American Notes: Aug 12, 1985

HEALTH No News on a Prominent Nose

As Ronald Reagan greeted visitors last week, reporters glimpsed a scab on the right side of his nose. White House Spokesman Larry Speakes later explained that a dermatologist had removed a small "gathering" of skin from the President's nose two days earlier. To avoid raising new concerns about cancer, Speakes refused to use the term lump or growth, talking instead of a skin irritation that had been aggravated after the President's operation.

The matter might have rested there but did not, in part because the White House refused to answer other questions on the subject. Who was the dermatologist? Why had there been no advance announcement of the operation, however minor? Why was no test for cancer performed on the removed skin? Apparently, after airing details of his colon-cancer operation, Reagan wished to downplay additional medical discussion. But by sealing their lips, White House aides aroused more curiosity than they desired and probably more than the minor procedure deserved.

The conference was called, dramatically enough, "The State Department Held Hostage." Chaired by Richard Viguerie, publisher of the Conservative Digest, the conference was a grand opportunity for the disaffected right to bash, of all people, Secretary of State George Shultz. Wearing stickers emblazoned with an umbrella (to commemorate British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who sought to appease Adolf Hitler), some 150 delegates accused Shultz of being too soft on terrorists, too warm to the Soviets and too cool toward freedom fighters in Angola, Afghanistan and Mozambique.

The odd thing about such criticism, say Administration officials, is that Shultz is a leading advocate of using force against terrorists. One explanation for the right's indignation is Shultz's refusal to fill key State slots with true believers. Another comes from New York Times Columnist William Safire, who wrote last week in defense of Shultz, "America's right wing sorely misses Nelson Rockefeller . . . Politics without a villain is like a lens without a focal point." The man to hold responsible for Reagan's foreign policy, he noted, is Reagan.

Ever since 13 relaxed patrons, including four U.S. Marine embassy guards, were machine-gunned to death by guerrillas in San Salvador's Zona Rosa cafe last June, American officials have been talking about retribution. A reward of $100,000 was even offered by the State Department for the perpetrators. When pressed last week about why nothing more had been done, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger made what seemed a surprising revelation. "The Salvadoran government with our assistance," he claimed, "has taken care of--in one way or another--a number of people who participated in that killing." About two weeks after the café attack, Pentagon sources said, the Salvadoran army staged an offensive against the Central American Revolutionary Workers' Party, the group that claimed responsibility. The Pentagon said 21 guerrillas were killed and two leaders captured.