REAGAN DECIDES TO PULL HINTON IN EL SALVADOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201800006-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 14, 2010
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: May 29, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

CTA-r Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/14: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201800006-6
STAT
,tJfl CLI 1~TE6 .
ON P1Gt; (
29 f 1953
Re a Dec nra n- ;deg dmim a on officials ,the o r nnog replace trenched. U.S.-allied dicatorship and .set
ueent of :Enders and Hinton ,at a later that country on a Marxist-infiuerced,
date as eckage deal". ;to make the Cuban-supported course.
To PuU Hinton ges RPPeu -to be a routine rotation The Nicaraguan revolution, aided by
c+} cu
lomati
wh
t th
R
ai
i
p
a
c s
e
on con
eagan administrat
gnments But thtl -
.a pan-
was changed iecause ;ofconcern over pre tends .are massive communist arms sup-
rnataue leaks-About-Enders' ouster
port and direction through Cuba, gave
.
Some -administration officials yeti,., frmh impetus to a similar, leftist guerrilla
By John K Goshko and Lou Cannon ;tay'also .aoughi io':-counter_reports .quot- --insurrection in El Salvador and threat-
W"hU*=past starrwrUeca , : other -. as Tend to-revive still other insurgencies that #.he in
President Reagan has decided to replace d? upping ,of Enders .signaled ;a -.shift io- countries of the isthmus.
'Deane R Hinton. the U.S. ambassador .to warn a 'tougher; more dogmatically anti: 3u., ,-while Reagan has given top pn-
El Salvador,.*s per, of the presidentis:st- onimunist-stance in Latin: America with -ority to -combating the trend through in-
tempt to shore -up -his. Central; American k wry ton -ol ~over:poiic-y from -fusions ni - ? ? ,aid and the -dispatc-b
policies by putting "his own people' n the tate'S3ep ent cif U S. -military-.advisers to 'Fl "Salvador
key positiaasxlealing with the leion, as Fw senior al'ac companying Reagan and-Honduras, the Salvadoran civil -war,
-
n
mi
istration'officials said vesterday: ~ . Hinton'simpending departine re-
vealed a ?em~.after Reagan .ousted: bomas.
0. Enders.,-as -.assistant secretary,-of
for inter-American affairs ?in move -de-
scribed by :one official as reflecting 'un-
happiness withrthe execution .of US. pol-
icRJ in Central America.
A senior administration officialsaid last
night that Gerald E. Thomas, 'U.S.-
ambas-sador to Guyana, is 'a good possib-' to
replace Hinton Another senior official :Despitethe,effor to play down Clark's base in Bonduras-has -encountered .in
said that Thomas has been recommended Tole, well.pUcied .administration -sources creasingiy stiff opposition from Congress,
for the job by national security affairs ad- 39sve made'it~clear Enders was dropped where There is fear of a growing U.S. in-
viser William P. Clark and that -tie deci- .because-he -had run afoul of Clark and -volvernent reminiscent of Vietnam.
sion would soon be before Reagan.
Hinton, 8 career diplomat, is ?compieting
two years as ambassador to S Salvador,
whose civil war between leftist guerrillas
and the U.S.-backed government is .the
focal point of U.S. involvement in the re-
gion. Hinton -is about to begin -a two-
month leave, and, an administration offs-
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 cum
meat. I have said all along that-I'.m ready
to serve or to come back. We'll see ..... I-
serve my president, our president, where
be : thinks I can best serve.. It's up to.
"'The official said the decision to replace
Baton was -dictated both by the fact.
that 'he's tired out ' after two years in a
pressure cooker' and by Reagan's'desire
to staff maior 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.
.ant'he -W iauisbarg ;summit assisted that has .dragged --on nconclusively. The. sit-
ers' replacement: byu I.anghome A. uation confronting the administration in
y'} tJiotle} JJ...S. ambassador Bra the region has these characteristics:
zh,ulted from z onfiicts in ~e=sonalit3 EI SALVADOR _Despite 'U.S. aid,
ather an?policy. The official;-who-de. -the Salvadoran military's fight against
dined to ieiidentified, said .that Seae. the guerrillas has been stalemated, and
tai of State George P. Shultz would now most ezper believe prolonging that stir
aecemise ~da~'-'to-day .direction -over Cen- cation -will lead eventually to a -guerrilla
hat American . policy. But this as ~ takeoveL, Reagan's proposed . solution-
greete-witlzskeptias:n-by otbe; roll ., more arms and training, including plans
. 668 -SWtZ does not.have thetime. to send ::100 advisers to a neww$xaining
-U-N.-Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Politically, plans have been-made for
.another infniential Reagan adviser. elections at year's end that would carry
-They, together with other critics in the forward El Salvador's transition from
Pentagon and CIA, had become increas military dicatorship to civilian rule. But.
r inggy dissatisfied with the . State Depart-
. ment's . assessment of the situation -in
-Central America and bell vethat End
the Salvadoran left's refusal to 'partici-
pate has caused widespread charges that
the elections will be an unrepresentative
era,' instead of: Z11-11 =giving power to the right, that
Putting priority on a mil :
ita human rights abuses continue unabated,
n'defeat of the
uerrill
i
El S
l
g
as
n
a
v.ador, favored a diplomatic solution to
the rvil mar-there.
Precisely what -policy 'changes will re-
,sult from Reagan's reshuffle of personnel
.is still,,undear..But Enders' dismissal un.
:derscored anew that Central America re-
.mains at-the-top of the presidential aged-'
-da, -generating pubic and political con-
?troversy_overshadowing even such peren
nial foreign policy concerns as the Middle
East and arms control. -
-` "'he origins -of the current U.S. in-
volvement in the region; long troubled by
political instability and social inequality,
go back to 1978, when leftist Sandinista
?-guerrillas~lm -Nicaragua toppled an en.
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 en anti-
Sandinista -guerrilla movement of
about 7,000 men with uncertjn U.S.
control.
_ ~0.T~iL[ YT~I- I I
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/14: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201800006-6