MOYNIHAN DELIVERS WARNING ON WARPLANES IN NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440081-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 29, 2010
• Sequence Number: 81
• Publication Date: August 10, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440081-8
ARTICLE filTE RF.fl
ON PAGE
WASHINGTON TIMES
10 August 1984
Moynihan delivers warning
an vvarplanes in Nicaragua
By Thomas D. Brandt
THE WAS'i GTON TIMES .
In a bluntly worded speech Sen. Daniel P.
Moynihan, D-N.Y., yesterday warned Nicara-
gua and the Soviet Union against basing stra-
tegic aircraft in Nicaragua which, he said,
would turn a Central American "regional
crisis into a global one"
Mr. Moynihan; the vice chairman of the
Intelligence Committee and sometime critic
of Reagan administration foreign policy,
made the comments in a prepared speech on
the Senate floor that warned in particular
against placing the Soviet Backfire bomber,
missiles or MIG fighters in Nicaragua.
The senator left no doubt as to the gravity
of his warning by drawing parallels with the
1962 Cuban missile crisis "when the world
seemed close to nuclear war."
The language in the New Yorker's speech,
which his staff said he wrote himself.
matched in bluntness some of the harshest
rhetoric from Reagan administration offi-
cials.
Mr. Moynihan said that the United States.
as one of the two nuclear superpowers with
"the re6ponsibility to maintain the nuclear
peace." would have to stop the Nicaraguans
from allowing Soviet use of their facilities.
"The result would be a situation the
United States as a responsible world power
could not and would not accept;" he said. "We
would move instantly to reverse it."
A spokesman for Mr. Moynihan would not
comment on whether the senator was calling
for U.S. military action in such an instance.
"You don't play your cards before you have
to." he said.
Sen. Moynihan said that the disagreement
in the United States over American
involvement in El Salvador and Nicaragua
would solidify into "near unanimity" of view
should Soviet strategic forces appear on the
Central American mainland.
The senator cited a Defense Department
photograph taken in June of the Punta Huete
airstrip, about 20 miles northeast of
Managua, that is longer than there is at
Andrews Air Force Base and capable of han-
dling any aircraft in the Soviet inventory.
"This is the one event that has occurred in
Central America, specifically in Nicaragua.
which has the potential of transforming a
regional crisis into a global crisis," he said.
Mr. Moynihan believes that the Soviets
have no strategic military need fora Central
American base, and therefore establish-
ment of such a facility would he an act of
political provocation.
A spokesman for the senator said one rea-
son he decided to speak out now was that he
felt there was too much public and political
focus on the lesser issue of small arms flow
"from Nicaragua to leftist guerillas in El Sal-
vador, for instance, and not enough attention
to the strategic implications of the Punta
Huete air base.
'People are missing the forest for -the
trees:' a Moynihan staff,official said.
Mr. Moynihan said that in a visit to Nica-
ragua last December his "one primary pur-
pose" was to convey to Sandinista junta
members that there cannot be"further
extension of Soviet power into the Western
Hemisphere."
He said he was assured at the time by
junta members Sergio Ramirez and Tomas
Borge that "Nicaragua would not permit a
Soviet nor any other military base" on their
territory.
But he said that the ongoing construction
at Punta Huete "leads me to ask whether
they understand what I was saying or
believed what they were saying."
The senator's office said there had been
no immediate response to the speech from
the Reagan administration. Sen. Moynihan
has been a centrist on Central American for-
eign policy, according to his advisers, who
believes the United States has the respon-
sibility to act in Central America but who
opposes efforts to overthrow governments.
In June, for instance, he opposed the i
administration request for $21 million more
for the guerrillas seeking to overthrow the
Nicaraguan government, while supporting a
lesser amount to allow the rebels an organ-
ized withdrawal.
Mr. Moynihan was known as a militant
anti-communist in the 1970s when he served
as ambassador to the United Nations.
However, earlier this year he threatened
to resign his post on the Intelligence Com-
mittee as a protest to the administration's
failure to notify the panel of CIA
involvement in the mining of Nicaraguan
_por s
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440081-8