NEWS CONFERENCE BY THE PRESIDENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505400025-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: July 26, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Office of the Press Secretary
NEWS CONFERENCE
BY THE PRESIDENT
INDEX
SUBJECT PAGE
OPENING STATEMENT ..................................................1-2
FOREIGN
Central America .........................................2-7, 8-10
Middle East ................................................... 7-8
Briefing Book ...............................................10-11
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Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release July 26, 1983
NEWS CONFERENCE
BY THE PRESIDENT
THE PRESIDENT: I have an opening statement here. Awhile
back I got a letter from a 13-year-old,and I apologize for not having
answered her as yet. She wrote, "Don't you wish sometimes you could
just stamp your feet and shout at the press or senators to be quiet,
sit down and listen to what you're saying?". Yes, Gretchen, I sometimes
do feel that way, and, particularly, over the past week. On April 27th
I went to Capitol Hill, addressed a joint session of the Congress on
a subject of vital importance to all Americans.
I talked about our goals in Central America, and I asked
for congressional understanding and support. In Central America, as
elsewhere, we support democracy, reform and human freedom. We support
economic development. We support dialogue and negotiations among and
within the countries of the region. And, yes, we support a security
shield for the region's threatened nations in order to protect these
other goals.
In my view there has been entirely too much attention
to the efforts that we're making to provide that security shield, and
not nearly enough to the other elements of our policy. Yet in each of
the four elements of the policy, we find they reinforce each other,
and that they are being pursued simultaneously in a carefully balanced
manner.
I dispatched Ambassador Dick Stone to the region to
facilitate the process of dialogue and negotiations. He is there now
with a personal message from me to leaders of countries in the region,
the text of which I am making public tonight. I am heartened by the
efforts of the Contadora countries, led by Colombia, Mexico, Panama
and Venezuela to reach a peaceful regional solution. I am encourged
by some recent statements from Nicaragua and Cuba that seem to indicate
that they, too, now recognize the merit to regional negotiations. I
trust their words will be followed by positive actions to ease tension
and stop the fighting in the region.
Here at home I have appointed a bipartisan commission
to make recommendations on the long-term measures, including economic
assistance that we should undertake to help these struggling nations.
I hope soon to be signing the legislation on the Caribbean Basin
Initiative passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority of both Houses.
The program will bolster the economic independence of the region. We
continue to promote elections as the best way to guarantee peace, human
freedom and responsive government.
The greatest portion of our aid goes toward humanitarian
and economic assistance. For every one dollar we provide for security
assistance to that region, we provide three dollars for economic and
human development. But we recognize that democracy and development can hardly
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flourish when threatened by violence. Dialogue and negotiations can best
succeed when the parties are convinced that their goals cannot be achieved
through the barrel of a gun. It is especially in our own hemisphere that
the United States continue;~to be the foremost protector of peace. As part
of this mission, as a way to provide a shield for democracy and development
we, together with our friends, are now planning joint training exercises
in the Caribbean and Central America, and let me set the record straight
on what these exercises are and what they are not.
Essentially there will be two sets of practice training in
the coming months, one a series of ground exercises in Honduras with the
combined forces of Honduras and the United States; second, a series of
ocean exercises with our own fleet. We have conducted joint exercises
with Latin American countries on a regular basis since 1965. The latest
exercises with Honduras took place earlier this year. Much larger scale
exercises have taken place in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Moreover,
these training exercises are limited in purpose.
Yes, we want to underscore once and for all that the United
States, along with our friends, seriously opposes the use of force by one
neighbor against another in Central America, but we are not seeking a
larger presence in that region, and U.S. forces have not been requested
there. The United States stands firmly on the side of peace. As a nation
we remain steadfast in policy and purpose. We want to see an end to
violence and bloodshed, to the export of revolution. We want to help our
neighbors lift themselves up to prosperity. We want to usher in a new
era of peace and social justice.
Now, these are great goals and worthy of a great and generous
people, and we shall continue to keep faith with ourselves in the days
ahead. Now, Helen?
