INTERVIEW OF THE PRESIDENT BY IRISH TELEVISON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505390100-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 100
• Publication Date: May 29, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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THE WHITE HOUSE
- Office of-the Press Sec1tet~
INTERVIEW OF THE ; PRESIQEt
BYA1RISH TELEV;S1Cb
May 28o L891
The Library
have traced our family roots and found that Vallyporeen is the locale
zor nim.
Actually,. I would be going even if I were not a
and so forth. So, I've always known I was going to have to go there.
I want to go there.
Q But it's not going to do you any ham in an
THE PRES I[DENTt (Laughter.)
So, how important is that Irish-Amegican
IT, THE PRESIDENT; I want the vote of all the Americans
a sizable block in our country. There fe a rich histo of the
o
4 course,
millions of them that we have. I'm one 9f t#eas. So,
-' I would like to have their approval, but I'm not making this trip
for that purpose.
T *?hinlr frha* their vntpm will be based on their
and when--you and I met when I was sent Ithere by Pvseide*t Nixon on
than once in a previous occupation whey X wag a petforwj~r in the
entertainment business, then, subsequently, when I was governor,
THE PRES iiDENT: it is true. have been there more
_.year. So; _.is it a sentimental journey? Is ,t electionepexing?
Mr. President, it's not;yqur first visit to Ireland,
of--course., it is your first visit as President and in ;~n election
.i. state visit to Ireland.
Q Good evening. Weldof'e to "Today-Tox!ight", the
Library, White House, Washington, D.C. qn Fgiday, the 9resident
p the United States, Ronald Reagan, begns his European, tour with
And I must say, the peo#14 of Lreland an# the government
of Ireland have been very kind and generous, acid Z fawn4 waxen I
- af~age . So, he had no knowledge of his *ami'Iy roots.
b,yond him and his parents. He was orphaned at less thin six years
am- going also. I nave known I worold be oznlp one day be cease s
until I became President I had no knowledge of my father's family
was here. But there is another reason, a personal reason, why I
.
L?- and repeated by your present Prime Minister IitaGerald *herx he
an invitation that was first made by former prime Minis~ex Haughey
candidate, so it isn't part of an election process, but I' m accepting
arrived here in this job) that they had gene to great lengths and
You're coming to us after the New Ian Forum
has finally reported. The Congress is already giving i s acking
to that report. What's your view of the findings of the report?
? THE PRES'CDENT: --Of the tejport?
Q The Forum -- the New xslAnd]Forum.
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rt there between, not only the governments of England and Ireland, but
And I thlnK 50, tOO. Our, L Desleve, so qu ceyona
that would be presumptious of me. This is a problem tQ be settled
THE PRESIDENT: Oh. Well, I think that Prime Minister
Fitzgerald said it very eloquently, and that was that it was a practical
agenda for a meeting oi? the minds and'd$scussion.
j' also of the people in the North and the people of the South -- they,
I couldn't possibly ask a question about that.
Q Mr. President, many Irish Americans still see what
goes on in Northern Ireland as a freedom fight. They 4ee the ZRA
not as terrorists, but as people to be supported. Can they be
persuaded they're wroncr on that?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think that there is a faction
of the IRA that is revealed now, mainly what is called the provisional
IRA, that is not the IRA of the glorious days of the fight for freedcn..
And that it has all the attributes of a terrorist orga;,i;ation. At
the same time, I think there is an elemqnt of the -- o;j the other side
of that.
I have a feeling myself that the majority of the people,
on both sides of the border out there would -- would ;pmt, and uo
want, a peaceful solution. But that, possibly, on both sides of the
border, there is a problem abet voici y that because of fear .f the
more radical elements. And that, if it's true, that's a ttauedv, and
there must be a solution found.
Q Mr. President, as you know, there are people in
Ireland who are objecting already to your vtstt. in particular they
feel that your stand on Central America has not supported justice
sufficiently. How do you feel about the likelihood of those protests?
THE PRESIDENT: I feel that they're misinformed. We
know that Cuba and the Soviet Union have vast, worldwide disinformation
machineries -- or machji?nes -- in which they can give out misinformation
to the media, to organizations and groups and so forth. I'= sure
that many of those people, if there are -- people demonstrating on
this issue -- I'm sure they're probably sincere and well-intentioned.
-Bet-4 don't- think h~t''tti, p~"7th -fhb" ~:LII~I -;' We've had a
case here in which, with the three elections that have taken place,
bipartisan groups of o1ir Congress and others have gone down there,
""i in addition to the Bipdirtisan Commission I appointed under Dr.
Kissinger, to go down to central America.
