Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for June 23, 1981
June 22, 1981
June 24, 1981
Transcript:
Roland: The EL Salvador "white paper," once a textbook case of indirect armed aggression by Communist powers, now a discredited document, shrouded in shame. Did the Communist leader "Shafik" described in the white paper even exist? We put the question to the reports author, Jon Glassman, who agreed to talk only in silhouette. Man: Of course, "Shafik" exists. It's just that the evidence of his activities is inconclusive. But if "Shafik" didn't invite Soviet interference in El Salvador, then others just like him did. Roland: Then "Shafik" is, in effect, a composite Communist? Man: Right. I just didn't want to break up the flow of the story.
The “White Paper”, released in February 1981, reportedly showed communist influence in El Salvador, and was used as justification for the USA to intervene in Nicaragua. It was based on documents captured in El Salvador from guerrilla fighters.
Subsequent review in mid-81 showed that most of the paper was based on faulty conclusions, mis-interpretations, cherry picking (they left out a sentence that dramatically changed the tone of a document), and (in some cases) outright fabrication.
The general consensus was that while communist influence couldn’t be ruled out, the White Paper provided almost no actual evidence that said influence existed.