AFTER MUCH IN COMMON, A SPLIT ON CENTRAL AMERICA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303310023-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 29, 2010
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: June 30, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/29: CIA-RDP96-00552R000303310023-8
=I "=E D NEW YORK TINS
C ~.G'__ 30 June 1983
After Much in Common, a
Central America'
By JANE PERLEZ trans open for either a Presidential or The Senator, at home with verbal
sped- 1Z2L.Nr.Yatrims Vice-Presidential bid. , . wia~..~.a .,......-. L a-.a-.. ri_1-
Patrick Moynihan and Jeane?J. Kirk- ally of Mr. Moynihan, is the editor of
patrick have much in common: idea Commentary Magaxne and an arbi.
logical roots in the neo-conservative ter of credentials.
movement, reputations in the acs- He believes that the Senator's posture
demic community that have enhanced toward Central America is the latest
their public policy positions, strong example of this drift. Mr. Podharetz
support for Israel. edited Mrs. Kirispatrick's Commen-
And, not least, they are Democrats tary article on human rights, "Dicta-
who have served Republican Adminis- torships and Double Standards,"
trations at the' United Nations, strik- which brought her to the attention of
ing strong positions in defense of the the Reagan Administration, as well as
United States against criticism from, Mr. Moynihan's Commentary piece
the third world. " "The U.S. in Opposition," which led
But for all they have shared in the' President Ford to appoint him to the
distant and reoeat past, as well as the United Nations. He agrees with Mrs.
intellectual dialogue they have en- Kirkpatrick on Central America
joyed, the two have begun to diverge
sharply on the issue that until a until a
few years ago was remote from both
of them: Central America.
Mrs. Kirkpatrick, once a professor
at Georgetown University, is a sharp Mr. Podhoretz's son-i~law and is now
voice molding the Administration's a Republican; Carl Gershman, Mrs. a to, feo icy; a HMr. arvard, Moynihan, has bee, .er pro- Kukpatrick's executive assistant, and
gly I Arnold Beichman, the author. "We all
skeptical of the Administration's pos-' Abrams sPat aid.
is ~g an error," Mr.
ture. At the heart of their differences is f In earl April, Mr. M ._the
y oynihaa
the Senator's position that there is lit- vice chairman of t Sato In n11i
tle the United States can do to influ- fence Committee, was the first to .
ence internal events in Nicaragua. fitly raise the possibility that the Can.
.,One hates to say it, but the ca- tr~Intelligence Agency's involve.
parity to control events in a consols- me-nT in covert operations against the
dating Marxist-Leninist country like rcaraguan ent misfit.
Nicaragua is very limited, and we breaking the intent of the Boland
have to face that," be said. amendment. That measure pp-ssed -at
'it is the Right Ting' the end of last year, prohibited Amen.
Mrs. Kirkpatrick has none of these can ERM to Overthrow an the LaSandinista ry effort
re.
reservations. The United States, she signed --.
said, should "give arms and advice to Mr. Moynihan said in an interview
the Nicaraguans who are fi~8 that
was _ $o
100 CN tail
P-Ty
"One has to make careful prudes- 491t can't" a "
tial judgments of lesser evils and it can't the ale with it, it
greater goods. I think it is possible to t here with it "
prudentially decide that yes, it is the ; he sae d- "All it can is threaten t
right thing for us to do - to give arms oa do we blame you
or
and advice to persons attempting to son on t tea that
easi-
reclaim their own countries from Foe more
dictatorships; to resistance move- M~danng pouf
e
nests in other words." ti
t
among neo-conservatives, who sus- He said that one problem with the
pect Mr. Moynihan of distancing him. policy was inherent in the character of
or arms control, seems ill at ease an
Central America and skittish about of-
faring solutions. He prefaced his com-
ments with: "I don't know very much
about it, I've never been there." By
contrast, he noted that Mrs. Kirkpat-
rick spas Spanish and French,
wrote her doctoral dissertatlm an Ar-
gentina and has traveled in the region,.
Asked whether. the United States
should enter into negotiations in El
Salvador with the guerrillas, he re-
plied: "I'm not going to say things I .
don't want to say." Asked how much
of a national security concern it would
be if the guerrillas won in El Salvador,
Mr. Moynihan replied: 'These things
are still fundamentally Internal and
won't go external unless the Soviet
Union decides that's what they should
do." '
Mrs. Kirkpatrick, in an interview in
her office at the United States mission
at the United Nations, said that ne-
gotiations between the rebels in El
Salvador and the United States were
inappropriate. "We are not parties to
a conflict in Central America. We
don't even give very much assistance,
as compared to the kind of assistance,
we give, my God, in Europe," she
said.
"We give billions of dollars of eco-
nomic . and military assistance
throughout the world, year in and year
out and we do not believe that gives us
the right to negotiate the destiny of the
countries who receive our assist-
ance," she said. "I believe we should
treat Central American countries with
as much respect as we treat any other
countries who are recipients of Ameri-
can assistance." The Nicaraguan Government, said
Mrs. Kirkpatrick, was undertaking
the "deliberate destabilization" of the
governments of El Salvador, Hon-
duras and Costa Rica with aid from a
"repressive international" made up
of Cubans, Bulgarians, the Palestin-
ian Liberation Organization, Libyans
and East Germans.
"I don't think there is anybody we
know who would approve," she said.
"I don't think anyone thinks that's
just a matter of taste, just like some
self from them in order to fit the lib. the Administration: "A rightist gov-
eral complexion of the New york ernme,t, which is a general descrip-~?~~~~
Democratic Party and to keep his op. tion of the Administration, sends out
signals which get received very
badly."
ra on.
These differences of tone and sub. one Inherent Problem
Those in the neo.cometvatfve ranks
who perceive Mr. Moynihan as having
moved to the left include Elliott
Abrams,_the Assistant Secretary of
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303310023-8