When the t:ome back from viewing those elections -- many
of these Congressmen have gone down openly admitting they're like
people that would want to demonstrate, they think we're on the
those
h k 1 4-.1 converted by what they
ore o
h
y
that we can find a solution that will'bring peace.
Q So you wouldn't be proposing to pick up Mr.
..Itraughey's suggestion that, in fact, the United Stators ~.. ht :r.tervene
in this thing?
THE PRESIDENT: I don't think it's our place to do that.
0 But will you be raising it with Mrs. Thatcher,
for instance, in seeking -- using your ood offices to encourage her,
at least to begin a process of further 4iscussion?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I confess to a curiosity, knowing
her well, about this proposal from the $oru* that has keen made, and
a curiosity as to how Oche sees it, and how she feels about it. And
oiup 6
ave: come
wrong side -- they
saw.
it: ,
We've got a_ situation where, for decades and decades or
'1! 1.. even centuries, in Cenl:ral America and Latin America, generally, we've
i}{
:!1
had revolutions in which it's simply one groups of leaders being
overthrown by another ciroup of leaders who want to take over and be
MOR.
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j of a military dictatoruhip in El Salvador. And, the goverr.:.*n t that
1 was set up then became kind of the same type Of nilitarj thing. ;.wt
n, a man 'hamed Duarj;e; 'who -was Prusitlent' after that first overthrow,
was exiled,was -- well, first was imprisoned, was tort?red, was
exiled -- even though he'd been chosen #s President. He has now
":L, by the people. We've shad three electiops ip 26 months there. And
.k" turned out for that election than turns out for an election in the
part of the people. When a woman stands in the line fpr hours, waiting
But, they did find an overwhelming enthusiasm on the
her turn to vote, and has been wounded by the guerrillas whose slogan
was, "Vote today, and die tonight,' and she refused to leave the line
t+..11-4- --A 1in4'lS 190 hh9b4 XMI-OA -- 477E
choice for President.
Now, how ,anyone could not Oeliave that he is doing to
be determined to enforce c'C ;.'. rights, and if there is -- well, first
of all, he's picking up something that !tas ,kIready been vastly
improved under the existing government already there, which was elected
United States.
-that would ever be enforced -- whether they did'or not,
Q But, of course, it's pandAtory to voj;e .
THE PRESIDENT: Not really. As a matter 1f fact, they
had something like about a $20 fine if you 4idn't vote -- but these
teams of observers of ours went down -- they couldn't (riAd anyone
that -- (laughter) -- that even worried about that, or that thought
Now these, the guerrillas -- the govern se4pt of f eyed
come in and participate, submit candidates for office and all -- in
so-called "freedom fighters" there -- or, if tre pYefer T~O cal- ~??4
guerrillas -- they are former revolutionaries who were aligned with
the Sandinistas in the revolution to overthrow the authoritarian
'---government of Somoza.
And, once they were in, t1>;e Sandinistas, -which is, as I
say, the totalitarian element, cosmunisht element, they got rid of their
allies in the revolution, and have broken every promise that the
revolutionaries -- when it was still going on -- we to the ^r~~.^?.t
tion of American States, as to free elections, human rights, freedom
of the press, freedom of religion.
The present government of NicAragua -- right now, the
Catholic Bishops are protesting as far as they can, at the risk of
great persecution -- they embarrassed gne aishop by p4radinQ him through
the streets of the capital naked. Now, the Archbishop of San Salvador
has been quoted by this disinformation net vrk here and there as being
one who wants America to stop lending aid, militate aid, to the
covernment of El Salvador. He has re?ited that. He leas denied that
and said no. He known that the others -- the guerrillas -- are getting
outside support, and )e know from whence it comes, and: he has said,
no, he does not want as to leave.
So, the program we have ! is one in which three out of four
the electoral process. And the guerrillas turned that dam. By the
same toxen, in r icer ag uis, z3& aca+lu iul~vQ y???.ca aa?a.`-s.. .... _.. .-_
totalitarian as anything in Cuba or the Sovet Union -- indeed, they
-- are the puppets of Cuba and the Soviet Union. That government, the
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will go to help establish a democratic eoonomy and society in El
Salvador, and only Si is. going in military aid. You can't have social
reforms in a country whale you're getting your head shot off by
Q But your critics, Mr. .President -- your critics
here in the United States, your critics in Europe, your critics in
Ireland -- don't see necessarily Nicaragua and El Salvariar qu.it.A
in the same way. There are those who've cone back and who've said
Nicaragua isn't as repressive as it looks. There are those who
say America aid going iii; to the guerrilla there strengthens ,nd
toughens that government.
