CONTRA-AID OFFICE SET UP BY REAGAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201010053-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 53
• Publication Date: August 31, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA
ARTICLE APPEA
RE
ON PAGE
WASHINGTON POST
31 August 1985
Contra-Aid
off ice Set Up
By Reagan
Anti-Sandinista
Rhetoric Toned Down
By Lou Cannon
Washington Pat Staff Writer
SANTA BARBARA, Aug. 30-
President Reagan announced cre-
ation of an office today to adminis-
ter "humanitarian aid" to rebels
fighting the government of Nicara-
gua. His carefully worded state-
ment avoided militant language he
has often used in opposing the left-
ist Sandinista regime.
"This administration is deter-
mined to pursue political, not mil-
itary, solutions in Central America,"
Reagan said. "Our policy is and has
been to support the democratic cen-
ter against extremes of right and
left and to secure democracy and
lasting peace through internal rec-
onciliation and regional negotia-
tions."
The Nicaraguan Humanitarian
Assistance Office, operating under
State Department supervision, is to
funnel $27 million in assistance to
the counterrevolutionaries, known
as contras.
According to the congressionally
approved compromise under which
the aid was provided, it is restricts
to food, medicines and nonmilitary.
supplies and may not be adminis-
tered by the Central Intelligence
Agency or Defense Department.
White House officials said today's
statement in Reagan's name was
drafted by the State Department. It
contrasted with Reagan's rhetoric
and that of White House speechwri-
ters who have referred to the con-
tras as "freedom fighters" and com-
pared them to heroes of the Amer-
ican Revolutionary War.
Reagan's statement called the
rebels "the democratic resistance,"
which he said came into being be-
cause the Sandinistas tried to make
Nicaragua a one-party state after
they overthrew of the dictatorship
of Anastasio Somoza in 1979.
Reagan said money appropriated
by Congress for the contras recog-
nizes "desperate conditions" in Nic-
aragua.
"As Americans who believe in
freedom, we cannot turn our backs
on people who desire nothing more
than the freedom we take for grant-
ed," he said.
A White House official said the
administration is still searching for
someone with "solid credentials"
and the respect of Congress to di-
rect the aid office.
Administration sources said that,
of four or five mid-level State De-
partment officials under consider-
ation and on the basis of recent dis-
cussions between the administra-
tion and Congress, the front-run-
ning candidate appears to be C. Wil-
liam Kontos, a former director of
the U.S. Sinai Support Force.
Orlando Llenza, director of the
Agency for International Develop-
ment mission in Ecuador, also is
among those apparently being con-
sidered, some sources said.
Otto J. Reich, head of the State
Department's Office on Public Di-
plomacy for Latin America and the
Caribbean, had figured in specula-
tion about the post, but the sources
said Reagan has picked him to be
ambassador to Venezuela.
Staff writer John M. Goshko
contributed to this report.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201010053-3