The Puzzler
(ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TO J. C. COULSON)
Every square in the diagram is to
contain two letters. A square split
horizontally accommodates two letters of a Down word, one of them shared by an Across word; a square split vertically accommodates two letters of an Across word, one of them shared by a Down word. When two letters of a word go into the same square, they remain in their proper order. Answers include four proper nouns. The answers to last month’s Puzzler appear on page 87.
ACROSS 1.Discover cryptic splits (8)
6. An animal keeping right in the same
rank (7)
11. Enthusiast embraces one new expert in money matters (9)
12. A malicious feeling hurried Celtics’ starter, also known as . . . (6)
13. . . . Bird, upset about hoop after hoop (6)
14. Flickering starshine becomes less bright (9)
15. Hires sailboat having a $100 profile (15) {two words)
16. A cook’s last vessel returned to a hot spot (8)
18.Plane takes top pilot east of the ocean’s edge (7)
20. City in a pass (7) 22. Musician I observed in Dire Straits (8)
24.Poor old mother’s love, with Greek
character’s quirk, may get very kinky
(15) 27. Run off and snatch back a riverman’s prop (9) (two words)
28. Heading off aid for a navigator that’s here (6)
29. A number following debut of circus barker(6)
30. Great help in code! (9) 31. Famed rider takes street’s first turn
(7)
32. Spy bungled around right in the middle of some tombs (8)
DOWN 1. Fed up with raucous music, get out
of the clergy (7)
2. Pass from sight resembling a truck? (6)
3. Framework fences the Greek hog (9)
4. Slang word of approval turned up in
puzzling message from a picture-
maker (15) 5. Lines in a tragedy engaging vocalist (7)
6. Thornbushes around a river presenting obstacles (8)
7. Doughnut to eat, at that place in court, is last (15) ( four words)
8. Slip bv making errors about drinks (6)
9. Put your finger on a rum canister (9)
10.Songbird gets the bulk of the bacon
(8)
17. Wilder and Racine attempt to change
the weather (9) (two words)
19. Derelict store owned by business in a blaze (9)
20. Something that holds hack poet after school (8)
21. Old fish put inside to be cooked (8) 22. Seafood dip covering cup completely
(7)
23. Injured pet housed in shelter (7) 25. French painter frames “Green
Drawer" (6)
26. Oriental city has variety of blood, we hear(6)
Note: The instructions above are for this month’s puzzle only. It is assumed that you know how to decipher clues. For a complete introduction to clue-solving, send an addressed, stamped envelope to The Atlantic Puzzler, 8 Arlington Street, Boston, Mass. 02116.
THE PUZZLER BY EMILY COX AND HENRY RATH VON
The result was a “formula for stalemate” within the U.S. government and between Washington and governments in the region.
The Reagan Administration therefore pursued an unrealizable dream—the overthrow of the Sandinistas—at exorbitant cost and in lieu of achievable objectives. Since the contra war started, in March of 1982, Nicaragua has suffered more than 50,000 casualties—an appalling figure in a nation of fewer than three million people—and the economy has plummeted backward thirty years. The war polarized the country, impelling numerous leaders to leave and join the contras. Virtually the entire contra political leadership, including Adolfo Calero, left Nicaragua after the CIA organized the contras, not before.
The success of the contra program was measured in terms of the damage it did to Nicaragua rather than in terms of how it advanced U.S. interests. Indeed, Robert McFarlane, the third of Reagan’s six national-security advisers, admitted to Congress that the Administration never even did “a thorough and concerted analysis of our Nicaraguan problem [with] a clear definition of U.S. interests.” Gutman’s intriguing hook is a crisply written and thoroughly researched report on the byzantine causes and tragic consequences of Reagan’s policy toward Nicaragua. But it provides no analysis of U.S. interests, nor does it offer an alternative strategy for their successful pursuit.
THE UNITED STATES has three sets of interests in Nicaragua, and the contras were probably unnecessary to secure them.
Strategically, the United States should seek to limit Nicaragua’s military relationship with the Soviet Union and Cuba. Although at first the Sandinistas were reluctant to negotiate this security interest with the United States, they were compelled to accept it tacitly, and by 1983 they had proposed the outlines of a security treats’ that went some distance toward satisfying U.S. concerns. By that time the Reagan Administration was committed to the contras and refused to negotiate.
The second set of interests—to stop Nicaraguan support for insurgents in other countries—was addressed by both the Contadora treaties and the Arias plan. Both proposed international inspection teams to visit each Central American country to monitor and thus