REAGAN DECIDES TO PULL HINTON IN EL SALVADOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302450024-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 26, 2012
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: May 29, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302450024-5
ART I. AITLEXID
on PAU ?
Reagan Decides
To Pull Hinton
In El Sall)
By John iv1. Goshko and Lou Cannon
Weatangtort Post Staff Writers
President Reagan has decided to replace
Deane R. Hinton, the US. ambassador to
El Salvador,es part of the presidents:at-
tempt to shore up his Central American ?-
policies by-putting "his own people'edn the 7
key positions viealing with the ragion, id-:
ministration.officials said yesterday.:-.... ?
Hinton's impending departure was re- '
vealed a day after Reagan ousted-Momas
0. Enders.as assistant secretary ,of state
for inter-American affairs -in e move de-
scribed by one official as reflecting "un-
happiness :with the execution -of US. pol- ,
icy" in Central America
A senior administration official said last
night that Gerald E. Thomas, 'US-limbo- -
sador to Guyana, is "a good possibility" to
replace .Hinton. Another senior official
said that Thomas. has been recommended'
for the job by national security .affairs ad:
viser William P Clark and that the deci-
sion would soon be before Reagan.
Hinton, a career diplomat, is-completing
two years as ambassador to -El Salvador,
whose civil war between leftist guerrillas
and the U.S.-backed government is the
focal point of 1.1.S. involvement in the re-
gion. Hinton is about to begin a two-
month leave, and, an administration offi-
cial said, "he won't be coming back."
Asked about this by Washington Post
correspondent Christopher Dickey-in San
Salvador, Hinton said: "I think that story
might be traced in Washington. No corn--
ment I have said all along that .I'm ready
to Serve or to come back. We'll see . . .
Serve my president, our president, where
he thinks I -can best serve. It's up to _
? lima."
The official said the decision to replace
Hinton was -dictated both by -the fact
that "he's tired out: after 'two years in a
pressure cooker" and by Reagan's tlesire
to staff major Central American -policy ,
jobs with people of unswerving loyalty to
his ideological view of the region. Hinton
was picked for the El Salvador post
by
Reagan's first secretary of state, Alexan?
der M. Haig Jr.
WASHINGTON POST
29 MA 1983
Admiin officials :the --origin
711an
called for Announcing -the _replace-
ment of ;Enders and Hinton at a later.
;date as iliac.kage dear to make the
changes appear-to be a routine rotation
o diplomaticessignments. But that plan
was changed Venause of concern over pre-
mature leaksibout-Enders' ouster.
, 'Some atiminiAtration officials . yester-
c-daY. -also sough.t-tocounter reports quot-
ing- other as saying that the
rrirdpping 43f,--Enclers signaled a -shift to-
waid a tougher;*ore dogmatically anti-
-cOmmunist stance in Latin America with
'Clark wrestiqg ,control .over :_policy from
4.110)%tate1)eiinient. - ?
seniorefficial 'accompanying Reagan
3at Ole Wfiliainaborgeummit insisted that
En!lers' replacement r by Langhorne A.
Motley4-1.1.S. ambassadorto Bra-
m.1,:sresulted from- conflicts in personality
ratherthan -policy. The?cfficial;'-who -de-'
dined to4e4dentified; said that Secre-
tary of State George P. Shultz would now
exercise dayzto-day directiori,over Cen-
.trat Ainerican . policy. But-ethis was
.greitecl-withskeptiCism-brotherofficials,
whb saidShultz does_notliave the time.
..712,espitetheaffort to play down Clark's
role, wel1L.PliCed -administration -sources
:att? made-if-clear. Enders was dropped
.baOause-lie -had rim afoul of Clark -and
:US. _Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick,
;another influential Reagan adviser.
?They, together -with other critics in the
;Pentagon and CIA, had become increas-
ingly dissatisfied with the_ State Depart-
ment's assessment of the Situation ? in
Central America and believed that End-
? ers,. instead of putting priority-on a mil-
italOiefeat of the guerrillas in -El Sal-
vador; favored a diplomatic solution to
the tivil war-there. -
Precisely -what -policy changes will re-
sult from Reagan's reshuffle of personnel
is stilfmnclear. But Enders' dismissal tin-
, derscored -anew that Central America re-
mains atthetop of the presidential agen-:
-generating -public and political con-
troversy-overshadowing even such peren-
? nial foreign policy concerns as the Middle
? East and arms control.
