[net.politics] Soviet Aid to other nations: Reply to Krell, et al

orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER) (04/30/85)

> In article <153@ttrdc.UUCP> mjk@ttrdc.UUCP (Mike Kelly) writes:
> >  The reaction of Soviet officials to charges of "Marxist" Sandinistas
> >is laughter.   To them, the Sandinistas are reformists and bourgeois social
> >democrats.
> >
> >Mike Kelly
> 
>   If that's the case, then what is doing Daniel Ortega (The Sandinista leader)
> in Moscow asking for 200 million dollars?. Since when does the USSR give money
> away to "bourgeois social democrats"? ...
> -- 
>     Eduardo Krell               UCLA Computer Science Department
>     ekrell@ucla-locus.arpa      ..!{sdcrdcf,ihnp4,trwspp,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!ekrell

Is it true that the Soviet Union only gives foreign aid to died in the wool
Marxists-Leninists?  I think it would be hard to support such a contention
given that Egypt received Soviet aid to build the Aswan Dam, given that
India has received Soviet aid, and other countries have received
Soviet aid.
 
Is it true that once Soviet aid is accepted by a country that the country
is "in the Soviet orbit" forever?
 
Again, this would be a very difficult contention to substantiate.  India
has and is receiving Soviet aid yet has never been in the "Soviet orbit".
Egypt received Soviet aid to build the Aswan Dam and for military purposes
but then booted the Soviets out and now are the second biggest recipient
of American aid after Israel.  Then there is the notable case of China's
Communist Party which received Soviet aid for a period after the
Revolution (although Stalin in fact did not significantly aid Mao before
the Revolution since he thought they would lose) but is now antagonistic
toward the Soviets with both sides amassing huge armies and military forces
on the Sino-Soviet border.
 
Probably the best way to insure that Nicaragua relies primarily upon the
Soviets for aid is to do exactly what Reagan wants to do:
launch an all-out trade embargo against Nicaragua similar to the one
we have had against Cuba for over 20 years.
One can note the success of the Cuban trade embargo in prying Cuba
from the Soviet orbit...................
 
          tim sevener  whuxl!orb
"If it's not a fish, throw it in the water and call it one!"