Unsung Allies 2 :   El Salvador

The United States in 2003 invaded Iraq.  The media did not seem to want to mention some of our allies in our attempt to oppose Islamic terrorism. 

Let me say a little about our staunch friends in one such ally, El Salvador. 

On December 8, 1941, The United States declared war on the Axis powers, Germany, Italy, and Japan.  The first of our friends to follow suit was El Salvador.  El Salvador, being a small and poor nation, did not take a large part in the struggle, but sent thousands of workers to Panama to help maintain the canal. 

In the 1970’s I spent some time in El Salvador. I found the Salvadorans to be very friendly, hospitable, hard-working, and entrepreneurial.  They loved the USA and estadounidenses.  Their native language is Spanish.

I met one man who was proud of having served in the US Army in Korea. 

Way back in the country I met an old man in a home-made wheel-chair whose Spanish I couldn’t seem to understand.  At last I realized he was speaking English with a thick-as-mud accent.  Then he was all smiles because his family at last saw that he did indeed speak English! 

Eventually, the Soviets through Cuba subverted Nicaragua to install a communist dictatorship under Manuel Ortega.  From there, the communists sought to spread their doctrine toward USA.  Soon, a large number of communist revolutionaries were in El Salvador, with arms support through Nicaragua. 

Salvadorans, who didn’t care for communism nor the terrorist tactics the communists adopted, elected a strongly anti-communist political party named “Arena”.  Arena’s number one campaign song said “El Salvador sera la tumba donde los rojos acabaran!” (“El Salvador will be the tomb where the reds will end up.” )  The Salvadoran people did not support the communists, and the revolution folded after the fall of the Soviet Union cut off the flow of aid from USSR through Cuba and Nicaragua. 

El Salvador sent a few hundred of its troops to join USA in Iraq. 

At first the Salvadorans were put under the command of the Spanish, no doubt in hope that the common language would be helpful.  But soon a terrorist attack in Spain made the Spanish wimp out and go home.  Then the Salvadorans were put under the command of the Poles.  We laughed at the thought of the Salvadorans getting their orders in Polish. 

Our media never mentioned the Salvadorans, except at one time when an incident pushed into the news.  A small group of Salvadoran soldiers was surrounded by the enemy, and called for backup.  They fought hard, but were badly outnumbered.  An American unit went to help, but it looked to be just a little too late as the Salvadorans ran out of ammunition.  Then Cpl. Samuel Toloza pulled out a knife and charged.  The terrorists were so surprised to see their AK47’s opposed with that little short blade that they backed off momentarily, just long enough for the relief force to arrive. 

I have not been back to Salvador since the 1970’s, but I think the Salvadorans still love gringos, despite what we did to them.  We let in immigrants, legal and illegal, whose kids grew up in Los Angeles street gangs, and then deported them to El Salvador to form the most notorious street gangs in America, the “MS13” or “Mara Salvatrucha”, making San Salvador more dangerous than Chicago in the time of Al Capone.