Lesson 22

---

Question SA-4. Here is the text reference (p. 220/1):

As the struggle intensified, the fight in El Salvador was seen as closely linked to the situation in Nicaragua, especially if either conflict (the Contra War in Nicaragua or the civil war in El Salvador) should cross borders and lead to regional conflict. For the Reagan administration the Nicaraguan-Cuban role in supporting the FMLN was ominous, and suggested a Central American version of the "domino theory": "yesterday Nicaragua, today El Salvador, tomorrow the rest of Central America". There were echoes of the Vietnam experience as well. Liberals in the U.S. framed the argument in terms of "never again": never again should the U.S. get itself involved, as it did in Vietnam, defending a conservative and corrupt old order in fighting against a revolutionary guerrilla movement. (A sample bumper sticker from the period read: "El Salvador is Spanish for Vietnam"). Conservatives in the U.S. agreed that there was an analogy with Vietnam, but that the appropriate lesson should be to "do it right this time" (i.e., to go in with superior U.S. force to decisively crush the guerrillas).