UNAUTHORIZED DISCLOSURE ENTITLED 'REAGAN BACKS ACTION PLAN FOR CENTRAL AMERICA,' BY DON OBERDORFER AND PATRICK E. TYLER, WASHINGTON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP95B00915R000500110001-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2005
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: May 14, 1962
• Content Type: MF

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14 MAY 1982
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MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director of Central Intelligence
VIA: Executive Director
Deputy Director.for._Administration
of Security
SUBJECT: Unauthorized Disclosure Entitled "Reagan Backs
Action Plan for Central America," by Don
Oberdorfer and Patrick E. Tyler, Washington Post
of 14 February 1982 (U)
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Action ea
a . ""acks Plan
9
for Central America
Political, Paramilitary steps Included
By Don Oberdorfer and Patrick E. Tyler
W.,n!r,gson Poet Starr Writ.n
President Reagan has authorized a brow
program of U.S. planning and action in war
torn Central America, including the encourage
went of political and paramilitary operation:
by other governments against the Cuban pres.
ence in Nicaragua, informed sources said yes:
terday. .
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The administration program, adopted after
top-level discussions in the National Security
-Council, includes a range of economic, politicali
and propaganda elements in addition to pro-
moting action by friendly foreign governments
designed to disrupt Cuban-Nicaraguan supply
lines of arms to guerrilla forces in El Salvador
It is not known at this point shat action, if'
any, has been taken by other governments, or
what direct support, if any, the United States'
has provided.
A White House spokesman said last night
that he was unable to comment on the reports
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Administration officials have Charged that
the repel forces in El Salvador are directed
from bases in Nicaragua with the assistance of
Cuban advisers, and that training bases and
supply facilities in Nicaragua provide a plat-
form for the Salvadoran insurgency.
After a three-month U.S. effort to reach a
negotiated accommodation with the Ni-
caraguan regime became deadlocked at the end
of last October, U.S. officials increasingly have
viewed Nicaragua as a menace to U.S. interests
on the scale of "another Cuba."
As part of the efort to counteract secret
Cuban-Nicaraguan, insurgency support activ-
ities, which have
nagua, the
secret ?$19 million
ical oppdSTo
reported to have proposed a
Ian to build a broad polit-
the Sandinista rule in Nic?
aragua, and to create 'action teams" for pare-:
gathering in Nicaragua and elsewhere.
One friendly foreign government that might
be involved is Argentina, whose ruling military
junta long has been opposed to leftist activities
in the hemisphere and which is reported by
rc~ to be training as many
,000 men Jkr this purpose.
As reportedly contemplated by
the CIA, non-Americans would be
used for the most part in imple-
mentation of its plan, but the po6-
,zible use of American personnel to
e un~ titer raramilitary
a in sine some ifi spe-
cial Cuban targets" also was envis-
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'It could not be learned whether
the-CIA proposal has been approved
artd implemented. Reliable sources
hswever, said that U.S.-backed ac-
tivities aimed at Nicaragua have
been started along the Honduran-
Nicaraguan border within the last
t}i'ee months.
lj ese U.S. activities, according to
or?e report, have been limited initial-
V6 advising and supporting a force
made up largely of anti-Sandinista
ez3les in Honduras in a position to
Harass the Nicaraguan regime. The
?~ctivities are reported to have been
stepped up in recent weeks to match
I~creasirig military action by guer_
r$la in nearby El Salvador.
Ncaraguan Foreign Minister Mi-
guelf D'Facoto, in an interview with
United press international Feb. 5,
ged that the United States was
arming an exile army of 6,000 men
in 20 training camps along the bor-
der in collusion with Honduras, Gus-'
la and Argentina.
Argentina has denied military in
volvement in Central America, and,
last week withdrew its ambassador
Managua. U.S. spokesmen have
re?used to comment on reports oU
American support for covert actions
in the area, citing a longstanding {
rule against confirming or denying
sucb activities.
