SELLING A POLICY TO PUBLIC

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000403850052-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 25, 2010
• Sequence Number: 52
• Publication Date: March 15, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/25: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403850052-6
ARTICLE APPEARED
Ci PACE
By PHILIP TAUBMAN .:
WASH NGTON, March 14 -For the By. that,, he said, he meant opposition
last two weeks, the Reagan Adnainistra- was primarily coming from organiza-
tion has conducted what senior officials; tions and individuals whose main inter-
acknowledge has been an intense public est was to prevent further conflict.
relations campaign designed to dispel Missing from this perspective, offi-
doubtsabout its policies in dials said, was an understanding of na-
15 MARCH 1982
Seffing a, Policy to Public
U.S. Intelligence Data on '.Central America
Has Not Translated.Into Support for-Plans
Analysis . ily on. the use,. of intelli-
' produced mixed results...,'
Until Friday, officials thought they
Some members of_Congress, including-
men, came away from private intelli-
vinced that the Administration had
strong -evidence to support its charges
to goer rillas in El Salvador.
intelligence material when the Admin-
istration made public aerial reconnais-
military force in Central Ai-nerica.
dor surprised the State Department at a
conflict.
That =expected 'development
has
prompted a reappraisal of the public
relations offensive among. senior. Ad-
ministration officials who must decide
tional intelligence -briefings for-Con-
gress and the press tentatively sched-
uled forlater intheweek ., . ::
go through with the briefings..-Accord-
ing to several senior officials, the initial
decision to conduct the public relations
campaign was considered long overdue.
"We made a mistake," one senior offi-
cial said last week. "We were pressing
ahead with a policy before we had con-
vinced either Congress or the. public
about the nature of the nation's vital in-
terests in Central America.
State Department : officials recently
`concluded that most of the opposition to
the Administration's Central' America
policy was generated by what one offi-,
.. Even critics of the Administration's
policy were persuaded that some exter-
nal involvement exists. "I don't think
that anyone disputes that there is some'
foreign involvement in El Salvador,"
said Senator Paul E. Tsongas, Demo-
crat of Massachussetts. "The question
is how much and how significant it is."
That question was apparently not re-
solved by the Administration's cam-
paign. Critics, for example, pointed out,
that the photographs showing a major.
military buildup in Nicaragua did not-
prove that Nicaragua was aiding the
Salvadoran guerrillas.
Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Demo-
crat of Connecticut, a leading critic of
Administration policy, said that "to
suggest that Nicaragua is the only
.. _
source of support for Salvad
or
even in Congress," -- -----_-.... "'?" ",e
another senior Ad- guerrillas received ' substantial
ministration official said. "We decided amounts of arms and ammunition from
to go back to square one, lay out the evi- sources within El Salvador, including
dence we have and hope we could build disloyal army troops. the kind of broad-based support that has ~. Nicaragua's Ambassador in Wash-
beenlacldng. :,.mgton. Francisco Faillos Navarro, re-
The'campaign focused on Congress..'sponding to the intelligence made pub-
Senior intelligence officials, led by Wil. lic about his country, charged in an in-
liam J. Casey, the Director of Central terview broadcast by the Cable News
Intelligence, started briefing Congres- ` Network today that the military buildup
sional committees about what the Ad- was forced because the "Reagan Ad-
ministration considers to be Cuban, ministration is threatening us all the
Soviet and Nicaraguan interference in - time with the possibility of a military
El Salvador. . intervention."
According to members' of Congress ?:-Still other critics argued that the Ad-
who attended the briefings, the Admin- ministration was overemphasizing the
istrationbased most of these charges on military problem in El Salvador. "The
intelligence collected through elec- problem in El Salvador is primarily an
ironic surveillance of radio traffic in El economic ore,-' said Senator Claiborne
Salvador-and surrounding nations, in- Pell, Democrat of Rhode Island, the
cluding Nicaragua. ; .... .. ranking minority member of the Senate
Collected largely by Navy destroyers !Foreign Relations Committee.
of El Salvador and Nicaragua since late
last year, this information included de-
_ sa
tails of communications between Salva- ; .senior Administration officials still
doran- rebels. and command posts. in i believe in thepower of their intelligence
Nicaragua,which theysaidshowed that data. "Whenever we can sit down with
the Salvadoran insurgency was con- ? someone and show them what we've
trolled in Nicaragua, Administration of.; got, we can persuade them Cuba and
ficiais told the committees, according [ Nicaragua are involved," one official
t
o several members. S.tmuar briefings said.
were given to a group of former senior What the Administration cannot do:
Government officials. ; ? , ' F . , 3 , r
=- `Convincing Intelligence
ti
The Administration was encouraged
by the results. After a briefing given to
the House Intelligence Committee, the
panel's chairman, Representative Ed-
ward P.' Boland, a Massachussetts
Democrat-who is considered a bell=
Despite the lingering doubts and Fri-
day's turnabout by the Nicaraguan cap=
intelligence information about outside
interference in Central America into
support for the Government'spolicy.
__
wether of moderate Congressional opin-
doran insurgent forces was supported
by "convincing intelligence." He added
that "Cuban involvement, especially in
providingarms,isalsoevident" : . ; 1-..
Senator Richard G. Lugar; Republi-
can of Indiana, said, "The case of sub-
-rim'-ca Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/25: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403850052-6