Q Mr. President, you complain of too much attention. How
can the people ignore two battleship groups, thousands of combat troops
going to Honduras, it is said the covert funding of 10,000 rebels,
Nicaraguan rebels? My question -- and all these things have happened
since April 27th -- my question, sir, is, in seeking solutions, how far
will you go militarily, and I would like to follow up.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I have told you, we have no military
plans for intervention of that kind. We have 55 mainly non-commissioned
officers helping to train the Salvadoran Army. We know that Cuba has
somewhere in the -- well, it has thousands of military personnel in
Nicaragua. It does seem a little overbalanced with regard to the attention
that's being paid to 55 as against attention that's being paid to the
thousands. I suppose what my question is, Helen, back -- to answer
with a question, is why are maneuvers that we have performed before and
regularly suddenly treated with such suspicion when only -- well, within
this year, last spring, we had military maneuvers in Honduras, and last
year we have naval maneuvers in the Caribbean
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and no one seemed to be excited about them at all. So, is it
just that there's no confidence in the fact that when I say
these are maneuvers of the kind we've been holding regularly and
for years?
Q But they're unprecedented to last six months.
The polls show the American people are not for them and they fear
it may lead to war. And my question is, remembering the lessons
in Vietnam, does this bother you? And do they have any say?
THE PRESIDENT: First of all, there is no comparison
with Vietnam and there's not going to be anything of that kind in
this. And maybe the people are disturbed because of the confused
pattern that has been presented to them and the constant drumbeat
with regard to the fact of suspicion that somehow there is an
ulterior purpose in this.
It hardly seems to me that those ships are going there
and I don't know that they're going to be there six months. I
don't know what the length of time for the training is. I don't
know the number of ships involved. But I didn't know the number
that were involved in the Caribbean exercises. But if they were
there for some kind of a hostile purpose, we happen to know that
right now a Soviet freighter, the Ul'Yanov, is approaching the
Port of Corinto in the vicinity of Nicaragua -- or that port is
in Nicaragua and it is carrying a load of military equipment,
helicopters, transport helicopters for military purposes and so
forth. And no one shot at them.
Q Mr. President, you've mentioned your interest
in easing the tensions and you've said that the -- you hope the
Nicaraguan proposals will have that effect. Now, your spokesman
has said that the 4,000 troops that you're planning to send down
there will --
THE PRESIDENT: Between three and four.
Q Between three and four thousand troops that you're
planning to send down there will have standing orders to defend
themselves if they're fired upon. How does that help to ease
tensions?
THE PRESIDENT: Wait a minute. That is something that
has been true for a long time, as far as I'm concerned, with our
troops and our forces anywhere they may be.
We went through a period some years ago when American
forces were pretty much fair game. Look . back at some of our
aircraft that were shot down on the charge that they had ventured
out over international water -- or out of international waters
into the airspace of a Communist bloc country -- and shot down
and we protested diplomatically.
It seems to me that young men and women who are
going to defend this country of ours and who join the military
should know that they have the right to defend themselves if
we have placed them in a position where they could come under
fire. And this is just a standard order. We don't want war.
But I don't think that you prevent war by letting your personnel
out there become the victims.
Q But doesn't this simply increase the chances
THE PRESIDENT: No, I don't think so. All of the
ships that are down in that area and that are going there are
outside the 12 mile limit. They're out in international waters
where
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they have a right to be. Now, wait a minute, before all of your hands
go up here, you change personnel every once in awhile, and new people
come into the White House Press corps. And it's only been recently
that an effort has been made to see that I have an opportunity to meet
them and get acquainted. And so recently I met five newcomers to the
press corps, but only three of them are here tonight. And when I met
them I told them that in this, the first press conference that I knew
they were here, that I was going to call on them if they had a question.
Candy, do you have a question?
Q How can I turn that down? (Laughter.) A little
earlier you said yes, that the military exercises -- that you did want
to underscore that the U.S. is opposed to the use of force --
Q -- in the region. Is sending down our military might
to the region a way to show that we oppose force? Isn't there some sort
of contradiction there? Wouldn't it be better to say -- if we do
these things regularly -- isn't this the time now not to do it, not to
heighten the tensions, and to say, we oppose the use of force? How
can you oppose it by sending down all these shins and men?
