NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000301610005-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 8, 2010
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: February 27, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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RADIO N REPORTS, ~N~.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 [phone]
FoR PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF
PROGRAM All Things Considered STATION WETA Radio
NPR Network
DATE February 27, 1985 5:00 P,.M.
Washington, D.C.
SUBJECT Nicaragua
SUSAN STAMBERG: Direct negotiations between the United
Statse and Nicaragua were broken off last month by the Reagan
Administration. U.S. officials said they'd felt the talks
weren't going anywhere and were getting in the way of the
regional Contadora negotiations, which have also broken off.
Today Administration officials said they would wait and
see what kind of new proposals Nicaragua is making, but they made
it clear they were not expecting very much.
NPR's Bill Buzenberg h,as more
on the American reaction.
BILL BUZENBERG: Secretary of State George Shultz gave
the Administration's first reaction to Nicaragua's peace proposal
today during a hearing before a House subcommittee. It was a
cool reaction, the same as that given Nicaraguan offers in the
past.
SECRETARY OF STATE GEORGE SHULTZ: As far as the
statement made by Mr. Ortega yesterday, we know of no content.
It's just a statement. Maybe there'll be some content. We'll
examine it.
BUZENBERG: White House spokesman Larry Speakes said
later that the Administration wanted concrete proposals from
Nicaragua rather than a show-and-tell propaganda offensive.
Secretary Shultz told members of Congress there's no end
to the efforts the United States has made to work out a reason-
able solution in Central America. "We haven't succeeded," he
said, but blamed Nicaragua for that, saying they only negotiate
when they're under military pressure, and suggesting they'll have
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to change.
SECRETARY SHULTZ: We haven't said that we are unwilling
to meet with them, just that there's no point in it right now
unless they have a different view.
BUZENBERG: Shutz ran into heavy criticism on Capitol
Hill today for both his and President Reagan's recent comments on
the Sandinistas. One Democrat charged they're using Red-baiting
rhetoric in trying to make Nicaragua into a direct threat to the
United States.
The Administration's stepped-up campaign against
Nicaragua began 11 days ago with the President's weekly radio
address, in which he called the rebels, or Contra forces, "our
brothers," and the Sandinistas "a Marxist-Leninist clique."
PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN: Now they're exporting drugs to
poison our youth and linking up with the terrorists of Iran,
Libya, the Red Brigades, and the' PLO. The Sandinistas aren't
democrats, but communists; not lovers of freedom, but of power;
not builders of a peaceful nation, but creators of a Fortress
Nicaragua that intends to export communism beyond its borders.
BUZENBERG: Today, when Secretary of State Shultz also
charged that the Nicaraguans and Cubans were engaged in narcotics
trafficking to generate funds, Democratic Congressman Ted Weiss
of New York got angry. "Whatever their drug role," he said,
"it's minuscule compared to that played by countries who are
allies of the United States, such as Mexico, Colombia or
Jamaica."
Congressman Weiss:
REP. TED WEISS: It seems to me that the Administra-
tion's policy toward Nicaragua has been an exercise in twisting
facts, in distorting facts, in misstating facts.
Take a look at the statement you make that you're
willing to accept any reasonable solution that the Nicaraguan
goverment offers, and then equate that with the statements you
have been making and the President made at his press conference
about reasonableness being the Nicaraguan government saying
uncle.
BUZENBERG: Weiss said it's a distortion for the United
States to threaten Nicaragua militarily, and then when it builds
up its armed forces to charge that Nicaragua is threatening
aggression against its neighbors. He charged it's a distortion
to equate the freedom fighters in Afghanistan, who are battling
Soviet troops, with the rebels in Nicaragua, who are fighting in
a country that, while not perfect, has had an election, has an
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opposition newspaper, and still has a large private-sector
economy.
Weiss said such distortions reminded him of the 1954
Army-McCarthy hearings. He quoted the Army's attorney as saying
to Senator McCarthy, "Have you no decency, sir?"
That made Secretary Shultz angry.
SECRETARY SHULTZ: I think it is the ultimate perversion
to say that an attack on the tactics and strategy of Nicaragua is
comparable to the tactics of Senator Joe McCarthy. And when you
compare me with Senator Joe McCarthy, I resent it deeply. I will
have no part of it and I have no further comment to make.
BUZENBERG: Shultz wouldn't answer Weiss's questions
until he apologized. Weiss later did apologize, but he said he
wasn't comparing Shultz to Senator McCarthy, but the Administra-
tion's distortions to McCarthy's tactics.
In some ways, that bitter exchange illustrates the
tensions raised between the Administration and Congress over the
Contra funding issue. The Administration wants $14 million more
for the Contras, but that requires approval by both the House and
the Senate. Three times before, the House has rejected it by
margins ranging from 33 to 64 votes. Despite its current
campaign, the Administration still has not been able to crack the
House on this issue, according to both Republicans and Democrats.
Susan Benda of the Center for National Security Studies,
an opponent of Contra aid, keeps tabs on the expected vote. She
says that in the Senate there are 47 opponents of Contra funding,
a slim majority for the President. But that's reversed in the
Democratic-controlled House.
SUSAN BENDA: The House majority is solid. We found no
slippage at all on the vote for renewed covert assistance on this
proposal for $14 million. We've been checking the likely
Democrats and Republicans, those we thought might not be with us,
and there is no significant slippage.
BUZENBERG: If the Administration doesn't have the votes
in the House for more Contra aid, then why the current campaign?
White House officials say it's because the President sincerely
believes Nicaragua is a problem, the American public needs
educating, and U.S. allies in the region need reassuring.
With the current congressional ban on Contra funding,
one official said, "All the President can send them is the signal
he's with them."
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Speaking out also helps the Contras raise money pri-
vately -- they're said to be getting a million dollars a month --
and attract recruits. White House officials say that a thousand
Nicaraguans joined the Contras after the President's radio
address.
State Department officials say Secretary Shultz is
considering a list of options if Congress won't approve more aid
for the Contras. That list includes some illegal alternatives,
such as diverting economic aid meant for Honduras, channeling
money through third countries or through the U.S. Drug Enforce-
ment Agency.
Today on Capitol Hill, Secretary Shultz wouldn't talk
about those alternatives, but he did offer this assurance:
SECRETARY SHULTZ: Whatever is done will be done under
proper and authorized procedures of the Congress.
BUZENBERG: What the Contras need most of all, U.S.
officials say, is logistical support. Apparently, they can get
money and arms elsewhere, but they have trouble supplying men in
the field and coordinating their efforts, functions the CIA used
to perform.
If covert Contra aid is turned down by Congress, as now
appears likely, the Administration may seek a compromise with
Congress to allow some kind of minimal logistical support for the
Contras. Whether even that will be acceptable to the House is
uncertain.
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