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C00002 00002	Saving El Salvador
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Saving El Salvador

	What El Salvador needs is for an outside force to end the violence
by disarming all parties to the conflict, ensure freedom of speech and
political activity and let the power struggles be determined by free
elections.  El Salvador has only about four million people and no land
border with countries who would object to such a solution.  The United
States has the military capacity do accomplish this goal, but most likely
it doesn't have the political capacity.

	The main political problem is that the U.S. is distrusted and
hated by the left - in El Salvador, in the world generally and even in the
U.S. itself.  Moreover, the left in the U.S. probably can prevent
effective action being taken if it requires the U.S. of American ground
forces - which it might.  Indeed the use of American ground forces would
provoke additional opposition in the U.S., in El Salvador and elsewhere.

	Our solution is to have the French send forces to El Salvador and
for the U.S. to withdraw completely except for financial aid and naval aid
if requested by the French.  The advantages are the following:

	1. The French government is socialist and has expressed sympathy
with the left in El Salvador and opposition to the U.S.  This would reduce
opposition from the left world-wide.

	2. The French government, and the socialists generally, are
nevertheless dedicated to freedom of speech and free elections.  While
this dedication is limited by suspicion of free elections carried out
under U.S.  sponsorship, it seems likely that elections carried out under
their own control would be free.

	3. The socialists would most likely have to face the problem of
fighting terrorism and maintaining freedom of speech while under attack
from the communist left worldwide and parts of the third world.  If they
succeeded, this would make the democratic left as a whole face the
problem, and their relations with the U.S. would be greatly improved and
their relations with the communists would be exacerbated.

	4. If the French, perhaps with the help of the West Germans and
other Europeans, became involved in counter-insurgency, then the
political, industrial and technological resources of Europe would then
become allied with the U.S.

	There might be some temptation for the French socialists to bend
their dedication to political freedom, because they would be under great
pressure from the thirld world left and from the Soviet bloc to make sure
the left won.  Moreover, the Soviet bloc and much of the third world left
regards free elections and freedom of speech as obscene.

	If the French succumbed to communist pressure and El Salvador went
the way of Cuba and Vietnam, only El Salvador would be lost to freedom,
and the socialists would suffer politically all over the world for their
failure.

	How could the French be persuaded to undertake the task?
Mitterrand is ambitious to make the mark of French socialism on the world
scene, so he might like the idea.  From the left point of view, the idea
would be to steer a middle course between the Scylla of left wing
terrorism (which they might be inclined to minimize) and the dangers of
right wing terrorism and American imperialism (which they might be
inclined to exaggerate).  A direct suggestion from President Reagan to
President Mitterrand would be the most straightforward approach.

	It seems important to keep the U.N. out of the matter, because it
cannot keep the peace, which requires at least a credible threat of force
in order to disarm the contending parties and suppress terrorism.  The
U.N. record in the Middle East makes it evident that a U.N. force would
merely stand around while the El Salvador parties continued their battle.
The alternate approach is to somehow get the public suggestion to come
from the French - anyway not from the U.S.

	From a conservative American point of view, the proposal should
have advantages even though we do not consider ourselves as imperialist.
Even though we consider ourselves as fair, others do not, and our best
chance of recovering our own reputation with the left is to let others
face the problem we have faced and see that they will have to make some of
the same hard choices we have had to make.

	Of course, it need not turn out that the French undertake the task
alone.  Other European countries may help, and even the Japanese should be
asked for help.  It is unlikely that they will give even non-military
help, but facing them with the problem will be good for them.

	It is an enormous advantage that El Salvador is small enough (1/10
the size of Vietnam) so that the actual operations need not strain the
resources of even a second rank power like France.  It is also important
that we can afford to risk failure.

	Another possibility is to get Mexico to do it along with or
instead of France.  They have already advanced proposals that might
be deflected in this direction.