THE LAST REAGANITE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200790010-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 18, 2010
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: July 18, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200790010-5
ARTICLE AP EARS
ON PAGE-9
The last Reaganite
WASHINGTON TIMES
18 July 1985
Ask 10 Americans to identify Constantine
Menges and 11 of them will say he's a Medi-
terranean shipping tycoon or a Nazi war
criminal whose bones were dug up in Latin
America. In fact, Mr. Menges - the brightest
light on the National Security Council - pur-
sues obscurity in a manner befitting a hero.
His detractors in the foreign policy apparat
- mostly NSC mediocrities and State
Department careerists - are pursuing his
obscurity for him in a manner befitting cads.
As the NSC's area director for Latin'
American and Caribbean affairs, Mr. Menges
brought prodigious knowledge and under-
standing to the White House. Integral to the
planning of the Reagan administration's
most significant foreign success, the liber-
ation of Grenada, Mr. Menges ought to have
considerable "stroke. In the minds of the
duds, alas, Latin America has become too
'important to- be left to those who know any-
thing about it.
NSC watchers have noticed that Mr. Men-
ges's authority has been progressively
de-emphasized, with policy being forged
without his participation. Most troubling:
Mr. Menges, nearly the sole remaining area
director on the NSC with allegiance to Ron-
ald Reagan, has been moved to an ambiguous
"public liaison" position; the president was
informed that he was "promoted." Na*ional
Security Adviser William McFarlane has
gradually built a shop with a distinctly
careerist odor - one that takes an unnatural
interest, for example, in squirting tapioca
into presidential speeches dealing with the
Soviet empire.
Mr. Menges finds himself increasingly cut.
out at a time when Elliott Abrams, the Rea-
ganite hardliner whose performance as
assistant secretary of state for human rights
was widely praised, takes over the Latin
American desk at Foggy Bottom. Mr.
Abrams will need an ally at the NSC, as no
doubt has occurred to those now plotting Mr.
Menges's demise.
So alarmed were 26 House members by
the squishy consistency of the NSC that they
sent a letter to President Reagan inquiring
after Mr. Menges's fate. Similar inquiries
have come from the Senate. What happens in
the next several weeks may determine
whether the president can overpower the for-
eign policy bureaucracy and leave a Reagan-
ite tattoo on it.
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200790010-5