El Salvador: Making Martial Noises

With a presidential election next Sunday, the U.S. is taking no chances

Partisan clamor in Congress over the goals and methods of American diplomacy. U.S. warships hovering off a foreign coast. Growing American military activity in a tense region, a presence intended to shore up a beleaguered government in the midst of prolonged and bloody civil war.

All the elements of a familiar scenario were back on center stage of U.S. foreign policy. Not long ago, the setting was Lebanon. This time it was the scarred landscape of El Salvador. As it has so often before, the Reagan Administration was rattling sabers...