Reagan, who is reported to have
approved many of the elements
the overall approach to al
America in mid Novem . rs spend-_
ing time OF- end drafting a
sxech to announce the long-
promised Caribbean rR e
na-
economic support for frieendly~~
tions.
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The speech, which is expected to
be delivered within 10 days, will be
the high-water mark of Reagan's
public involvement in the adminis-
tration's concern about development
in the area.
Until now, the president has al-
lowed Secretary of State Alexander
M. Haig Jr. and other officials to
take a high profile of concern, con-
demnation and warnings, but Rea-
gan has had much less to say.
The president is unlikely to pro-
vide details in the forthcoming
speech of the military aspects of the
plans to counter Cuban . and Ni-
caraguan influence. It was learned,
however, that the Defense Depart-
ment has been authorized to draw
up contingency plans to deal with
"unacceptable military action" by
Cuba in the future.
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One part of the planning is to ad-
dress the possible use of U.S. forces
to deter the possible introduction of '
Cuban military forces into Central
America.
Another aspect is planning for
exertion of "direct pressure" against
Cuba, in the form of such actions as
a naval quarantine to block Cuban
domestic petroleum supplies, and
retaliatory air actions against Cuban
forces and installations.
There is no indication of approval j
for such activities, as distinct from
the authorization to do the contin.
gency planning. The Pentagon is re-'
ported to be strongly opposed to di-
rect U.S. military action in the
Caribbean under current circum-
stances, on grounds that- the costs
d b
ex cessv
-
e
. ?.. ..-
.
and risks woul
of America's global military respon~
sibilities.
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The Reagan administration came
to power determined to take a
stronger stand against Cuban activ-
ity in the hemisphere, and was
quickly confronted with a test of its
intentions in El Salvador, where an
unsuccessful "final offensive" by
rebel forces had been staged in the
last days of the Carter administra-
tion.
A year ago this week, Haig, the
newly installed secretary of state,
propelled El Salvador to the top of
the public and diplomatic agenda by
declaring that the United States will
not remain passive in the face of
`systematic, well-financed and so-
phisticated" communist activity
there and elsewhere in Central.
America, and by threatening to "go
to the source"-in his terms, Cuba.
While Cuba continues to be the
focus of sharp concern, administra-
tion officials recognize that large-
scale action against it would risk
conflict with the Soviet Union as
well a hot war close to America's
southern borders with well-equipped,.,,
ntly were'
Cuban forces which rece
or er to a hig er state of readi-
Increasingly the focus of sharpest
concern here shifted to Nicaragua,
where the fall of Anastasio Somoza
in July, 1979, brought the Sandinis-
tas to power.
Reports that Nicaragua has been,
the support base for the S v doranI
guerrilla movement,
as administration offices rt,
generated proposals to take action.
Alarm bells were also set off here
by a large military buildup in Nic-
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ers and increasingly powerful Soviet
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Some 1,800 to 2,000 Cuban advia-
ers are reported to be in Nicaragua,
administration sources have said in
recent days, along with about 50 So-
viet personnel.
Because of the easily stirred fears
in this country of "another N ietnam'
and the demands of other regions,
administration attention as well as
public focus on the area has come in
recurrent waves: an initial burst in
February and March last year, a re-_
newal of intense interest last Se - I~
tember- a wave , and o discussion centering on Capitol
Hill in the past several weeks.
Among the actions that have been
approved by Reagan are at least 10
programs or planning efforts cover-
ing a broad spectrum, according to
the sources.
In addition to encouragement of
political and paramilitary activity by
foreign governments and contingen-
cy planning against Cuba, the au-
thorized programs include:
5X1 ? Additional economic support,
estimated to total $250 million to
$300 million, for Central American
and Caribbean countries. _A
This is the core of the long-k
promised Caribbean Basin plan, the,
unveiling of which has been post-
poned from month to month because)
of political and bureaucratic diffi-'
culties within the administration.!