THE PRESIDENT: How do th6Y es,~plairi, then, the
Viskito Indians which, even under the Somoza authoritarian government,
were allowed to have thetir own communities, their own culture and
religion and so forth, and almost upon ta)cing office, the Sandinista
:.overnment marched its foroes into those Miskito villages, burned
their crops, burned their homes -- their villages -- and then
confined as many as they could in concentration camps? But thousands
of them fled across the borders. Now, we know an awful lot abo?,:t
some of those Miskitos because some of our n*dical personnel in
our military are helpings taking care of them where they are in
refugee camps in Honduras.
All I cart suggest to some of these people who are
saying this in Europe and who have evidently been propagandized is --
and I don't mean this to sound presumptuous but is there any one
of them that has access to all the information that the President
of the United States hasi? I'm not doing this because I've got a
yen to involve ourselves; or spend some mgney? but I do 'Knew that when
the Sandinista -- well, the revolution won in Nicaragua. the
previous administration immediately set out to help then; -- financial
aid to that government.
And it w4ts only a few days before my ina4guraticn when
that administration had irrefutable evidence that the l~ica:a ..ar.
government was supplying arms and materiel to the guerrillas in
El Salvador, attempting to overthrow a duly elected government that
was trying to be a democracy. And he put a hold on any further help.
Now, we game into off ice a few days later. And we
still had to find out for ourselves; we thought if there is a possibility
of negotiating some kind of a settlement -- And, so, 'on that basis,
we renewed the aid -- financial aid that was going to them and
tried to deal with them;; By April, r Mie liar" fpund out th~lt t nv , there
was no honor, no honesty, they were totalitarian but more than that,
they openly declared that their revolution knows no bougdaries,
that they are only the beginning of what they intend to be further
revolution throughout aUt1 of Latin America.
Q Woutd that, nevertheless,, justify mining ports?
THE PRESIIMNT: Those were homemade mines that
couldn't sink a ship. slut 'lot me ask you this: Right now, there
loading tanks and armored personnel carriers
at a port in icara ua t That is the fifth such Bulgarian skip in
the last 18 mont s. uit a week or two ago, there were Soviet
ships in there unloading war materiel. Now, the bticaraguau government --
the Sandinista government -- is funneling this through to the
guerrillas in El Salvador. Indeed, the headquarters for the guerrilla
movement in El Salvador is only a few miles from the capital of
Nicaragua,in Nicaragua where the strategy is planned and the
direction of their revolution is taking place.
Now, it :seems to me that if you're going to %usti?y
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people trying to bring this present Nicaraguan government back to the
original promise of the revolution, to modify its totalitarian stand.
And you're going at thei same time -- and one of the reasons we were
offering help is to interdict those'arms and weapons that were going
to the El Salvador guerrillas. But you know that a flood of that
material is coming in the through the ports being unloaded. But you're
going to try to think q,f a way to interdict that.
And those were homemade mines, as I say, that couldn't
sink a ship. They were planted in those harbors where they were
planted by the Nicaraguan rebels. And I think that there was much
ado about nothing.
Q Mr. President, you have asp image problem, don't yca?
You said it in your press conference last week, that people think you've
got an itchy finger.
Q Many people in Europe see you as a cold warrior.
They see you as the man, who started your presidential years talking
about the empire of evil. They see you as the President who, at this
stage, is not involved in di....rmament talks with the Soviet Union.
+f THE PRESIDENT: But we didq't Walk away ftoat the tame,
did we -- the disarmament table. They?%id.
-t w?
19 efforts by our country since World War 11 to enlist the Soviets into
talks to talk about disarmament, the re4uctZ,oa of arms and the control
{ of weapons. It was this country that, as far back as 1446 when we
~k
were the only one who had a nuclear weapon, we made a proposal that an
international commission be appointed tg; talre charge of aLZ nuc rear
material, all weapons turned over to thee. The Soviet Union hadn't
even completed one yet, but they turned down, that proposal.
I am the first one since 16 who has gone to the bargaining
table and proposed the total eliminatiork of the intermediate range
weapons system in Europe, and they woul4p't listen. So we said, all
'
s the best idea, tam tree E &%.,jFe of t is
right. we stilt tninx Lnat
threat. But we will then talk to you about what figure would you sug-
gest that we could reduce the numbers to, to at least reduce the size
of the threat. And their response is tq walk away from the table.
Now, I think that -- I know that the relations are bad
right now.
