. If the communists had taken over there never would have been an election. Liberals may have wanted free elections but the policies they were promoting were going to insure a communist dicatorship
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Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop (2) Unclear that the aid to the right wing in El Salvador was a positive factor in that country's development. It did help to get people like Archbishop Romero assasinated, though..
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Unclear?!?! Without the aid the regime would have fallen. In 1980 the regime almost fell to the communists until Carter relented and opened up aid. Reagan supported the regime steadfastly through his presidency. And much to the shock of the liberals, this regime won when there were free elections.
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Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop On (1) and (2), assuming you were referring to Nicaragua in (1), it's interesting to me that someone from the party of freedom and democracy would still be wanting to support U.S. aid for a repressive regime in El Salvador and for terrorists (more or less) in Nicaragua.
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The repressive regime in El Salvador was better than communists. If forced to choose an authoritarian regime is always better than a communist dictatorship. The liberals never understood this. The authoritarian route worked in South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, El Salvador etc. The communist route was implemented in Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam. Which people do you think are better off? I won't get into why the terrorists label for the contras is B.S., but even if they were, they forced free elections in Nicarague. Ortega never planned on holding free election and it would be another Cuba if it were not for the contras. Do you think there would have ever been free election in Nicarague if not for the contras. The liberals never saw that right wing authoritarian regimes usually promoted economic growth which eventually led a strong middle class which lead to democracy. In communist systems, which liberals thought were roughly the same as authoritarian regimes, the people stayed poor and you never got democracy.
