Nicaragua: portrait of a tragedy

National Review, Nov 6, 1987 by Chilton Williamson, Jr.

Nicaragua: Portrait of a Tragedy

WILLIAM J. MURRAY'S Nicaragua: Portrait of a Tragedy (Mainroads Productions Inc., 310 Judson Street, Unit 14, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M8Z 1V3; $6.95) would have been a better book, even a unique one, if the author--an American evangelist and the founder of Freedom's Friends, an organization which provides relief to anti-Communist insurgencies around the world--had focused it primarily on his personal witness of the civil war in Nicaragua, where he has been on patrol with units of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, slept on hand grenade boxes at night "so the scorpions couldn't get to us,' spoken with captives from the Sandinista army as well as with victims of Sandinista torturers, examined captured Soviet-made arms, and preached a sermon in base camp to guerrilla fighters who had gathered before dawn to hear the "gringo preacher' speak at ten o'clock in the morning. Instead, he has chosen to write a kind of summary statement in condemnation of the regime in Managua and in support of their opponents in the hills, that is also an appeal to his American readers to support the Reagan Administration's stand on behalf of the Contras. Murray's skills as a writer are rudimentary at best; his style conforms to the breathless unsophistication of most modern American evangelists, and he has an inclination toward the cliche: "godless Communism,' "rears its ugly head,' and so forth. Nevertheless, his book is effective, and does largely accomplish its author's goal. As a book, it leaves much to be desired. As a document, it has real interest and importance.

There is, to start with, the fact of Mr. Murray's background: he is a son of the professional atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair, of whom he always writes in the past tense and who he claims has always thought of herself as a Marxist--rather than an atheist--"leader.'

In our Marxist home, I had a "Bible study,' but it was for the study of the Marxist-Leninist bible. The study gave me an in-depth knowledge of Marxism. . . . My mother . . . couldn't cope with all the decisions which had to be made in life. She preferred a government which told her what to do and provided for her. Within a period of twenty years, she had held at least forty jobs. Like most other individuals in the Communist Party, or Nazi Party, or KKK, she was recruited directly out of an unemployment line. . . . I broke with Marxism at the beginning of my adult life. . . . For the most part, those Freedom Fighters have no idea who I am. They have no idea I came from a Marxist home or that my mother removed prayer from the public schools in America. All they know is that they keep seeing the duffel bags and boxes of supplies coming in that have these red, white, and blue tags on them which say, "Freedom Friends-- AMIGOS DE LIBERTAD, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.'

Murray made his decision to help the Contras when, in 1984, Congress first curtailed aid to the rebel troops: "It became obvious to me,' he writes, "that our government could not be trusted to maintain a dependable, consistent foreign policy.' He decided to construct a "network of aid' to Nicaragua that would benefit not only the guerrillas themselves but their families and sympathizers, and he also determined that he would go to that country and see for himself just how his supplies were being used, as well as what kind of people were using them. "Now I am totally prepared when the news media come to our warehouses and ask me, "Why do you send medical supplies, food, and clothing to thieves, murderers, and thugs?''

Murray learned, "almost from the beginning,' that the revolution in Nicaragua is being fought by "entire families,' many of whom have been deprived of their livelihood and property by the Communists.

Many were fighting only to get their property and possessions back. They couldn't understand why they as productive individuals in their society had been punished for productivity. . . . News reports describe the Contra Freedom Fighters as a "peasant army.' Not exactly true. Many of these people are middle class and are literate. They fight because they want to return to their homes and businesses.

He also discovered that the atrocities ascribed to the Contras by the regime in Nicaragua are far more likely to be perpetrated by Sandinista troops. Not only are rape and child-murder unlikely among units in which as many as 20 per cent of the commandos are female, but Murray has himself witnessed the welcomes given these units by enthusiastic villagers. "I've watched the troops come back from combat. I haven't seen any [of them] coming out of Nicaragua carrying rugs, lamps, jewelry, stoves, or any other pilfered items.' Murray has plenty of gruesome stories (many on file with the Nicaraguan Committee on Human Rights) of atrocities committed by Sandinista units in the field--often, it appears, with the aid of their foreign allies.

Here, for instance, is the testimony of Pedro Santos Fiallos, a Christian farmer abducted by State Security in 1982 for the crime of practicing his religion: "The two [Cuban] doctors took my testicles and they wrapped bare wire around them and gave me electrical shocks. They hung me from my fingers and from the testicles. Then they put pliers in the bullet holes, giving me electrical shocks.'