Reagan's dirty trick.

SOMEBODY really ought to ask Tip O'Neill a very direct question, namely, whose side is he on?

For almost two years, the Democratic leadership has been asking President Reagan to pay heed to the Contadora countries in the matter of seeking a resolution to the Central American problem raised by Communist control of Nicaragua.

The Contadora group (Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, and Mexico) met in Costa Rica and suggested a modus operandi, namely that both sides--the Nicaraguan government and the Contras: respectively, the Marxists in power and the democrats seeking to take power--agree to a ceasefire. During that ceasefire, the Contadoras went on, the Catholic bishops in Nicaragua would act as intermediaries and preside over sessions between the antagonistic parties designed to set down rules for an election to ascertain what was in fact the democratic will of the people of Nicargua.

Mr. Reagan declared that he was willing to go along. He elucidated: If both sides agreed to a ceasefire, the proposed United States contribution to the exercise would be to contract with the Contras not to spend on arms or ammunition any of the $14 million that Reagan assumed would be headed their way by vote of Congress. The money, as required, would be spent on food and "humanitarian" needs--even soldiers in bivouac need food and medicine.

And then the President added his own agenda. Not only would he require of the Nicaraguan government acquiescence on the ceasefire and ensuing democratic elections. He would also insist that foreign troops in Nicaragua--"Soviet, Cuban, PLO, Libyan, and other military and security personnel"--be ejected from the country; that Nicaragua scale down its military to a size comparable with that of its neighbors; and that Nicaragua undertake not to wage wars of aggression against its neighbors.

Now one would think that these demands would satisfy the reservations of Democratic legislators, who are--by the declarations of their own leaders--committed to the proposition that he will not sit idly by while Nicaragua becomes another Cuba. So what is it about Reagan's maneuver that makes it a dirty trick?

Tip O'Neill will tell you that what is dirty about it is that a) Nicaragua will not accept the terms; with the result b) that public opinion will move against those members of Congress who opposed the $14 million in aid for the Contras.

There is absolutely no doubt that Tip O'Neill correctly interprets the thinking of Ronald Reagan. And there is absolutely no doubt that it is hardly a "trick" to think in that way. If one needs, in order to convince Congress that Nicaragua will not submit to democratic elections and will not scale down its army to non-aggressive proportions, to dramatize Nicaragua's refusal to do this, why not proceed to dramatize? It is a part of the resources of statecraft to provide for public appreciation of reality. And one way to do this is to make a suggestion the terms of which are widely thought to be reasonable, and then to ask for a judgment based on one's foreknowledge to what the government you are addressing is going to do. Nor is it unusual. Does Tip O'Neill think it is a dirty trick for Mr. Reagan to advise King Hussein that he will not meet jointly with the Jordanians and the PLO unless the PLO agrees to acknowledge the legitimacy of the state of Israel--because Reagan knows that the PLO is not about to do this?

What especially appeals about Mr. Reagan's move is the incorporation into his public position on Nicaragua of the position of four prominent Latin American countries--the Contadora group--that have been exercising, in effect, a surrogate vote for all of Latin America. They are viewed as moderate countries, seeking on the one hand to curb any American inclination to go back to the days of Yanqui imperialism; and on the other hand to resist Communist imperialism via Castro's Cuba. What Reagan did was add specific features to the demand for "democracy," which features can hardly incur the opposition of Latin Americans who see no reason for the presence in Nicaragua of platoons of advisors from Communist and terrorist countries.

It is humiliating that Mr. Reagan should need to teach that which is self-evident, but if Mr. Reagan is bright enough to see what is palpably going on in Nicaragua and congressional Democrats are too dumb to see what is happening there, it oughtn't to be termed a dirty trick to take the time to teach them.