European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 15, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                L books a failing Grade after lessons of Nicaragua Joseph Owen Stafl writer we be kicked the Vietnam syndrome president Bush said when  forces freed Kuwait last Winter. But Saddam Hussein still ruled kurd fled Iraq and Kuwait nearly succumbed to Lynch mob Justice. So much for a a new world  regardless of whether the persian Gulf War was justified or successful it suggests America still is a prisoner of foreign policy mistakes made in Vietnam. Instead of judging crises exclusively on their own merits our leaders often Sec them As chances to atone for unrelated failures of another place and time. The tendency would be forgivable if our leaders lacked the experience to realize its dangers. New York times reporter Stephen Kinz cry a new Book blood of Brothers life and War in Nicaragua reminds us that they have such experience. Nicaragua a civil War ended in 1988, and so Many stunning events have followed it that Public perception of the Small Central american country already is reduced to two dimensional cliches. We recall that it drove Ronald Reagan to fits of anti communist rhetoric and made Marine it. Col. Oliver North a to Star but otherwise we have relegated it the museum of the mind. Nicaraguan peasants still mourning the dead and sifting through the rubble that used to be their Homes undoubtedly see things much differently. Now at the times Bonn Bureau Kinzer began covering Nicaragua in 1976, when dictator Anasta Sio Somoza was in Power. He witnessed the Sandi nistas violent takeover in july 1979, chronicled the country s slide into economic ruin and civil War As the  Contra rebels murdered and pillaged to weaken an increasingly repressive Sandi nista regime and remained until after the two sides reached a shaky peace agreement. Kinzer contends that people who steered Nicaragua a destiny in the 1980s invented their own fantasies about the place and what its people needed and the nicaraguan people suffered for it. His intimate experience with the country and with the six year War that killed More than 30,000 of its people gives him the credentials to make such judgments. Using Cuba As a Model the sandinista so ruling National directorate made education and health care widely available after they took control in 1979. It also destroyed the stilling class Structure Somoza had perpetuated. But it also jailed protesters closed disobedient news Media mismanaged the Economy abused the miskito and Creole minority groups and assassinated perceived enemies. The sandinista were Quot messianic intellectually arrogant and in Many ways out of touch with the poor people on whose behalf they claimed to govern a Kinzer wrote although he credits them with Nicaragua a freest election the one that ended sandinista president Daniel Ortega a Rule in 1990. Kinzer has even less use for american political tourists who visited Nicaragua during the War years a a cafe radicals who squeezed a sandinista rally or a . Embassy protest Between trips to the Beach and a blindly pro sandinista Quot Church groups whom nicaraguans Quot came to resent. As ignorant  nicaraguans suffered worst under the Reagan administrations penchant for defining the sandinista commandants in terms of cold War polarities. Reagan the National Security Council and the Central intelligence Agency let the superpower conflict and their own desire to a kick the Vietnam syndrome Cloud their evaluation of what really was happening in Nicaragua. The Iran Contra scandal was not the Only illegal act that sprang from this myopia. When Congress funded the contras in 1982, it forbade using them to try to overthrow the sandinista. But that s what the Cia sent the contras to do claiming nonetheless that their Only Mission was to Stop the flow of arms to guerillas in Al Salvador. The administration s obsession with fighting communism also prompted tactical errors. The Cia spurned Eden Pastora the Leader of one Contra faction because he was once a sandinista and he despised taking orders Kinzer wrote. Instead they supported col. Enrique Bermudez and other former officers of Somoza a feared National guard. A american planners never scented to grasp the simple fact that nicaraguans hated the National guard Quot Kinzer wrote. Quot Eden Pastora in contrast was arguably the most popular political figure in  the americans also lied by denying that Contra units were in Honduras tried to derail Costa rican president Oscar Arias peace initiatives and ignored atrocities by other Central american governments that by comparison made the sandinista seem like delinquent schoolboys. One of Nicaragua a most odious historical figures is William Walker a racist american mercenary who seized their presidency in 1856, then burned the capital before ref rating. Nicaraguans speak fondly of sandinista namesake Augusto Cesar Sandino a rebel who drove out the . Marines in 1932. Set against that backdrop Kinzer asserts the Reagan administration s sponsorship of the murderous contras reaffirmed nicaraguans View of the United states As a neighbourhood bully determined to make their lives miserable. Blood of Brothers life and War in Nicaragua is published by . Putnam a sons. Zoo Madison Avenue new York n a 10016.pilcher�?Ts optimism grows on you in a Flowers in the rain by Victoria Wakefield United press International Oscar Wilde would have snorted at Rosamunde Pilcher. Not to mention Noel Coward or any of a dozen gilled Gad lies who found their inspiration in the human condition. After All who Ever said Good Guys finish first Good Guys done to sell Good books. But Rosamunde Pilcher always Champion of the happily Ever Afler school of writing manages to scale the Best seller lists almost before bookstores unpack the latest volumes. Look at Pilcher a the Shell seekers. And her other volumes have sold some 10 million copies around the world. Flowers in the rain and other stories is destined to be As popular because these 16 Short stories will make everybody Feci Good. As a craftsman of the Short Story genre she Isnit mentioned in the same breath As . Pritchett and Ann Beattie but then Pilcher concentrates on old fashioned romanticism and Happy endings. And As the 20th Century draws to a close a Happy ending now and again is More than Welcome. The Nice protagonists in Flowers in the rain share common threads of finishing old business and looking ahead to new vistas. And the rainbows nearly leap off the pages sound too Sweet and out of step with the 90s? Wilde and Coward would have said so. Mature women will revel in both Christabel and Cousin Dorothy and unrequited lovers will find vindication and Hope in endings and beginnings and Flowers in the rain. Men will read and reread All of Pilcher a newest collection because this gifted Scot woman always makes men look heroic. Sorrow does have its place in Pilcher a stories but she relegates it to a nostalgic remembering state guaranteeing that grief is part of the Joys of life. Such books should be attempted by Only the most disciplined of experienced writers. One w Rong word one Tendril of phrase out of place and the stories would be mawkish and unreadable. Flowers in the rain is destined to be the one Book that wont make it to garage sales. Too Many age groups will pick it up. And pick it up again for Solace and Hope and nostalgia. Oscar and Cole would have fled. 2s a a a rower in the rain ser book9tore< a Quot a the paperback edition la on Page 8 a sunday december 15, 1991