SHULTZ ASSAILS NICARAGUA IN ASKING AID FOR REBELS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706110018-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 19, 2011
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: February 28, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/19 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706110018-1
" ~ ` " ~ 28 February 1986
Shultz Assails Nicaragua in Asking Aid for Rebels
By DAVID K. SHIPLER
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 - Denounc-
ing the Nicaraguan Government as "a
cancer, right here on our land mass,"
Secretary of State George P. Shultz
faced a skeptical Senate Foreign Rela-
tions Committee today as he urged ap-
proval of President Reagan's request
for =100 million to help the Nicaraguan
rebels.
The authorization would include s'TO
million in military and S30 million in
nonlethal aid to the guerrillas, known
as contras. Congress cut off covert
military aid to [ tF~e re sin 1984 and aa-
t
of er e
Under close questioning by dubious
senators, Mr. Shultz conceded that only
Sl8 million of that had been spent so
far, mainly because of resistance by
Honduras to its territory being used as
a conduit for supplies.
He also painted a vivid picture of the
Government in Managua subverting
neighboring Latin American wuntries
with extensive Soviet and Cuban sup-
port.
Presenting a map of the region, he
asserted that arms from Nicaragua
had been discovered in the hands of in-
surgents and terrorists in Guatemala,
El Salvador, Honduras, Costa. Rica and
Colombia. Nicaragua had provided
military training to guerrillas operat-
ing in Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador,
Uruguay and Chile, he said, and safe
haven to radicals from Bolivia and Ar-
gentina.
`On the Right Side'
"It has tried to spread itself around
in a fundamentally evil way," Mr.
Shultz said of the Nicarguan Govern-
ment. "There is incontrovertible proof
that the Nicaraguan Government is in-
volved in drug -trafficking," he added,
but did not provide the evidence.
"We're for the good guys," the Secre-
taryasserted. "We're on the right side
in this issue. I know who the good guys
and the bad guys are."
At the White House, President Rea-
gan. who was applauded today by a bi-
partisan group of Congressional lead-
ers for his handling of the Philippines
crisis, told the group that the success-
ful transition to democracy in this in- ~ ;innately that support for the reslst-
st3nce reinforced the need for Con-~ I ante had grown as the Sandinistas had
gross to approve increased aid for the ~ eliminated individual liberties inside
Nicaraguan rebels.
According to Larry Speaker, the
White House spokesman, Mr. Reagan
told the legislators that "several paral-
lels" existed between the Philippines
and Nicaragua.
"We car, ignore the fraudulent elec-
tions Ortega had," Mr. Speaker quoted
Mr. Reagan as having said in reference
to President Daniel Ortega Saavedra of
Nicaragua. "We can ignore the repres-
sion and we can ignore the subversion,
terrorism and drug trafficking. But if
we ignore it in Nicaragua and don't
deal with it now, when will we deal with
its"
The spokesman said that Mr. Reagan
I had added that the most important par-
allel between the two cases was that
"we stoodfor democracy in the Philip-
pines; we have to stand for democracy
in Nicaragua and throughout Central
America and in our own hemisphere."
Mr. Shultz's appearance, came as a
Nicaraguan official told reporters in
Managua that the aid request was a
'`slap in the face" to Latin America
that could force Nicaragua to seek
more military aid from abroad.
"Reagan persists stubbornly in his
war policy, aimed at increasing tension
in Central America and inflaming an
already serious crisis," United Press
International quoted Acting Foreign
Minister Victor Hugo Tinoco as having
said.
flip subject," Mr. Shultz declared. "It's
a very serious subject. And the point is,
there would be more people on this
chart if we gave them some support, if
they had some shoes to wear and some
uniforms to wear and some medical
supplies!" The Secretary was pound-
ing the table, nearly shouting.
"These are people who are trying to
attain freedom and independence in
their country! And we have to consider
whether or not we're going to step in
behind them and help them. That's
what this is about. Right here on our
doorstep!"
The chairman of the Foreign Rela-
tions Committee, Senator Richard G:
Lugar, Republican of Indiana, en-
dorsed the Administration's basic ob-
jectives without committing himself on
the specific aid request.
Other committee members who sup-
port aid to the contras had some hard
questions. They asked whether the ef-
fort would really work, whether it had
the realistic potential of either over-
throwing the Sandinistas or pressing
them into negotiations.
'Simplistic' Views Criticized
The neat juxtaposition between good
and evil was challenged by Senator
Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Con-
necticut.
"We've had the President and others
calling the contras Jeffersonian demo-
oats, and we've had others referring
to the Sandinistas as some new order of
Franciscan monks," he said. "Frank-
ly, both observations are terribly sim-
plistic, and I think it makes it more dif-
ficu-t to really trying to come up with
intelligent solutions to this problem."
Mr. Dodd recalled President Rea-
gan's saying in 1984 that if former
President Ferdinand E. Marcos were
not supported in the Philippines, the al-
ternative would be Communism. "I'd
hate to think we've reached a conclu-
sion in Central America that the only
choice here is between the contras and
the Sandinistas, and that we have aban-
doned our creativity."
Secretary Shultz conceded later that
"good guys and bad guys" was an over-
Nicaragua.
`It's Not a Flip Subject'
He reacted sharply when Senator
Daniel J. Evans, Republican of Wash-
ington, made fun of a chart, presented
by State Department aides, showing
the armed resistance growing, even in
the two years after a cutoff of United
States military aid. "I calculate that
after about three more years of no aid,
the armed resistance will be consider-
ably larger than the Nicaraguan mili-
tary."
Are you serious about that?" asked
Mr. Shultz.
"No," Senator Evans replied.
"Or is that a flip comment? It's not a
STAT
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/19 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706110018-1