Neighborhood Talk

When Ambassador William Dawson, U.S. representative to the Pan American Union, said last week that the U.S. wanted Nicaragua at the Bogota conference, Washington's latinos guessed that the U.S. was at last ready to recognize Dictator Somoza's government. They were wrong. Later, to shut off the guessing, white-haired Ambassador Dawson telephoned 17 embassies (but not the Costa Rican, Honduran or Dominican, whose governments recognized Somoza last year) and made it clear that inviting a neighbor to a neighborhood powwow did not mean approval of the way the neighbor acted.

Meanwhile Colombia, the conference host, had popped off and granted Somoza recognition. Most Latin American republics would probably soon follow Colombia's lead. If such a bandwagon started rolling, the U.S. might have to climb aboard, no matter whether it liked all the passengers, or not.

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