By the dawn's early light

JUST about the same time America's attention was diverted to watching the miniseries ''George Washington'' on television, someone was busy putting little American bombs all over Nicaraguan harbors.

People who came away from their television sets all misty-eyed and worried because Congress didn't give George Washington enough bombs to fight the British can now rest assured the present-day United States has enough bombs to go all over the world.

Well, it never rains but it pours.

Some consolation can be found in the case of Nicaragua because they were only ''firecracker'' bombs. They don't sink anything except policies in Washington.

Pro-communist Nicaragua, with practically no sense of humor, doesn't see the fun-and-games aspect of firecracker bombs in the harbor. Thus it is planting word-bombs in the World Court and on American television. As a result, the US will have to find some other way to prevent the export of arms and revolution from Nicaragua to other parts of the hemisphere.

Ronald Reagan understands this. It is like fumbling the football, and he has played games similar to this in the movies.

Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan doesn't understand this and has resigned as vice-chairman of the Senate's Committee on Intelligence, in indignation, because he said he wasn't informed by the CIA what was going on. It turns out that he probably was informed, but the CIA speaks only in whispers.

Apparently it will take more than this kind of fumbling to get CIA Director William Casey to resign, as much as Congress might dream of it. According to some sources, as soon as Cuban-Soviet plans for the area become established, another tidal wave of immigration, larger than that from Cuba, would sweep into the US.

Americans seem to follow this pattern quite often, bringing their troubles home to roost.