US responsibility in El Salvador

It seems to me that there is something missing from the opinion-page article "Partial Justice in Salvador," Oct. 8. The US government should share the blame for the murders of the six Jesuits, their housekeeper, and her daughter.In 1980, the Council for Inter-American Security produced a policy paper that defined the Reagan administration's agenda in Central America and beyond. This "Santa Fe Document" said that "US foreign policy must begin to counter liberation theology." Furthermore, our government has given more than $4 billion in military aid to the Salvadoran government in the past 11 years, knowing that that government's death squads target clergy, teachers, and union leaders - the people who try to empower the poor. The $4 billion we have given came out of American taxpayers' pockets, and it is not an investment with any return. It has produced nothing of value for us and plenty of misery for Salvadorans. Whether or not Americans had any foreknowledge or complicity in this tragedy, our government is at least guilty of setting the climate in which such things could happen and funding the forces of terror. This alone is unconscionable. Gerry Moore, Ehrenberg, Ariz.

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