THE PRESIDENT: Since the trouble that is going on down
there comes from outside the area -- is revolution exported from the
Soviet Union and from Cuba and from others of their allies -- then
wouldn't there perhaps be a risk if we changed our pattern and withdrew?
Wouldn't we be sending some kind of a signal that might be the wrong
kind of signal to send if we want peace in that area?
The simple truth is: no one has asked for American forces
to come to their aid; in fact, they've gone quite the contrary and said
the reverse -- that they don't. And yet they do acknowledge that/they
need the material assistance that we're giving them, both economic and
to provide a shield, or help them provide their own shield, against
the attacks that are preventing them from making the economic progress
that they want to make now that they have installed a democratic-type
of government there.
But, as I say, we've done this regularly. I don't think
that it's destabilizing, nor should it be.
Q You know, you've said in your letter to the four
Contadora nations that you want to take this out of the realm of an
East-West confrontation. But doesn't somebody have to begin to take it
out of that realm? And couldn't the U.S. be the leader in that way,
and not make it that kind of an atmosphere of confrontation?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we think we are. We have tried to
make contact with the guerrillas in El Salvador to see if they would
not meet with the peace commission that was created by the El Salvadoran
government to discuss participating in the democratic process in the
elections that are coming up before the year is out in the entire area.
Ihave just sent letters, which have been made public now, but,
letters to the Contadora Four of our approval of what they're doing;
and our recognition of what they are, and we stand ready to support
them in what they're
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trying to accomplish. We want a political and a peaceful solution.
Now, wait a minute. There are two more here that --
Bob Rowley.
Q Thank you. Mr. President, military leaders in
the Pentagon have stated recently that they never want to be involved
in another war without the support of the American people. Do you
have any sense or feeling now for whether the American people are
ready to support a war to defend our interests in Central America?
THE PRESIDENT: In the first place, I don't think the
American people have ever wanted a war. And I think we're probably
the most peace-loving people in the world. And maybe this has been
what has -- part of what has lured us into wars in the past because
we haven't been ready for them.
But I -- no, I don't think the American people -- And
I don't think that they -- frankly, I don't think that they're as
aware as perhaps they should be -- we've tried to make them aware --
that this does constitute something of a threat in this hemisphere
to peace in the entire hemisphere if those who are exporting the
revolution here are successful.
But, no, we're not planning a war and we don't think
that that's going to happen at all. I've seen four wars in my life-
time. I have sons and I have a grandson and I agree with General
Eisenhower that war is man's greatest stupidity. And I don't --
I don't want to see such a thing. We want peace.
But we also must recognize that you've got to do more
than just want peace. You have got to prevent what is happening
down there to people who want peace also but are not allowed to have
it because of outside forces that are seizing upon their situation
and hoping to further their own ideological aims.
Q Sir, do you feel the people support your policies
in Central America?
THE PRESIDENT: Those that have been informed and under-
stand it do. I just met with some today who made it evident that
they did. Now, if we all get together and explain what's happening
down there, perhaps that'll resolve the situation in that regard.
Now, Ben Taylor.
Q Mr. President, do you -- if there is an incident
where the American forces down there engaging in the military exercises
are fired upon and they are forced to fire back, do you see any con-
tingency where such an incident might lead to deeper American involve-
ment in Central America?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I don't really because I don't
foresee -- First of all, those maneuvers that are going to be held
in Honduras are not going to put Americans in any reasonable proximity
to the border. It would have to be something in the nature of a
terrorist attack, something of that kind. And I think that any
of us -- that could happen in a base here in America. And, again,
I believe that those people who are -- have taken it upon themselves
to be our defenders and protectors have a right to defend and pro-
tect their own lives.
