THE COMPANY IT KEEPS PUTS U.S. ON THE SPOT ONCE AGAIN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302640056-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 56
• Publication Date: March 27, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST 'classified Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302640056-9
ARTICLE
NEW YORK TIMES
ON PAGE 27 MARCH 1983
Fund Request for Salvador Runs Into Strong Doubt
The Company It Keeps Puts
U.S. on the Spot Once Again
By BERNARD GWERTZMAN
WASHINGTON ? The capital continues to be caught
up in the moral dilemma over El Salvador: Should the
United Swat; provide political, economic and military
support to a leadership that is threatened by a Commu-
nist-backed insurgency, but whose record in legal and.
civil rights practices is, in Secretary of State George P.
Shultz's words, "indefensible"?
The specific current issue, unresolved as the week
ended, was whether Congress would approve another $eo
million in military aid to be diverted to Kt Salvador, add-
ing to the $1 billion in economic and military assistance
already funneled there over the last several years. The ar-
guments raised are similar to those heard in the past
about American backing for various regimes in South.
Vietnam, for the Franco Government of Spain, for the
military rulers of South Korea, and for dozens of other
dictatorships whose claim to American friendship was
based primarily on their opposition to Communism.
As the Senate Appropriations subcommittee took
testimony last week, it was evident that history teaches
different lessons. Senator Daniel K. Inouye, Democrat of
Hawaii, who announced his decision no longer to support
open-ended funding for El Salvador, warned Mr. Shultz
that by aiding the regime in El Salvador because it was
anti-Communist, the United States was repeating the mis- ?
takes of the 1950's when it supported Fulgencio Batista,
the Cuban dictator.
"History must have shown us that we have played a
part in the creation of Fidel Castro," Senator Inouye said.
"We were well aware of the utter corruption of Batista.
Because he said he was against Communism we sup-
ported him throughout. I am afraid that we may be creat-
ing another Castro (in El Salvador). We are inviting revo-
lution there. I think it is time for us to support those who
are being oppressed, those who are victims of violence,
those who are being slaughtered."
On the other side, Senator John C. Stennis, the conser-
vative Mississippi Democrat and a veteran of the lengthy
debates in Congress over Vietnam in the 1980's and 1970's,
said the lessons of that war led him to believe that more
force should be applied in El Salvador, that a blockade of
Cuba, for instance, should be considered to block the flow
of arms to El Salvador. Senator Dennis DeCondid, a con-
servative Democrat from Arizona, also cited the lessoqs
of the past to urge an all-out American military involve-
ment in the region, warning that piecemeal aid to El Sal-
vador would only be wasted.
The Reagan Administration's approach to this kind of
dilemma has been ambiguous from the start. It has gener-
ally been critical of cutting off aid to friendly nations for
human rights reasons, on the ground ,?
that no matter how bad the :record
-
may be in a country such as El Salva-
dor it would be considerably worse
under a Communist totalitarian re-
gime. Moreover, in Central America,
the Reagan Administration has
argued that national security reasons
Impel the United States to prevent
Communist takeovers. The so-called
domino theory, first , put forth by
President Eisenhower in the 1950's to
justify American involvement in
Southeast Asia, is very much alive
today in Central America.
The Administration repeatedly
contends that Nicaralgua is a quasi- ;
Communist state, that tiny Grenada ,
has fallen to the Marxists, and that
there are Cuban-backed threats in
Honduras and Guatemala. The
United States has stepped up military
aid to these countries, and may or
may not be involved with anti-San-
dinist forces entering Nicaragua from Honduras. Offi-
cially Washington claims the problems in Nicaragua are
of Nicaraguan origin, but there are various reports of /
backing by the Central Intelligence Agency for Nicara-
guan exiles trying to regain a foothold.
In defense of its human rights policies, the Adminis-
tration says it has tried to quietly bring about reforms in
friendly countries. Mr. Shultz argues, as have other
American officials in other times and places, that only by
continuing to provide aid can the United States moderate
repressive actions in a country such as El Salvador.
The Salvador situation is unusual, however, because
of the case of the four American churchwomen ? three of
them nuns ? whb were murdered on a lonely road near
San Salvador in December 1980. The Salvadoran military
perpetrators of the crime have allegedly been identified
and they are in custody, but the Salvadoran judiciary has
repeatedly delayed bringing them to trial. The case of the
nuns has aroused more concern among Americans than
the thousands of Salvadorans who have been murdered in
recent years. And it has made a moral hostage of any dis-
cussion of the Salvadoran aid question.
"You cannot get me to sit here and defend what has
happened under the judicial system of El Salvador," Mr.
Shultz told the committee. "I won't do it. I don't do it I
don't think it is defensible." "If in the end," he declared,
raNTIZVZ2.7"17
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302640056-9
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302640056-9
"they don't clean up this act, the support is going to dry up
and they've been told that."
Mr. Shultz's warning hardly satisfied Senator Patrick
J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, who feels as strongly on
the subject as anyone. His voice rising in indignation, he
said to Mr. Shultz that "it is an open and shutcase ; El Sal-
vador is thumbing its nose at us. It is saying, 'Give us a
billion dollars and go to hell.' "
The Senate Appropriations subcommittee approved
the $60 million transfer on the condition that the Adminis-
tration takes steps to bring the case to a trial, that it limits
military advisers to the current level of 55, and that it
tries to bring about unconditional negotiations between
the opposing sides. The Senate Foreign Relations Com-
mittee, whose legal ability to block the aid transfer is
questionable, cut the total to $30 million, with similar
-conditions. The House Appropriations subconimittee pat
,off action until after the Easter holidays, when the moral
debate is likely to be just as agonizing.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302640056-9