125 U.S. MILITARY TRAINERS REQUESTED FOR EL SALVADOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000202320017-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: August 2, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

~WVWMW
rSTAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00
WASHINGTON POST
2 August 1984
I25 U.S. Military Trainers
Requested for El Salvador
By Joanne Omang
and Margaret Shapiro
Wa,htngton Post Btaf Writers
The commander of U.S. forces in
Latin America said yesterday that
he needs 125 U.S. military trainers
in El Salvador, more than double
the current number, and that leftist
guerrillas there could be "under
effective control" within two years
if Congress provides enough aid.
As he spoke, the House rejected
an administration effort to obtain
$117 million in additional military
aid to El Salvador this year.
Gen. Paul F. Gorman, head of the
U.S. Southern Command, also said
in rare congressional testimony that
he can "foresee no circumstances"
under which U.S. armed forces
would be sent to fight guerrillas in
El Salvador, despite what he called
"the checkered performance" of the
Salvadoran armed forces.
Gorman's appearance before the
House F4reigx Affairs subcommit-
tee on the Western Hemisphere
came as Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.)
failed in the House to reattach $117
million in military aid to El Salvador
to the administration's supplemen-
tal appropriation request for fiscal
1984.
Kemp's amendment was ruled
out of order on procedural grounds.
The House then voted 304 to 116
to pass the o.0 billion measur
which contains funds fora variety of
federalproams, from food stamps
tocove_rt aid to Afghan rebels.
But the total is $1 billion less
than President Reagan's request
and the measure would provide only
$129.7 million in economic and mil-
itary aid for Central America, of the
$622.5 million requested. It would
give $25 million in military assist-
ance to Costa Rica, Honduras and
Panama.
The Senate has yet to act on the
supplemental appropriation.
Gorman told reporters during a
break in his House testimony that
press reports saying he runs Cen-
tral American policy are "sheer
bunkum .... I do what I'm told."
In response to questions, he testi-
fied that the Salvadoran. armed
forces "have a heavy burden of foul-
ups, screw-ups,, misapprehensions
and misjudgments to work off," and
that the Pentagon's self-imposed
ceiling of 55 U.S. military trainers
is too few "to get around to all the
battalions on even a monthly basis."
He said Congress should consider
whether the number is enough to
oversee the use of millions of dol-
lars' worth of military equipment
that the United States has supplied
since 1979.
"There are almost as many GAO
[General Accounting Office] people
out there in some provinces as we
have trainers," he said.
Subcommittee Chairman Michael
D. Barnes (D-Md.) asked Gorman
how many troops he would like to
have.
"I need 125 U.S. trainers, rough-
ly double what I have now," he re-
plied.
Gorman, who had been asked to
discuss the nature and direction of
U.S. military activity in Central
America, told the panel that while
the Salvadoran armed forces have
increased from 15,000 to 42,000
since 1982, leftist guerrilla
strength has risen from 6,000 to
between 9,000 and 12,000, "at a
more rapid rate than the Salvadoran
army."
This is largely because of insuf-
ficient resources for training and
equipping additional men, he said. If
U.S. economic and military aid
were supplied at the rate recom-
mended in January by the Biparti-
san National Commission on Cen-
tral America, he said, "within two
years we'd have 80 to 90 percent of
the country under effective control
... and the guerrillas' ability to
resurge would be severely atten-
uated."
~ep. Gerry E. Studds (D-Massa
said the panel was told three years
ago that the war would be over in
one more year. He asked Gorman
552R000202320017-6
whether he would send U.S. troops
to the region if the Salvadoran gov,
ernment appeared to be losing to
the guerrillas "arid the only way out
was to introduce U.S..troops." -
"No, sir, I would not," Gorman
replied. "The Salvadorans can pros
tect their own government if pro:
vided with the resources .... I can
foresee no circumstances that it
would be useful for our purposes to
introduce U.S. armed forces into
that conflict."
Gorman repeated this view when
Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D-N.Y.)
asked him to compare the Salvador-
an conflict to Gorman's experiences
in Vietnam.
"Nationalism cut against the in-
terests. of the United States" in
Vietnam but does not in. E1 Sal-
vador, despite the history of U.S.
intervention in the region, Gorman
said. The arrival of U.S. troops
could "transform that war into a
very different kind of war in which
nationalism ... might cut against
us," he added.
Gorman stressed that "the Sal-
vadoran rebel is not a Viet Cong
... and Nicaragua' is not North
Vietnam," and that it would be "a
serious mistake" to think otherwise.
The applicable lessons of Vietnam,
he said, "are largely tactical, and
where they've been applied I think
they've paid off."
During the brief. House debate,
Kemp and other supporters of the
administration position argued that
newly elected Salvadoran President
Jose Napoleon Duarte has enacted
democratic reforms, taken control
of the military and cracked down on
the death squads, as Congress had
been demanding. Therefore, they
said, Duarte deserved to be given
the additional aid.
"It is extremely important that
we begin the process of restoring
credibility to this new regime,"
Kemp said. He added that the ad-
ministration's funding request was
in line with the recommendations of
the bipartisan commission on the
region.
sa0!lt:fl:t
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000202320017-6