Q -- follow up, sir. If
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Nicaragua attacks Honduras, would the United States assist Honduras
militarily under the terms of the Rio Mutual Defense Pact Treaty?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we haven't considered that, but
a great many people should know that since 1947 -- and so obviously
our administration didn't have anything to do with it -- there is
a pact, the Rio Pact, that says that any attack -- or an attack
on any American state shall be considered as an attack on all
American states. Now, that would require, of course, actual
outside visible attack on a state and, I suppose, by a country
flying under its own flag instead of under surrogate troops. So
we would hAve to deal with that problem when it arose and deal
with it with all of our neighbors and friends in the Organization
of American States.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to give you
a chance to silence this drumbeat of confusion that you were
talking about. Why not say categorically that Central America
will not be another Vietnam, that under no circumstances will you
impose U.S. troops in a combat situation in Central America?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I said the last time we gathered
that there are some things -- I can make every assurance in the
world that we have no such plans, we have no desire, nor do the
countries down there want us involved in that way. But I used
an expression that has been used by Presidents like Franklin Delano
Roosevelt and others, and that is that a President should never
say "never," because that's a hypothetical question that then
asks you to try to predict what would take -- would, could possibly
take place in the future. And I just don't believe you can
answer a-hypothetical question, unless it's --
Q May I follow up?
THE PRESIDENT: What?
Q Could I follow up?
THE PRESIDENT: All right.
Q What about increasing the nuhnber of U.S. advisers
in El Salvador? Are you planning to at all?
THE PRESIDENT: No one-has presented a proposal to me
about increasing the number. There's no question that 55 of them --
if there was an increase, probably we could train the Salvadoran
army and its new recruits that are coming in actually requiring
basic training a little faster than we're doing it. But there's
been no proposal for such an increase.
Now, Bill.
Q Mr. President, since you yourself have identified
massive social problems as one of the root causes --
Q -- of the troubles in Central America, are you
prepared to make a commitment to substantial U.S. aid on the
order of the Marshall Plan if the hostilities can be calmed?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, what we're -- what we've
appointed the Commission for, the Kissinger-chaired. commission,
is for the purpose of coming up and recommending a long-range
plan that would particularly deal with the things that you mention.
There's no question that our neighbors to the south have, for too
many years, suffered revolutions in which one set of rulers
simply were exchanged for another set of rulers. And there's no
question but their economic and social policies have left much
to be desired as far as
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the opportunity for the great mass of their people. And what we want
is a long-range policy -- and this is what I discussed when I visited
there in South America, and discussed with them of how we can have the
kind of development that will make these countries economically self-
sufficient, that will give them a standard of living in which there
isn't the fertile soil that is presentlylthere for subversion, for
people offering promises of pie in the sky and then arousing to revolu-
tion.
And to, in other words, have a program that makes all
of the nations here in the Americas equal partners in the development
of this Western Hemisphere, and what a great power for good that we
could be if we were so organized. And we want -- this is my dream,
and it's what I hope that the commission will come back with.
Q Sir, is the United States prepared to make the kind
of massive dollar commitment that that would undoubtedly entail?
THE PRESIDENT: It does not follow that it has to undoubtedly
entail that. For example, many of those countries are considered too
high a risk for private investment. If, together, we could agree upon
guarantees that the investment would not be confiscated, taken over by
governments and in changes of government, and so forth. There is
far more in the private investment pool, far more for -- there than
any government could possibly do.
And it is to find out what is practical and what can be
done. And we're not completely alone in this, because our allies, the
other industrial nations in the world, have made it plain to us and,
again, at Williamsburg that not only here in our hemisphere, but in
their own, we want to come up and find ways that we can help the
developing part of the world, and help them to faster development and
a better way of life.
Q Sir, the Lebanese President said this past week
that the Israeli partial withdrawal in Lebanon amounted to de facto
partition of that country. Do you agree?
THE PRESIDENT: I -- no, I am very hopeful that if this
martial withdrawal takes place that it will be recognized and admitted
to be, by the Israelis, as one phase of their agreement to withdraw.
If they withdraw in a phased withdrawal, it certainly will give us a
better case for breaking the roadblock that has been established by
Syria and persuading them to keep their original promise that when
others withdrew they would withdraw. The -- I can't answer as to
whether that is the way that this is going to be perceived, or whether
the Israelis will admit to it or not, but I will be talking in a couple
of days with the two Ministers who are here from Israel, and about this
very thing.
But if this is a phased withdrawal.
