THE COMING SHOWDOWN ON CENTRAL AMERICA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000202000013-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: April 10, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09
CIA- R D P90-00552 R000202000013-5
c P GZ
Coming ~howdovV
on Central America
The ; ollowing article is based on reporting by Philip
Taubman and Martin Tolchin and was written by Mr.
Taubman.
WASHINGTON
HE Reagan Administration and congress, like
two heavyweights measuring one another in the
early rounds of a fight, have so far traded jabs
over Central Americatpolicy but managed to
avoid a damaging brawl. Aslawmakers returned to
work last week after the Easter recess, it was clear that
their accumulated doubts were leading to a more in-
tense conflict in which Congress was prepared not only
to challenge Administration policy but to use the power
of the purse to change it.
"After two years of uneasy but workable relations
between the President and Congress on Central Amer.
ica," a senior Defense Department official said, "we're
obviously headed into a more difficult period in which
Congress will increasingly assert itself."
Immediately at issue were two linked essentials of
the Government's policy - military aid to El Salvador
and covert intelligence operations targeted against
Nicaragua. Neither involved great expenditures of
money by Federal standards. The Administration last
month proposed an emergency $110 million military
,assistance program for El Salvador for the fiscal year
that ends in September, with $60 million to be made
available immediately by diverting funds marked for
other countries. The exact cost of the covert operations
is classified, but security officials estimated the bill for
the current fiscal year totals about 320 million, with
roughly the same amount proposed for next year.
But in Congress both issues raised basic questions
about the wisdom, efficacy, and at least in the case of
the covert activities in Nicaragua, the legality and
morality of the Administration's strategy for limiting
Soviet and-enban influence in Central America. The
,.arts.e coming from Capitol Hill.seemed to be: We
share your desire to stop the spread of Communist in-
volvement in Central America but we question your
means and fear that they may draw the United States
into more direct military involvement in the region.
Specifically, there was growing anxiety that Adminis-
tration policy had placed too much emphasis on se-
curity assistance and covert military operations and
too little on efforts to find nego
gion's-conflicts. There also seem to be concern about
moral consistency.
That apprehension was most forcefully expressed
by Representative Jim Leach, Republican of Iowa, who
said, "U.S. actions against Nicaragua undercut the
moral imprimatur upon which U.S. policy in El Salva.
dor is based. In El Salvador we stand foursquarely
against those who are armed and financed from abroad
and who would shoot their way into power. In Nicara-
gua we stand foursquarely with such forces and are in
fact the financiers of anarchy."
These concerns, expressed in-the debates over mili-
tary aid to El Salvador and covert operations in Nicara-
gua, produced nothing but trouble for the Administra-
tion. The military aid request was in so much danger
last week that the Administration decided to delay con-
sideration of the measure. "Right now, if we put this be-
fore the subcommittee it would lose," said Representa.
tive Clarence D. Long, chairman of a House foreign
operations subcommittee. Mr. Long, a Maryland
Democrat, added, "It would be a public vote and I think
the outcry against any money going to El Salvador
without restrictions would be so great that I don't think
even the President's party would vote for it."
A crowd of committees and subcommittees in the
Senate and House; each with slightly different con-
cerns, have asserted jurisdiction over the diversion of
the $60 million. The committees have indicated they
want certain assurances from the Administration be-
fore they will approve the funding. These include a reaf-
firmation by President Reagan that the number of
American military advisers in,El Salvador will not ex-
ceed the current ceiling of 55, an effort by the Adminis.
tration to defend human rights, specifically through im.
provements in the Salvadoran judicial system, and a
promise from the White House that it will work for un-
conditional discussions between the Salvadoran Gov.
ernment and the guerrillas. -
Secretary, of State George P. Shultz, while on
record in favor of negotiations in El Salvador, told Mr.
Long's subcommittee last month,"We will not support
negotiations that short-circuit the democratic process
and carve vn Dower behind the neonle's back." The bet-
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09: CIA-RDP90-00552R000202000013-5