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

Patterns of Intervention
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
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“democratic opposition,” within Nicaragua or in Honduras or Miami, and
about its US advocates.
Some of the reasons advanced for the election boycott have a degree
of plausibility; we return to the question in chapter 5. But there is
another and probably more fundamental reason for the refusal of the
“true democrats” to attempt to organize politically or compete for
political power in Nicaragua. Tony Jenkins observes that the opposition
has “never accepted the basic Sandinista precept of the revolution; that
society must be reorganised to the benefit of the workers and peasants.”
This being so, the chances of political success are slight, unless the US
war succeeds in its fundamental ends: rendering conditions of life
intolerable, forcing the Sandinistas to harsher measures, and reinforcing
the true allies of the US among the Sandinistas, namely, the elements
committed to a Leninist model of totalitarian mass mobilization and
control. In such circumstances, the “democratic opposition” allied to the
superpower aggressor might well have some appeal among the
population at large. It makes good sense, then, for the contra armies
and their political leadership to avoid any political goals or education,
relying on the domestic opposition within Nicaragua, which in turn relies
on the United States, where they can be confident of maintaining their
status as “true democrats” because of their opposition to meaningful
social reform.
6.4 The Free Press at Work
Throughout, the free press has ably carried out its services for the cause,
as we have seen. Much insight into the contributions of the free press to
establishing the Party Line is provided in a study by Edward Herman of
New York Times reporting of the 1984 Nicaraguan and Salvadoran