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I think there is fear if there is simply withdrawal to another line
and then a digging in and fortifying along that line, that this would
be what it looks Syria is doing and that is simply trying to partition
Lebanon, reduce Lebanon, and grab off some territory themselves, but
with the agreement that's been signed between Lebanon and Israel, I don't
think Israel has that in mind.
Q Sir, what would happen if Lebanon is partitioned?
Would it be that awful?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I just believe that the people of the
country have a right to determine their own destiny, choose their own
government, and if it was partitioned, it would be occupation by other
countries and, yes, I think that is awful. We set out to help Lebanon
after all these years of strife regain sovreignty of its own land, pro-
tection of its own borders, and we're helping in every way we can to
bring that about. I have to turn in some other direction here. Chris?
Q Mr. President, I'd like to ask you about the Chairman
of your new commission on Central America, Dr. Henry Kissinger. There
have been, as you know, a number of charges over the years that Mr.
Kissinger during the Nixon years tried to destabilize the duly elected
government of Chile and that he also once told a Chilean official that
whatever happens in the South is of no importance. Did you check into
Mr. Kissinger's record on Latin American before you appointed him?
THE PRESIDENT: I know what his position was prior to my
taking over this Office and how seriously he considered the problems
that are going on. Remember, Salvador didn't start with us. It was
already in turmoil before we got here, and I know how he feels about
that, and I know also there is no hard and fast -- well, let me)put it
this way, I think there are some stereotypes about Mr. Kissinger that
a little actual reading and re-reading the history would indicate that
those stereotypes are not necessarily valid.
Q Mr. President, if I may follow up with another
question about the commission, you talk a lot here, and your aides do,
about the gender gap, and yet that commission was appointed 12 men,
no women. Doesn't that add to the perception that you're insensitive
to women?
THE PRESIDENT: It might add to the perception. That's
all it is, is a perception, because if anyone wants to really dig into
the facts, I will match our record against any other Administration that
has ever been here with regard to what we have accomplished for women;
in the field of economics, our tax policies that reduced and hopefully
will in the near future eliminate the marriage penalty tax, the measures
that we passed in the IRAs that not only working women but housewives
can have these tax-free savings accounts. We have almost doubled the
tax credit for child care, but in addition to that, I noticed the other
night that someone on the air was comparing our record to that of the
previous Administration and we came out a little behind with regard to
the appointment of women to positions in government, except that it
turned out that without their acknowledging it, they were comparing the
four-year record of the previous Administration with our first two
years, and when you compare our first two years with their first two
years, well, we're quite a ways out ahead.
Q Why no women on this commission?
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this particular commission -- maybe it's_.hec a.sr that:. we're doing so
much and appointing so many that we're no longer seeking a token
or something. It just came out that these were ti.-.-e 12 we selected.
We wanted six opponents. We wanted six on our si,3E.!. But we've
appointed over 1,000 women in executive positions here in government --
three members of the Cabinet, never before in history and one member
of the Supreme Court.
So, I think our record -- it's just a case of our
record isn't known. Jerry?
Q Mr. President, since Cuba has repeatedly been
labeled as the fountainhead of most of the violence in Central
America, why has your administration elected to go to the
recepients of the arms and the equipment that comes in instead
of going to the source?
THE PRESIDENT: We have interdicted some of the
supplies that are going from Nicaragua over to El Salvador.
If you go to the source, I think you're talking about the Soviet
Union. They know and we have communicated to them how we feel
about this and we have also to our friends in Cuba, told them
how we feel about it.
We are trying to bring about the very thing that all
of you seem to think that we're shying away from and that is not
broadening a war but trying to limit it and trying to bring about
a peaceful and political settlement in Central America.
George?
Q Mr. President, in reply to Helen's question
you spoke of confusion. But isn't this administration to blame
for much of that confusion? Some of our own ambassadors in
Central America were taken by surprise by the maneuvers. Some/
of the friendly governments especially in the Contadora group
were puzzled by your latest actions. My question is, why was
there not more prior consultation and what can you do now to
reassure any of those friendly governments that we're not today
closer to war down there than we were last week?
