Army’s School of the Americas

Congratulations to Frank del Olmo for his excellent article (Commentary, April 3) about the U.S. Army’s infamous School of the Americas (SOA) at Ft. Benning, Ga. This school is just as guilty as the CIA for the recently reported atrocities in Guatemala. And the SOA’s connection to gross human rights violations certainly does not end with Guatemala. As Del Olmo correctly asserts, it is difficult to think of a coup or human rights outrage in Latin America over the last 40 years which has not involved graduates of the SOA.

I join him in encouraging Rep. Joseph Kennedy (D-Mass.) to continue his efforts to cut off all taxpayer funding to the SOA. Let’s close this “School of Assassins.”

JOHN GRULA

Pasadena

Del Olmo’s one-sided commentary disparaging the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA) is wrong in principle and unsupported by the preponderance of facts. No one who has seen America’s Army in Haiti and elsewhere can doubt that we are the world’s role model of a professional military serving a democratic nation at home and abroad. The U.S. military is reaching out to militaries throughout the world to reinforce respect for democratic values and human rights. Yet Del Olmo believes that the peoples of Latin American and Caribbean countries would somehow be better off without the influence of America’s Army on their militaries!

His odd conclusion apparently stems from a grossly distorted understanding of the overall record of SOA graduates. For the record, only a small handful of the 59,000 graduates of SOA have ever been accused of human-rights violations, much less convicted. The vast majority of SOA graduates have contributed to the advancement of democracy and human rights. The fact that a school reaches only 99%-plus of its students hardly means it should stop educating. It is grossly unfair of Del Olmo to portray as the norm the aberrations of a very few SOA graduates.

It is not true, as Del Olmo asserts, that former Haitian strongman Gen. Raoul Cedras is an alumnus of SOA. Del Olmo gives $18.4 million as the estimated budget for SOA this fiscal year. The actual budget is $3.8 million. He asserts that the School teaches “U.S. weaponry, tactics and related skills,” but fails to mention the many noncombat courses taught. Worst of all, he simply dismisses with a single snide phrase the best human-rights curriculum of any military school in the world.

Since SOA was established in 1946, there has been a magnificent shift in this hemisphere from dictatorship to democracy, a transition assisted and nurtured in large part by military leaders trained at SOA. We must sustain that transition. Del Olmo recommends that Congress take a “hard, critical look (at SOA).” SOA welcomes any fair-minded appraisal. I am confident that any reasonable individual taking a comprehensive, objective look at SOA will endorse the institution.

JOE R. REEDER

Under Secretary of the Army

Washington

Del Olmo’s column concludes with the truly offensive statement that is difficult to find a human rights violation in Latin America during the past 40 years that has not been connected to a graduate of said school.

Have you never heard of Cuba, Mr. Del Olmo? Have you not heard about its dictator since 1959, Fidel Castro? Or do you consider Cubans a lesser breed, unfit to be included when such topics as personal and political liberties, and basic human rights, are discussed?

FRANK O. GATELL-GUTIERREZ

Santa Monica