PRESIDENT REAGAN WARNED WEDNESDAY THAT 100 MILLION PEOPLE FACE COMMUNIST ENSLAVEMENT, CHAOS AND ANARCHY IF CONGRESS FAILS TO VOTE ENOUGH MONEY TO PROTECT THE VULNERABLE DEMOCRACIES OF CENTRAL AMERICA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505390127-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 127
• Publication Date: May 9, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

V
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505390127-1
UNITED PRESS, INTERNATIONAL
9 May 1984
BY NORMAN D. SANDLER
WASHINGTON
President Reagan warned Wednesday that 100 million people face communist
enslavement, ' ' chaos and anarchy' if Congress fails to vote enough money to
protect the vulnerable democracies of Central America.
The threat to the United States "is at our doorstep,'' he declared, and he
cautioned against listening to ''the new isolationists'' who espouse ''a policy
of wishful thinking' ' reminiscent of the appeasement of Adolf Hitler before
World War II.
''We can and must help Central America,'' Reagan declared in a nationally
broadcast address from the Oval Office. " It's in our national interes t to do so
and morally it's the only right thing to do. But helping means doing enough.'
However, Congressional Democrats sharply criticized Reagan's speech, with
House Speaker Thomas O'Neill saying it was a ''call to arms in Central America.
What we wanted was a call to peace.''
O'Neill added that Reagan dashed hopes ' 'for an end to the mining, an end to
the covert war against Nicaragua.''
Several lawmakers said Reagan had done little to help his call for more aid
to Central America in Congress.
Rep. Robert Matsui, D-Calif., said, ''His speech was warlike, irresponsible
and will not move the Congress to support his aggressive policy in the area. ' A spokesman said the White House switchboard received 915 telephone calls in
the 30 minutes following the speech: 764 favorable to the president and 151
critical of him.
In restating his arguments for additional military aid to El Salvador and to
CIA -backed Nicaraguan rebels, Reagan said that if Congress fails to come
through with the money, all of Central America could fall to Soviet- and
Cuban-backed subversion.
''What we see in El Salvador,'' he warned, ''is an attempt to destabilize the
entire region and eventually move chaos and anarchy toward the American
border.''
"This communist subversion poses the threat that 100 million people, from
Panama to the open border on our south, could come under the control of
pro-Soviet regimes,'' the president said.
''Concerns about the prospect of hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing
communist oppression to seek entry into our country are well-founded, '' he said.
Pressing his case for an $8 billion package of long-term economic and
security aid for the region, including urgent military assistance for El
Salvador, Reagan said the United States has evidence of a planned fall offensive
by Cuban-backed Salvadoran guerrillas, designed to bring down the newly elected
government.
continued
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505390127-1