THE PRESIDENT: As I told you, I sent four -- I've
sent letters to all four leaders of the Contadora countries. And
I don't think that there's that much disturbance among our friends
and allies about this.
Sometimes there's a slip up and an ambassador doesn't
find out something they should find out soon enough in advance.
As a matter of fact, I received a cable from one about that.
My most recent appointee, the Ambassador of Austria,
and Helene let me know that something had taken place and she
hadn't been told about it in advance. And when Helene speaks,
I listen.
Q Mr. President, who do you think
is to blame for this confusion you spoke of then?
THE PRESIDENT: I don't think there is as much
confusion as they're trying to point out about this. The training
feature with Honduras -- this has been well advertised and known
for a long, long time that it's going to take place. And as
I say, we regularly conduct and conduct joint maneuvers with,
very often, not only on land but with the navies
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of our friends and allies in Central and South America. And so, I just
don't think that there's -- there's great confusion about this.
Q Mr. President, is it true that you're planning a
vast expansion of covert aid to the anti-Sandinista rebels in Nicaragua?
And, what would Congressional action to cut off such aid mean to your
efforts in Central America?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think it would be a very grave
mistake if the legislature interfered with what we're trying to do, and
we're trying to keep them appraised of our actions. I can't answer
your question about covert aid. I think this is like discussing
intelligence matters. If you discuss covert aid, you're -- it's no
longer covert. So, I can only tell you that we're continuing on a
policy that we believe is aimed at, first of all, bringing about peace
in El Salvador, hopefully through negotiations with those who are
presently radicals and fighting as guerrillas. And in Nicaragua,
hoping that we can persuade the Nicaraguan, the Sandinista government,
to return to the principles of the revolution in which they, in writing,
guaranteed to the Organization of American States was going to be the
policy of their government.
Q Let me follow up on covert aid, Mr. President.
Given the fact that this covert operation is not so covert any more,
haven't we reached a point where it really might make more sense to do
things on an overt basis, and, in other words, hasn't the thing really
become counterproductive?
THE PRESIDENT: No. No, I don't think so. And I think
what we're doing is well within the limits of common sense, and the --
those who are attempting to make it impossible for us to bring aid down
in that area, I think are the ones who are building up -- if they have
their way -- to a giant headache down the road a ways. And we're
trying to prevent such a headache from coming about.
Q Mr. President, could you tell us what possible crime
could be involved in the Carter briefing book caper to justify calling
out the FBI?
THE PRESIDENT: There you go again. (Laughter.) No, I --
Q And I have a follow up.
THE PRESIDENT: -- I just couldn't help that.
Q That's all right.
THE PRESIDENT: I was -- I thought we were going to set
a record, and I was going to go upstairs and be able to say, "How
about that, not a single question on it." I can't think of -- this is
why, when this charge was made -- and the allegation was made -- this
is why I said there's only one answer to this. Certainly the best
investigative force in the United States is the Federal Bureau of
Investigation. And I have told them to go completely to the bottom of
this to see if there was any wrongdoing, to see if there was anything
unethical in what had taken place, and I have told all of our people
to make themselves available. Anyone who knows anything about this --
and that includes me -- and I didn't know anything about it until I
read it in the paper, that to get to the bottom of this, so that
everyone in this country can be reassured that we know the truth.
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Q Yes, sir. But my question was, What crime, or, would
you deny the possibility that all of this is little more than Washington
Post-National Enquirer-style summer theater?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, you're tempting me (laughter.)
Q That's what I intended to do.
THE PRESIDENT: We'll find out when the investigation. is
completed.
What's the crime .MX_i~_Ttesident?
THE PRESIDENT: All right, there are any number of things
contained in the allegations and the wild flurry that immediately
followed this. There could have been a break-in. And when you're --
Q In the White House?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, that's what was alleged. That was
what some of them said, that this -- they suspected. I would have to
tell you, having lived here for awhile, that I don't think it's possible,
either. But, also, there could be the element of were these things
actually stolen by someone in the White House? Was there involvement
of White House staff in campaign activities who were supposed to be
performing other government positions?
There are any number of things that should be looked at.
THE PRESS: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Good night.
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