TOPIC A THE RIGHT STRATEGY ON NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000403940011-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 11
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000403940011-1
K%71 Z-,L
ON PAC
Topic1q
The Right Strategy on Nicaragua
JDave McCurdy
Support the `Democratic Center'
The United States has a historical debt to the Nicara Support for Contadora. It provides $2 million to assist
guan people. We backed a corrupt and oppressive dicta- the Contadora nations in implementing the Contadora
torship for 40 years because that seemed the path of Document of Objectives, including costs of peacekeep-
least resistance. Now, for some, the path of least resist- ing, verification and msystems.
ance is to allow the Sandinistas to consolidate an equally. Humanitarian aid. Our monitoring n bill provides $27 million in
if not t rea moret corrupt and oppressive dictatorship that a strictly defined humanitarian assistance to the democratic
range threat itsreat t to neighbors our own and, security. Soviet backing, abrag- resistance in three installments through March 31, 1986.
range r Humanitarian assistance is defined in the bill as "food,
The great mistake of the Sandinistas was to assume that clothing, medicine and other humanitarian assistance." It
they themselves made the revolution by military means specifically prohibits "vehicles, weapons, weapons sys-
rather than the Nicaraguan people by their political upris- 1 teens, ammunition or other veh equipinent or materials which
ing against Somoza. The only hope for Nicaraguans is a can be used to inflict serious bodily harm or death."
process of national reconciliation as requested by the Con- Prohibition on CIA. Humanitarian assistance may be
tadora group. A policy that seeks to overthrow the Sandin- directed to the democratic resistance through a govern-
istas will only ensure further bloodshed and civil war. ment agency of the president's designation, but specifi-
Many have feared that the Reagan administration tally not through the CIA or Department of Defense.
policy is set on a course that will end in a U.S. invasion,
with all its dire consequences. Not long ago the same Human rights. The president is required to submit to
fears were raised with respect to El Salvador. They the House and Senate Intelligence committees a report
have been proven unjustified. Wrong also were those on "alleged human rights violations by the Nicaraguan
who argued that the United States could not break with democratic resistance and the government of Nicara-
the extreme right and defend human rights when faced gua, " including a statement of who was responsible.
with a Marxist revolutionary threat.. Democrats and Re- Our legislation continues the Boland amendment restric-
publicans working together in Congress helped shape a tions on military and paramilitary activity, with one excep-
bipartisan consensus that put the United States on the tion: it permits our government to "exchange information"
side of democracy and helped weaken both extremes, with the democratic resistance for the purposes outlined
setting El Salvador on the road to a political settlement- by the legislation. And should negotiations fail-or not
As a member of the House intelligence committee. I take puce--our bill permits the president to submit a new
have followed events in Nicaragua closely and worked with request to Congress, to be handled under expedited procr-
colleagues in both parties to steer our policy there onto a dimes, for additional aid to the resistance forces.
responsible, sustainable course. Now we have introduced Our proposal puts the United States on the side of a
bipartisan legislation which will be voted on in the House negotiated settlement and democracy, and against
this week. Our amendment prescribes the same goal for abuses of human rights by the Sandinistas and the
U.S. policy in Nicaragua as we seek in El Salvador --ne- armed resistance. It calls on the president to pursue
gotiations, national reconciliation and democracy: every possible diplomatic - d economic initiative to sup-
Cease-fire and negotiations. It reiterates that U.S. for- port the chance for negotiauons among the Nicaraguans
eign policy in Nicaragua is not a military overthrow of the and the efforts of the Contadora Group. It also provides
government, but a cease-fire and negotiations among the real incentives-both carrots and sticks-to lead the
to the conflict, mediated by the Nicaraguan confer government of Nicaragua to the negotiating table.
parties What our proposal refuses to do-and what the United
ence of bishops, that will permit genuine democracy and States should not do-is abandon the brave men and
self-determination for the Nicaraguan people women of the democratic center in Nicaragua-the trade
Suspension of maneuvers and economic boycott. The iadoriists church people, businessmen and women, and president id urged rg suspend carag an go vets campesinos and ordinary citizens who are struggling, lift agrees te embargo, if the Nicaraguan government both from within and from exile, for the freedoms for
agrees to ado a cease-fire, a dialogue with the democratic which they waged a valiant revolution in 1979.
resistance and to suspend the state of emergency.
Resumption of bilateral negotiations. Our bill calls on
the president to resume bilateral negotiations with the The writer, a Democratic representative from Oklahoma, is a
Nicaraguan government to encourage a church-medi- member of the Armed Services Committee and the Perma-
nent Select Committee on Intelligence.
ated dialogue and a Contadora agreement.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000403940011-1