U.S. Ends and Means in Central America: A Debate

Farer advocates negotiated neutralization in Nicaragua, arguing that the Reagan administration, in its attempts to find military solutions in Central America, has ""unintentionally demonstrated the difference between a ruthless and a wise diplomacy.'' Van den Haag contends that international law is a delusion, that support for the contras is in the national interest and argues that Farer is too receptive to Sandinista propaganda, guilty of using overblown rhetoric and naive as well. Farer's shocked initial reaction is to quote Voltaire: ``When facts and reason fail, turn to ridicule.'' Van den Haag, unchastened, continues to lay on the ridicule. Despite the one-sided acrimony, the debaters succeed admirably in delineating the issues, dilemmas and options attendant upon U.S. policy in Central America (particularly Nicaragua). Farer is a law professor at the American University, Van den Haag, a professor of jurisprudence at Fordham. (May)