For millions of Americans whose opinions on foreign policy are basically shaped by television news, President Reagan is the man who speaks for the administration's policies. The man who more often than not appears on television's evening news speaking against those policies in the name of Congress is a Massachusetts Democrat who looks and acts on the tube like the quintessential Congressman. Let's take a look at him.
It was the spring of 1983 and House Speaker Tip O'Neill was on his first visit ever to the People's Republic of China. As one Chinese leader after another objected vehemently to U.S. support of Taiwan, which they kept on describing as a "renegade province," O'Neill was surprised.
"We don't follow foreign affairs in our country like they do in Europe or out here in the Orient," he said by way of explanation to his bewildered Chinese hosts -who were astonished to find out that the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives was innocent of any knowledge of such a critical issue in China-U.S. relations.
It is true that O'Neill has not put his ignorance of China to much use in Seeking or obstructing legislation, on the matter of Nicaragua, as The New York Times said in November of 1984, "No one in Congress has been more caustically critical of the Reagan administration's policies in Central America than the Speaker of the House.
The Times reported that "while some members of Congress base their foreign policy position on elaborate briefings by aides, consultation with colleagues, or public opinion polling of their constituents, Mr. O'Neill depends on the activist nuns and priests to help shape his views on America."
O'Neill, whose aunt was a Maryknoll sister until her death at 91, five years ago, spelled out his research methods. "I have a connection with the Maryknoll order," he said to the Times. "I have great trust in that order. When the nuns and priests come through, I ask them questions about their feelings, what they see, who the enemy is, and I'm sure I get the truth. I haven't found any of these missionaries who aren't absolutely opposed to this [administration] policy."
More recently, the speaker shared with The Washington Post one other important reason why he held such views on Nicaragua vis a vis the United States. When he was a teenager in Cambridge, Massachusetts, O'Neill said, "a 17-year-old kid, Eddie Kelly, a dear friend of mine, went down to Nicaragua [as part of a contingent of U.S. Marines who were sent down there to protect American interests] and got stabbed down there. When he came back, I said, 'Eddie, what are we doing down there?" he said, 'we're taking care of the property and the rights of United Fruit. I got stabbed for United Fruit."
That, O'Neill recalled, "always stuck in my head. We kept that nation in servitude, we exploited them… We ought to allow them to make their own free choice of government."
The Speaker's sentimental attachment to the emotional reaction of his friend some five decades ago, and his uncritical acceptance of the views of a militant group with whom he has long family ties, are touching examples of the loyalty to his roots that has assured him the
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