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

Notes
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
425
about the reality in Nicaragua.” That the election was fraudulent,
contrary to the conclusions of the LASA study on the scene, is proven, for
this respected legal scholar, by the fact that it was condemned by a New
York Times editorial, a criticism by a former Venezualan Foreign Minister,
a claim of harassment by Cruz (which the LASA report investigated in
detail and concluded was vastly exaggerated), and a few alleged comments
by Sandinista officials which do not bear on the conduct of the
elections—again, a useful insight into the “conservative” mentality.
141. For confirming evidence, see NYT, Oct. 21, 1984.
142. WSJ, April 23, 1985.
143. NYT, Aug. 25, 1985.
144. Nation, April 27, 1985.
145. Lois Whitman, letter, NYT, Nov. 16, 1984; Jonathan Steele and Tony
Jenkins, MG Weekly, Nov. 1984.
146. Tony Jenkins, MG Weekly, May 5, 1985, quoting Dr. Luis Rivas,
president of the Social Democratic Party.
147. Edward Herman, Covert Action Information Bulletin, Spring 1984.
148. NYT, Aug. 18, 1985. Alexander Cockburn observes that this was
apparently too much for some Times editor, who changed the wording in
a later edition from “democratization” to “internal changes”; Nation, Aug.
31.
149. See TNCW, 70f., for references and context.
150. George Black, review of Shirley Christian, Nicaragua (Random House,
1985), Nation, Sept. 7, 1985.
151. Christian, NYT, Aug. 18, 1985; AP, BG, April 13, 1985.
152. Carla Robbins, Business Week, Aug. 19, 1985; Susan Kaufman Purcell,
NYT, July 20, March 12, 1985.
153. Purcell did not respond to a request for some examples illustrating her
concern, or that of the program she heads, for democracy elsewhere in
Central America.
154. Robert McCartney, WP, Sept. 30, 1984.
155. Philip Taubman, NYT, Sept. 24, 1984; Alma Guillermoprieto, WP
weekly, Nov. 26, 1984.