IN HONDURAS, THE YANKEES DON'T WEAR PIN STIPES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302170022-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: May 1, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302170022-8
F. 7...7-
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
1 May 1985
In Honduras, the Yankees don't wear
pin stripes
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras?"Wel-
come to the USS Honduras," says
a Special Forces captain, drink-
ing beer at the Holiday Inn. That's the
standing joke: Honduras is a U.S. air-
craft carrier propelled by bananas.
Such humor makes Hondurans bris-
tle. But the U.S. jets roaring over the
narrow streets, the out-of-uniform
Green Berets playing roulette in the
casino, the U.S. airfields, the - U.S.
tanks?they stamp Honduras as the
arsenal for any Central American .war.
I doubt if even Nicaragua's Sandinis-
ta leaders who prattle constantly about
a U.S. invasion think that's a likely
event. They're sophisticated enough to
know that President Reagan would
need a dramatic excuse, such as a Soviet
military base, and they're careful stu-
dents of U.S. opinion polls. But if
tempers flared, the U.S. military build-
up in Honduras would be a powerful
right hook waiting to be thrown.
You only have to spend a couple of
days here to sense that Honduras is a
nervous host to what, amounts to a
massive Yankee SWAT team. US. pilots
take off each night from the Palmerola
air base on surveillance flights over El
Salvador. .Tanks and personnel carriers.
rumble On?tht duatriilaini. -Marines'
and paratroopers practice amphibious
landings. There were about 10,000 U.S.
troops on maneuvers here in April.
That doesn't count the 1.000 U.S. Spe-
cial Forces, military advisers, CIA
ag_ents and air _personnel. Or the eight
LU. airstrips, four base camps and two
radar sites. If Honduran politicians and
generals get jittery, they're assured that
this hardware is for their protection.
The stunning defeat in the House on
$14 . million in military aid for the -
I contras, who operate out of Honduras
base camps, will probably have no
quick effect. By all reports, the anti-
Sandinista rebels plan to keep operat-
ing on private U.S. money. "We take the
President at his word when he says he
. won't walk away from the contras and
they'll somehow be funded," said a man
, in the U.S. Embassy here. - -
i I stopped in Honduras after a tour
through El Salvador and Nicaragua.
? You don't come away from such a trip
, singing "Yankee Doodle Dandy"?or
I confident that a U.S. policy built on
military pressure will ever work in
Central . America? It looks different
, fro:eller-6.*
By SANDY GRADY
The Washington stereotype?that
this is a Soviet-U.S. showdown?breaks
down when you see the poverty. Gun-
ships, troops and rhetoric won't change
that. You wonder if anyone in the
Reagan administration has a feel for the
history, the hungers of the campesinos
in the tin-roofed shacks. The Kissinger
Commission's suggestion of putting
$8 billion over five years into Central
America has been flatly ignored.
So what happens next? Curiously, I
came away mildly optimistic about
Nicaragua. Yes, Daniel Ortega & Co. are
fast consolidating everything under the
red-and-black Sandinista flag. Yes,
there's a lot of Soviet military stuff
around. Yes, their economy's going to
hell. But there was a mood of hope
there that you didn't feel elsewhere.
Whatever they are?Marxists, nation-
alists, who knows??the Sandinistas are
Indisputably doing something for the
people's health, literacy and pride. The
question is whether the Reagan hon-
chos will be shrewd enough to use
diplomacy, pressure and aid to keep
Nicaragua nonaligned. Beats war. ?
El Salvador;vhere the embassy line
is that the U.S. is "back in control," left
me queasily pessimistic. Yes, thanks to
? C.47 gunships and U.S. trainers, El.
? Salvador's army is quicker and meaner.
. But civilians are still dying. The guer-
rillas are more vicious. President Jose
Duarte is still the army's figurehead.
Army brutality goes unpunished. El
Salvador felt like an armed state.
The most impressive man I met in El
Salvador was a young professor, who
keeps records on his country, which he
obviously loves. He spent an hour bril-,
liantly analyzing its politics and econ-
omy. .Because of possible retribution,
he wouldn't let me use his name, even.
his university's name.
myLAST question was: "Where's
this country going to be in 10
years?" Long silence. Then he
spoke slowly: "The war will be going
on, with neither side winning. The econ-
omy will still be going down. And we
will still be dependent on the United
- States, probably for all my life."
- When he stopped, he was near tears.
r, ? In Washington, the men behind the
: Central America desks talk of more
' gunships, of free-fire zones, of winning
'L. hearts and minds, of the Red menace,
,- Sounds familiar. - . - - - - -
. -11frlooks differ?rillairrheive.:-;;4 --,`---`-i?
, Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302170022-8