---

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 21, 1992                   TAG: 9201210043
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

---

STUDY: U.S. EL SALVADOR POLICY FAILED

An independent, Pentagon-financed study concludes that, despite last week's peace agreement, U.S. policy toward El Salvador for most of the past decade was a failure because it was based on false assumptions.

For all but the final 20 months of the Salvadoran conflict, the U.S. goal was "a clear victory through a combination of military and reform measures," says Rand, a California-based non-profit research organization. "In these terms, American policy failed."

That conclusion contrasts sharply with the official view of the conflict. The State Department said the peace agreement signed between the government and the rebels last Thursday is a "major step forward" toward the achievement of a Central America "wholly democratic and at peace."

The study, authored by Benjamin Schwarz, assesses the results in terms of U.S. goals during the previous decade. Research for the study was completed last September, about three months before the peace breakthrough.

"Since 1981, policymakers believed that victory in El Salvador could be won by influencing the regime to do what was necessary to win its people's hearts and minds; and the United States believed that the $6 billion in support it provided bought considerable leverage in that effort.

"But the Salvadorans had America trapped. They realized that the United States was involved in their war for its own national security interests."

The study says U.S. threats to withdraw aid from El Salvador if the country did not undertake fundamental reforms lacked credibility because Salvadorans realized the United States could not accept victory by the leftist FMLN guerrillas.

---