Delusion and Reality Once More

Abstract

Although he promises to explain “Whither the National Interest,” Professor Farer’s discussion disregards the national interest in favor of cliches and diatribes about Central America’s endemic tyrannies. It seems that all of them are owed to Ronald Reagan, president of the United States. The Reagan administration is accused of supporting these tyrannies, if not creating them, and somehow being guilty of whatever they are guilty of—as though, before the Reagan administration, there was but peaceful and idyllic democracy in Latin America and as though, without Reagan, there would be no Central American tyrannies. Clio is loved by Professor Farer where convenient, and forgotten when her actions do not fit his ideological preconceptions. No way to treat a nice girl. Serious evidence is not presented for the Reagan sins, unless overblown rhetoric counts as argument.