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DURING THE 1970S MANY OF THE SIGNS OF DISARRAY WHICH HAVE CHARACTERIZED EARLIER NATIONS AND CIVILIZATIONS IN DECLINE, WERE MANIFESTED IN THE UNITED STATES. TRADITIONAL RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS AND VALUES WERE ASSAULTED BY INDIFFERENCE, SCORN, AND THE RISE OF CULTS. IMMORALITY AND AMORALITY WERE RAMPANT IN POPULAR CULTURE AND IN THE PUBLIC AND PERSONAL LIVES OF LEADERS AND SUBJECTS ALIKE. AMERICANS MURDERED MORE HUMAN BEINGS VIA ABORTION THAN HITLER KILLED DURING THE HOLOCAUST OR STALIN DEVASTED DURING HIS GREAT PURGE. CIVIL RIGHTS STRIFE, VIETNAM, WATERGATE, STAGFLATION AND OTHER POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC TRIALS PRODUCED A STRIKING DECLINE IN THE CONFIDENCE PEOPLE FELT FOR POLITICAL LEADERS, PARTIES, AND THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENTAL PROCESS ITSELF. A PLETHORA OF THIRD PARTIES EMERGED AS A RESULT OF THE CREDIBILITY GAP, BUT NONE MADE MUCH IMPACT EITHER ON THE INTELLECTUAL COMMUNITY OR THE PEOPLE AT LARGE.

As in most presidential election years, Latin America is not significant in the campaign issues presently under discussion, nor is it likely to become so before November 1992. This article focuses, therefore, not so much upon which issues might, or even should, be emphasized by the Democratic Party during the campaign, as upon what might be the design of a Latin American policy by a new Democratic administration in January 1993