Noam Chomsky - Turning the Tide U.S. intervention in

Patterns of Intervention
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
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Administration demand that Nicaragua “change its form of government
to a pluralistic democracy” or face the consequences. But the facts
about the historical and contemporary US attitude towards “pluralistic
democracy” in Central America are virtually never discussed in this
context, a Nicaraguan proposal to demilitarize the borders with the aid
of the Contadora group receives a 40-word notice (a Nicaraguan
proposal 3 months later for a joint patrol with Honduras to eliminate
border incidents apparently was unmentioned), and the Times reports its
neutral and objective poll which asks Americans whether they agree
with Ronald Reagan, who “says the U.S. should help the people in
Nicaragua who are trying to overthrow the pro-Soviet Government
there”; even with this wording, they were unable to generate majority
support for the operation. 136
6.3 The Elections and the Opposition
US war aims are further clarified by the hysterical reaction to the
Nicaraguan election in November 1984. In a well-crafted propaganda
coup, the US government succeeded in deflecting attention from the
election by regular diatribes, seriously reported as “news” in the nation’s
press, and by concocting a story about Russian MIGs in Nicaragua,
quickly abandoned after it had served its function of eliminating the
(minimal) danger of honest coverage of the election and eliciting
appropriate outrage by dovish Senators—e.g., Massachusetts Democrat
Paul Tsongas, who warned that the US would have to bomb Nicaragua
to eliminate the MIGs because “they’re also capable against the United
States.” The fear that Nicaragua will attack the US provides an
intriguing glimpse of the mentality of US elites. 137
A careful study of the election by the US Latin American Studies