Reagan is expected to launch it for-
mally before the end of this month. i
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? Additional military assistance to
El Salvador and Honduras from a
special emergency fund available to
the president
Action on this was temporarily
withheld during the congressional
recess over the Christmas-New Year
holidays. Lawmakers were notified
late in January, after a devastating
guerrilla attack on El Salvador's
principal military airport, that $55
million in additional military assist-
ance is being allocated to El Sal-
vador from this fund. No word has
been given about corresponding aid
? U.S. training for Salvadoran mil-
itary forces in this country and in El
Salvador.
Congress was notified in mid-
December of plans to train Salvador-
an forces at U.S. bases. Since then
the training has started at Fort
Bragg, N.C., for 1,000 Salvadoran
troops, the latest contingent of
which arrived last Friday. Another i
400 Salvadoran officer-cadets are'
being trained at Fort Bening, Ga.
U.S. military advisers in El Salvador,
are continuing the training of forces
there that began early last y j
? Increased U.S. intelligence ac-
tivity in the region.
CIA stations throughout Central
America are reported to have been
increased in strength in recent
weeks, and aerial and other surveil-
lance acts ies s r
? Maintenance of trade and credit
to the private sector in Nicaragua as
long as the government there per-
mits it to operate effectively. This
has continued.
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? Improvement of the U.S. mil-
itary posture in the Caribbean to
demonstrate U.S. concern and will-
ingness to act if becessary. These
measures were to include a new com-
mand communications network, mil-
itary exercises and increased intel-
ligence. 0
A "U.S. Forces Caribbean Com-,
nand' was established by the Pen-
tagon Dec. 1 at Key West to stream-
line the military structure by placing'
responsibility for the area in the
hands of a single military headquar-,
ters.
The Washington Post reported
yesterday that the Pentagon is ac
lively considering reopening portions
of the Naval Air Station in Key
West as part of an expansion of the
Caribbean Command's activity, es-
pecially in the intelligence-gathering
field. Additional US. military exer-
cises in the area reportedly are being
prepared.
? An increased public information
program to build national support
for administration efforts in Central
America
The administration has given a
high profile to its information and
objections regarding Cuban and Ni-
caraguan activity.
Perhaps the greatest single outcry
of concern came last Nov. 22, when,
three top administration officials,-'
Haig, Secretary of Defense Caspar
W. Weinberger and presidential
counselor Edwin Meese III--appear-,
ed almost simultaneously on compet
ing television interview programs
with expressions of concern about'
Central America.
? As part of this effort, the State
Department last Dec. 14 published a
lengthy report on Cuba's "support'
for violence' throughout Latin'I
America
bC),o R 1&N5 ct c -iM rise
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? Tightened economic sanctions
against Cuba.
Efforts along this line were an-i
nounced publicly by Assistant Sec-I
retary of State Thomas 0. Enders-on
Dec. 14, when testifying on the State
Department report that was released'
the same day.
Though Central America lies
much closer to U.S. shores than any
other area of conflict, it has received
the full attention of Washington
only rarely in recent decades-
These episodes, however,' have
tended to be intense: the Cuban mis-.
sine crisis, the Dominican Republic'
intervention, the struggle for power _
in Nicaragua, and now in El Sal-. _
vador being among the most prom-.
inent examples.
In addition to the civil war in E1
Salvador, a rising tide of battle now
is reported in Guatemala. Adminis-
tration officials also are concerned at.-
reports that disparate insurgent.
groups from Honduras, where- little =
insurgent activity has been reported
in the past, currently are meeting in
Havana to unify their movements.
U.S. specialists on the region have
expressed doubt that many Years of
neglect can be reversed by another
period of intense but temporary in-
terest on the part of Washington
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In addition, there is much dispute
among specialists about the admin-
istration's prescriptions for dealing
with the region's woes, especially the
emphasis on outside interference
and military problems, rather than
longstanding social, political and
economic difficulties
Many citizens of the United
States, including policy makers,
members of Congress and journal-
ists, have only the barest knowledge
of this area so dose at hand.
The ability to remain construc-
tively engaged in Central America
over a long period of time, especially
in the economic and political areas,
is yet to be demonstrated, in the
view of those who know the region
best.
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