Return to John Kerry's Foreign Policy
Communism and South America
Kerry was elected to the Senate in 1984 running on a platform of arms reduction and nuclear freeze. He was a bitter opponent of Ronald Reagan calling Reagan's presidency one of "moral darkness" (8). Luckily, Reagan dismissed this talk of a nuclear freeze and built up a strong defense. Kerry voted against nearly all of these defense bills. He attacked Reagan's buildup as wasteful and counterproductive. "[The] biggest defense buildup since World War II has not given us a better defense," Kerry intoned. "Americans feel more threatened by the prospect of war, not less so." (14)
Negotiating from a position of strength, Reagan was able to pass the most comprehensive nuclear weapons reductions ever. Reagan strongly denounced the Soviet Union and dared to call it evil. The Soviet Union, China and Cuba had been actively supporting Communist insurgencies all over the world. Reagan recognized the evils of Communism and worked aggressively to combat the Soviet influence.
Kerry worked against Reagan. The best example is when he and Democratic Senator Tom Harkin traveled to negotiate with Communist Nicaraguan Dictator Daniel Ortega. Ortega, head of the notorious Sandinista party, seized power in a coup in 1979 and quickly consolidated power. Torture, prison, and the execution and imprisonment of thousands of Nicaraguans soon followed. Private property was seized and media, banks and factories nationalized. The Sandistas were especially brutal towards some of the native Indian tribes, liquidating their leadership, imprisoning, and displacing them. In 1984 Ortega held a fraudulent Presidential election and claimed victory, but the opposition boycotted the election and began armed resistance. Before and during his revolution and rule Oretega was supported by Communist Cuba and the Soviet Union. (9) The Sandinistas also began supported the Communist revolution in neighboring El Salvador. From 1980 to 1992 over 75,000 people died in El Salvador.
As this civil war began, the opposition, known as the Contras, were partially funded by the United States, secretly via the CIA. Kerry pronounced himself "alarmed that the Reagan administration is repeating the mistakes we made in Vietnam." (14) For unknown reasons, Kerry and other Democrats in Congress began to rouse support for a bill blocking the CIA funding. The American Spectator reports:
After Kerry met with Ortega, he returned to Washington waving a promise from Ortega that the Communist leader would moderate his policies. "We believe this is a wonderful opening for a peaceful settlement without having to militarize the region," Kerry said. "The real issue is: Is this administration going to overthrow the government of the Sandinistas no matter what they do? This opportunity puts this to the test." The normally cautious Secretary of State George Shultz was so flabbergasted by Kerry's shilling for Ortega that he denounced Kerry publicly for "dealing with the communists" and letting himself be "used" by Ortega.
Kerry's diplomacy blew up in his face. As Kerry was reassuring his colleagues that Ortega wouldn't establish Soviet and Cuban bases in Nicaragua, Ortega (a few days after he met with Kerry) was flying to Moscow to arrange a $200 million transfer of Soviet monies to Nicaragua. Kerry's sales pitch for the Sandinistas -- "I see an enormous haughtiness in the United States trying to tell them what to do. Our economic squeeze on them is very sad. The whole population is suffering" -- worked in Congress. It voted against aid to the Contras, even as Ortega was collecting aid from his Soviet bosses. (10)
Some in the Reagan administration recognized the dangers of Communism and were determined not to abandon our allies like we had in Southeast Asia. They went around the obstructionist Congress and managed to get aid to the Contras anyway. This led to the Iran Contra scandal, but American support, hard economic times in Cuba and the Soviet Union, and fading public opinion began to topple the Communists and Ortega sued for peace.
Ortega and the Sandinistas have not held office since and were defeated in internationally mediated and monitored national elections in 1990, 1996 and 2001. Ortega has never been tried for his crimes. Kerry has never apologized for his actions, apparently because he never realized he has been mistaken. In the Democratic primaries he spoke of Reagan as a nasty force that he was right to oppose: "I'm proud that I stood against Ronald Reagan, not with him, when his intelligence agencies were abusing the Constitution of the United States and when he was running an illegal war in Central America." (14)
Kerry even tried to link Bush with Reagan. In an interview with Vogue last year he said: ''They have managed him the same way they managed Ronald Reagan," Kerry contended. ''They send him out to the press for one event a day. They put him in a brown jacket and jeans and get him to move some hay or drive a truck, and all of a sudden, he's the Marlboro Man." (15)
However, after Reagan's death and after Kerry clinched the Democratic nomination, he began to attempt to utilize Reagan's revitalized popularity. Perhaps his advisors thought it would make him appealing to moderate and independent voters. In the first two presidential debates Kerry said things like:
I'm going to run a foreign policy that actually does what President Reagan did, President Eisenhower did, and others. We're going to build alliances. We're not going to go unilaterally. We're not going to go alone like this president did.
We need to rebuild our alliances. I believe that Ronald Reagan, John Kennedy, and the others did that more effectively, and I'm going to try to follow in their footsteps.
Now, I'm going to add 40,000 active duty forces to the military, and I'm going to make people feel good about being safe in our military, and not overextended, because I'm going to run a foreign policy that actually does what President Reagan did, President Eisenhower did, and others.
We're going to build alliances. We're not going to go unilaterally. We're not going to go alone like this president did. But I know, as I think you do, that our country is strongest when we lead the world, when we lead strong alliances. And that's the way Eisenhower and Reagan and Kennedy and others did it. We are not doing that today. We need to. (14)
Of course, this is all completely disingenuous and the height of hypocrisy. Kerry opposed Reagan at every corner, from tax cuts to government spending to foreign policy. And our allies? Kerry must have forgotten the massive street protests that rocked Europe when Reagan inserted Pershing missiles to counter the Soviet nukes (an act which Kerry opposed). Kerry was even against missile defense, saying it was "a dream based on illusion, but one which could have real and terrible consequences" (14) The Bush campaign claims he voted 53 times against missile defense funding.
With North Korean missiles able to reach the coast of California, perhaps he should apologize. Not a chance. Again, he doesn't appear to believe he was wrong. Kerry and his advisors have nuanced/moderated his present opposition to missile defense with contradictory statements. Most experts believe he would slash funding for it at minimum. (18) (19) Kerry supported US military action to remove Panamanian dictator and drug dealer Manuel Noreiga. I could find no information on whether he supported US action in liberating Grenada; many Liberals were strongly against this action, so it would be surprising if Kerry was not opposed to it in some way.