In Contempt of Congress; The Reagan Record of Deceit & Illegality on Central America
Washington, DC: Institute for Policy Studies, 1985. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Wraps. iii, [1]68 pages. Illustrations. Preface by George McGovern. Several text pages creased. Paperclip mark/impression on several pages. This was produced by the The Central America Crisis Monitoring Team and the members were identified on page ii. Includes Preface and Introduction, as well as chapters on Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. Also includes an appendix on Possible Violations of Law. The authors assert that escalating U.S. involvement in Central America has spawned a credibility gap that threatens the constitutional order. Whether testifying on the state of human rights in El Salvador and Guatemala, the scope of CIA activities targeted against the government of Nicaragua, or the scale of the growing U.S. military buildup in Honduras, Reagan Administration officials have misled Congress about the nature of its activities and goals in Central America. The disturbingly systematic record of such deceit has prompted this report. The weighty accumulation of deception practiced by the Reagan Administration underscores a fundamental reality of United states policy towards Central America: the nature of the regimes and movements bolstered by U.S. Assistance, and the Administration's ultimate policy goals for the entire region, are repugnant to basic U.S. values. It is only through deception that the American people may be beguiled into accepting the current policy, and the Congress may by manipulated into legitimating escalating intervention. More