The Presidency

By Hugh Sidey

While the political and military combatants were waging peace down in Managua last Thursday, the U.S. Senate was raising hell into the night about who should get credit. Democrats wanted to hail Chamorro and Ortega. Republicans liked the former but wanted to zing the latter for suggesting that he could continue to govern "from below." Kudos were lofted for former President Jimmy Carter, arbiter of the ballot box, and Costa Rica's President Oscar Arias Sanchez, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for devising a regional peace plan. Then minority leader Bob Dole added his footnote to history: "There would not have been an election if President Reagan had not been around here keeping everybody's feet to the fire for eight years."

Until now, it has been hard for Reagan to reap anything but blame for the sad events in Nicaragua. Reagan inherited a Marxist on the march in Managua. He embraced the contras as "freedom fighters," slapped on trade sanctions and thoroughly riled Congress and foreign policy elitists. Then some of his stumblebums devised the Iran-contra scandal. He is still paying for that fiasco.

$ Time for a little fairness. The end result of the Nicaragua episode seems to be what the U.S. has vainly sought all over the globe in its support of freedom; few American lives were committed or lost, with a cost of only $300 million in U.S. aid for the contras. Nicaraguans sustained the fight until conditions outside and inside the country were ripe for a shift of power. Compare Viet Nam -- 58,000 Americans killed, $150 billion spent, the nation rent in bitterness, a bitter defeat.

Most U.S. operations in Latin America have been like tragicomic operas among the banana trees. Recall John Kennedy's Ivy Leaguers running around in their chinos and sneakers, trying to cloak the Bay of Pigs disaster while massive U.S. power sat unused off the bloody beach. Or Lyndon Johnson pouring 20,000 troops into the Dominican Republic, after exaggerating to reporters about headless bodies lying in the streets, blood running in the gutters and bullets whizzing through embassy windows.

Reagan's invasion of Grenada was most notable for the 8,600 medals that were handed out to 7,000 troops. And it was not that long ago that George Bush sent 24,000 American soldiers into Panama, in December. Twenty-six Americans died, and it took 15 days to take custody of Manuel Antonio Noriega.

But now and then there does emerge a constellation of events that seem to create a sort of magic. Jimmy Carter spotted Ortega's militarization. The national debate forced U.S. restraint, the news media enforced a kind of rough honor system, and the global communist pretense collapsed. Finally the world came to watch the election showdown. Hungry and poverty-ridden people quite naturally opted for change through the dignity of the ballot box.

Some of the battered warriors who marched the long way with Reagan called him up last week to thank him, among them George Bush and Dan Quayle. And there was a note in the mail from one of the world's master power brokers. Richard Nixon sent his personal well-done. If Reagan deserved some of the knocks he got on that journey -- and he did -- then he deserves some of the credit for the final tally.