U.S. CITIZENS PLUNGE INTO LATINS' CONFLICTS FOR PEACE AND PROFIT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605740064-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 18, 2012
• Sequence Number: 64
• Publication Date: June 14, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/18 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605740064-3
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Private Wars
U.S. Citizens Plunge
Into Latins' Conflicts
For Peace and Profit
Advocates of -Right and Left
Provide Aid and Comfort
And Sometimes Fighters
Latest Idea: Adopt-a-Contra
By 'BRYAN BURROUGH
And DIANNA $OLI$
S[a,(IRCpOT[ETS Of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Ever since Davy Crockett and his Ten-
nessee Volunteers fought in Mexican terri-
tory at the Alamo, American civilians have
been proudly poking their noses into for-
eign wars. U.S. adventurers fought Franco
in the Spanish Civil War. Irish and Jewish
Americans for years have helped finance
wars against the English and the Arabs.
Today, this time-honored civilian in-
volvement reaches new heights in Central
American jungles and sun-drenched Carib-
bean islands. Thanks partly to the emo-
tions that President Reagan has aroused
over his enthusiasm for right-wing "free-
dom fighters" there, Americans are forg>~
ing vast fund-raising and military-support
networks and turning Latin American con-
flicts into a kind of do-it-yourself war for
Americans of all political stripes.
Hollywood personalities, retired Penta-
gon officials and other notables have made
headlines with their financial involvement
or outspoken views and Main Street Ameri-
cans-truck drivers, doctors, homemakers,
clergymen and others-are working on be-
half of some cause in the region.
Varied Motives
Some want to fight communism. Some
want peace. Some want profit. Some are
simply weekend cowboys who thrill at
training and fighting side by side with for-
eign armies. And whether from the left,
the right or neither side, Americans in-
volved in Latin American conflicts share
a conviction that in these small, nearby
lands, a few civilians can shape interns-.
tional events.
"I felt important in Honduras," says
James Adair, a 36-year-old Houston adven-
turer who recently spent six weeks there
accompanying right-wing guerrillas on
forays into Nicaragua. "It was exciting."
For he less affluent of the ns-and-
ammo set. esert Publications of Corn-
villeiAriz., markets repackaged conies of
the Central Intelligence Agency's contro?
verSial covert-operations manual with an
advertisement exhorting conservatives to
irk "our liberal friends b Navin a copy
of this manua on our coffee table." Well-
heele I erals are beckoned to Central
America to "study Spanish while you learn
about the Nicaraguan revolution first?
hand." Since 1979, more than 100,000 Amer-
icans have visited the war-torn region-
and have created a minor industry in doing
so.
The Adventurers
Some gung-ho Americans trek to Latin
America mostly for adventure. The Z,500-
memberCivilian Military Assistance group
of Decatur, Ala., provides military training
and combat gear and even fights side by ~
side with rebel soldiers.
"The CMA is just a bunch of good of
boys from Alabama not given to deep polit-
ical examination," says Mr. Adair, the
onetime Honduran adviser, who writes
about the group's exploits for an obscure
military magazine under such headlines as
"Sandinista Turkey Shoot." "Why do we
have to wrap everything in the flag?" Mr.
Adair asks. "Why can't we just say we do
it for adventure? We had a good time."
The danger only adds to the CMA's ap-
peal. The group's membership swelled af-
ter two CMA men were killed in a helicop-
ter crash in Nicaragua last fall. Sam Hall,
a 48-year-old former Olympic diver from
Dayton, Ohio, proudly grimaces as he
opens his shirt to show off apink-rimmed
scar on his abdomen .and produces a
graphic photo of himself sewing up his own
wound, inflicted by a Sandinista bayonet in
Nicaraguan jungles. On a recent visit to
the U.S., Mr. Hall said he operates a CMA-
backed commando school and has
launched several "training missions" into
Nicaragua. Although the group's leaders
officially discourage members from enter-
ing combat in Nicaragua, the CMA's
founder, Tom Posey, says, "I admit it-we
all want to go over" into Nicaragua.
Unwelcome Visitors
The Honduran and Costa Rican govern-
mentshaven't exactly welcomed CMA's in-
volvement, however. In March, 14 CMA
men were thrown out of Honduras after the
government learned that they planned to
assault a Nicaraguan military encamp-
ment; five other members remain jailed in
Costa Rica on weapons charges. Mr. Hall
can't even count on moral support from his
brother, U.S. Rep. Tony Hall of Ohio, who
has voted against aiding the Contras.
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WALL Jlt(t.t.1 JvUt~1v[-~
14 June 1985
The proximity of Latin American com-
bat zones-Houston is closer to San Salva-
dor than to New York-makes the turmoil
not only more pressing to Americans but
also more accessible. U.S. citizens from
the left and the right occasionally almost
bump into each other there: Christian war
protesters, for instance, sometimes inspect
battle sites in northern Nicaragua hours
after receiving reports of American merce-
naries fighting in the area.
"We see more of these pseudo-military
ventures popping up every day," says
Leonard Lindheim, a U.S. Customs agent
in New Orleans. "When you've got Third
World revolutions just athree-hour plane I
trip away, these types of activities are ?'
bound to increase."
Civilian involvement was certain to in-
crease when Mr. Reagan, enraging some
and inspiring others, called the Nicara-
guan rebels "the moral equivalent of our
founding fathers." In the past year, pri-
vate groups backing the Contras have
raised some E1Z million on their own.
And on Wednesday, the U.S. House of
Representatives voted S27 million in non-
military aid for the rebels. As Congress de-
bated, more than 1,000 demonstrators were
arrested after occupying federal buildings
and congressional offices from Chapel Hill,
N.C., to San Francisco. "Those who pro-
tested weren't the average radical," says
Jim Sweeney, a Maryknoll missionary who
helped coordinate the national civil-disobe-
dience and protest campaign. "Congress
now has to face average people, many who
are ministers and nuns and have access to
a continuous public forum-the church."
Reagan Criticized
Some critics charge that the Reagan ad-
ministration has encouraged right-wing
military adventurers by looking the other
way when they violate U.S. laws. "Private
groups are now constantly breaking our
neutrality laws in Central America," says
Rep. Ted Weiss, a Democrat from New
York, "and we're overlooking it." A Jus-
tice Department spokesman counters,
"There's a lot of holes in the Neutrality
Act. ... You can't prosecute these
l~Ys?'
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/18 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605740064-3