Q Very bad?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes -- well, not all that bad. They're
unhappy -- maybe more unhappy than they've been in the past. But I
think one of the reasons for that is that in the past, the Soviet Union
has seen this country unilaterally disarm, gyance a pons systems such
as the B-1 and other systems, close down our inat a missile assen:tly
line. We don't even have the facility to make t anymore.- And they've
seen that while they were doing -- while we were doing that, with some
idea that maybe they would see we meant no threat and, therefore, they
would follow suit -- no, they continued wit24 the biggest military build-
up in the history of man.
Now, how can anyone -- what I started to say, I guess, is
that sure, they're unhappy. They're unhappy because they see that we're
-preparing to defend ourselves if need be.
' Q Many West Europeans are very unhappy, tough, I'? --wise
they see the danger that if the confrontatiqn happens, if you. don't
ii
it is E4,rope where that war will 'e
e or form
et to talks in some sha
,
p
g
fought.
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THE PRESIDENT: Ye.a, but also, there's some 300,000
American troops there which are an indicatiop of our standing by tern,
in the alliance.
They have lived almost 40 years now, since World War II,
under an umbrella which has kept peace, and that umbrella is our nuclear
capability in this country.
I don't think -- ]: know that there are dempnstrators and
know that there are people that are influepced by the Soviet-spcnsered
World Peace Council, but I don't think our alliance in pyurope has ever
been stronger than it its today.. But as I say. L think .he Scv .ets --
sure, they're unhappy because they liked it the other wpy when under
a kind of detente, they were having things their own way. Now they
know that we're not goilag to make ourselves vulnerable, as was done
before. But they also know that we're willipg any time they want to
sit down. We are willivzg to start reducing these weapons. And my
ultimate goal is -- I think coamton sense dictates it -- the word must
rid itself of all nucle;ir weapons. There mupt never be a nuclear war.
It can't -- it shouldn't be fought and it can't be won.
Q When do you think that might happen? When do you
think the process, the talks might begin?
THE PRESIDENT: I don't know. We'r - we have kept the
door open on any number of other negotiations. We've been doing busi-
ness with them on some things of interest to then as we42 as us. And
with some progress being made. It isonly ip this area -- they did come
back to the mutual balailced force the*,conventional*apms treaty, and
we are discussing with !them, as well as others, at the ptockholm
disarmament talks.
But it is on those two, the major nuclear Weapons, the
START talks, as we call them, and the intermediate rangf weapons where
they are being intransigent.
Q What about the boycott on the Olympics? Many people
see this symbolically as just that further little bit of evidence cf
the Soviet Union and the United States pullipq further #part.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I know that no one can really under-
stand or fathom the thinking of the Politburo, the psip.e in the Polit-
buro of the Soviet union, but I would hazard two ideas that stick in
my mind as possibly an explanation for what they've done. One is re-
ta-liation for the boycoitt --
Q 1980.
THE PRESIDENT: -- President Carter, in those Olympics
when it was their Olympics. Number two, frapkly, I think they don't
want to be embarrassed by having revered athletes in their country come
to this country and decide to stay.
Q Diffexent part of the world very much in the news
this week -- the Gulf. We're obviously teetering into a crisis there.
Do you see, Mr. President, the possibility of a direct American involve-
ment?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, so far, it doesn't seem to be. The
Gulf states have themselves said that this is their problem and they
want to deal with it. J3ome have asked fpr sane military assistance in
the sense of weaponry, and this is why we are sending some weapons,
some Stinger weapons to them and possibly augmenting ouf little squadron
of tankers that are the,ce. We have four these presentgey-haVe have had for
quite some time. That i:ould be expanded to ,six. But not
asked us to intervene, and certainly, we hav.# not offered to intervene.
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Q Do you see this as essentially an American
problem or is it a problem for the West? Is this something that
either regionally should, be picked up by the Gulf states or
is it something that the Western Alliance should coupe in. that
you should stand back from?
THE PRESIDENT: If it cues to a complete shutdown
cf the sources of oil in the Middle East, this is a Western problem,
'Ind far more than for us. Actually, only about three percent of our
zil comes from the Persian -- or by way of the Persian Gulf. Many
cf our allies are not in that advantageous a position. They are
very dependent on that. And I have said previously that I don'?t
see how the Western world could let that be closed down.
diiectjj
But at the moment, the Gulf states kho are
involved and who are on the firing line there believe that the
roblem can be solved arI,d without outside interference.
Q What about the Middle East? You, after all, tried
the Reagan Plan in terms. of resolving the Weet Bank problem. Do
you see now a possibility of somehow coming to a reconciliation tf
Israel with its Arab neighbors?
THE PRESIDENTP: This is what we have to rpriin~e tv
try. We have never given up on that. It; wad set back by the inability
to get a solution in Lebanon. It seemed impossible to go forward with
that while, for example, Isr