The origins -of the current US. in-
volvement in the region; long troubled by
political instability and social inequality,
go back to 1978, when leftist Sandinista
? guerrillas'in -Nicaragua toppled an en-
STAT
trenched, US.-allied dicatorship and set
that country on a Marxist-influenced,
Cuban-supported course.
The Nicaraguan revolution, aided by
-what the Reagan administration con-
tends are massive communist arms sup-
port and direction through Cuba, gave
fresh impetus to a similar, leftist guerrilla
-insurrection in El Salvador and threat-
4.ned to revive still other insurgencies in
countries of the isthmus.
But, 'while Reagan has given top pri-
ority to -combating the trend through in-
fusions of'military aid and the -dispatch
11.S. military advisers to El Salvador ;
-end -Honduras, the Salvadoran civil -war ;
has .dragged- on inconclusively. 'Tlie sit-
uation confronting the administration in
the region has these characteristics:
? EL SALVADOR Despite U.S. aid,
:the SalvadOran military's fight 'against
the guerrillas has been stalemated, and
most experts believe prolonging that sit-
uation will lead eventually to a . guerrilla
...takeover,,,Reagan's proposed solution?
more arms and training, including plans
to send .100 advisers to a new ;training
base in Honduras---has -encountered in-,
creasingly stiff opposition from Congress,
where there is fear of a growing US. in-
volvement reminiscent of Vietnam. ;
Politically, plans have been -made for
elections at year's end that would carry
forward El Salvador's transition from
-military dicatorship to civilian rule. But
the ?Salvadoran left's refusal to partici-
pate has caused wideapread charges that
the elections will be an unrepresentative
sham -.giving power to the right, that
human rights abuses continue unabated,
and that the only _solution is through
the kind of negotiations with the
guerrillas that the Reagan adminis-
tration opposes so vehemently.
? NICARAGUA: U.S. efforts to
choke off the flow of arms from 'the
Sandinista regime in Nicaragua to
the leftist guerrillas in El Salvador
have brought Reagan to the edge of
confrontation with Congress over
revelations that the administration
has been funding covertly an anti-
Sandinista .guerrilla movement of
about 7,000 men with uncertkiii U.S.
control.
. aNVIINU.E.0
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302450024-5
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302450024-5
2
. .
The administration has contended- *
that the .guerrillas represent a back-
lash against the "leftist -tyranny" of
The Sandinistas, and it has denied
that U.S. efforts . are intended .to
overthrow the Nicaraguan govern-
ment- But the Situation has exposed
the administration to charm that it
is tryhig _to turn the -clock back to
the days of rightist dictatorship, and
there is increasing -pressure in Con- ,
grew- to -put brakes on the Ni-
caraguan 'secret war." ?
GUATEMALA: ?The largest.
country of Central America also is
grappling with ?a guerrilla insurgency;.
and 'the Reagan administration he-
lievesa ienewal -ot-lYS.I'llulitery -aid
andxxioperatiori Gua3-'
teitials:tirom eventuaLrcommtmist
.controL But despitelleagan's efforts,
to portray the new:inilitaiy-govern-
nient there as moving toward -de-
mocracy; continued human right's
abuses:Jby 'the army in :the . coun-
tryildeliave _blocked any immediate .
hopefpthat-Congress might _approve
--security.aid. ? ? .
The 'situation in these ? countries
threatens-to spill over into the other
Central ..--American mations: Costa
Rica, ardemocracy thathaa no army
and is hard-pressed ?economically,
Honduras, whose increasing military
cooperation with the United States
?
'-ooulcirlead to open conflict with Nic-
aragua:land boomerang in a swing of
public sentiment to the left; and
Panama, whose military rulers must
.cater constantly to a strong leftist
and anti-American sentiment.
Many outside experts have arguedl
increasingly that the countries of the
region must get together to negotiate -
a solution to these tensions. So far,
however, efforts to do so have failed.'
Given Washington's emphasis on
fasting the leftist forces by military
means, there is a big question about
whether the, administration would
support such an effort.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302450024-5