"This Ain't Viet Nam"

The shoeless Ambassador reclines on a chaise longue that is covered with classified cables. In a Churchillian pose, he holds a thick cigar in one hand and shoos away his old English sheep dog, Wellington, with the other. Deane Hinton then offers TIME'S Timothy Loughran some frank views on his two-year stint as envoy to El Salvador and the aims of U.S. policy there:

Q. Are you becoming more encouraged or discouraged as the conflict continues?

A. Sometimes you get a little discouraged and weary. But we have the policy basically right. We have to have patience and perseverance. I've had my problems when the resources haven't come. But there is progress: the elections last year, the functioning of a government. Political parties that seemed as though they would shoot each other at one point are now working together. There is continued progress on agrarian reform and human rights. It's glacial progress. It's maddening, but it's there.

Q. How much has U.S. aid helped?

A. The aid came too little too late. That's one of the reasons we're still in this mess. We needed more economic aid early on, and we needed the military aid the President asked for last year at the time he asked for it. We lost momentum. When Congress turns down presidential requests for aid, it encourages the guerrillas to keep fighting. It also discourages the Salvadoran army. The guerrillas think Washington is where they're going to win the war. They know damn well they're not going to win it here.

Q. How long will it take to end the war?

A. It could end in a year or 18 months if the outside support for the guerrillas stopped. If U.S. aid is cut off, the war would go on an awful long time and be bloodier than hell. I don't think the government can win without U.S. support.

Q. How long will it take to clean up the human rights abuses by government security forces?

A. To put everything the way we would like to see it is a question of years and generational change. It is moving in the right direction, but to establish a civilian democratic government dedicated to making the country run and to get the military out of politics will take a generation. The human rights abuses could stop very quickly if the war stopped. If there is no provocation, you're not going to find all these people dead all the time.

Q. What are the popular misconceptions of El Salvador in the U.S.?

A. This ain't Viet Nam, and it sure as hell better not end the way Viet Nam ended. People bring Viet Nam up all the time because they know Viet Nam is unpopular. It plays on a fear and a phobia that are built into the American consciousness.

Q. If the two sides met, what points could be negotiated?

A. I think in a serious dialogue about how the guerrillas can participate in elections, there are a lot of negotiable points. The most critical points are security guarantees for the candidates, whether they want ten bodyguards or 20 bodyguards. Other negotiable points include weapons permits, the role of the security forces and even the participation of outsiders.

Q. What has been the chief stumbling block so far?

A. The chief block is that the Marxist commandants don't want to have any dialogue. There is no substance in their proposals; it's all been phony. I say, "If you're so damn good, then come back and see how many votes you can get." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.