NSC HARDLINER OUT OF KEY POLICY POST

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000100040015-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 27, 2011
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: July 17, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/09/27: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100040015-3
WASHINGTON TIMES
..j-~ 17 July 1985
NSC hardiliner ou_
of key policy post
By Gus Constantine
THE NNSHINOTON TIMES
The highest-ranking specialist on
Latin American affairs at the White
House has been eased out of his post,
a Reagan administration official
said yesterday.
Constantine Menges, who has
held the title of senior director for
Latin America at the National Secu-
rity Council, is now serving the
White House in a different director-
ate, the administration official said.
Mr. Menges is regarded as one of
the staunchest conservative advis-
ers to President Reagan and has
advocated a firm anti-communist
stand in Central America during
policy debates within the adminis-
tration. Raymond F. Burghardt, a
career foreign service officer, who
joined the NSC as director of the
Latin American Affairs section
about a year ago, is replacing Mr.
Menges in the key policy position.
Mr. Burghardt has now assumed
the duties of senior director.
Mr. Menges, while remaining a
special adviser to the president, will
he operating out of the Directory of
International Communications and
Diplomacy.
That job is to explain U.S. policies
and decisions abroad, the adminis-
tration source said,
The Reagan adviser will also drop
a notch in title from senior director
to director. Walter Raymond heads
the diplomacy operation as senior
director.
White House officials would not
comment on why the shift took
place, nor would they confirm or
deny suggestions that there might
be policy implications in the shift.
As a senior White House official,
Mr. Menges has fought vigorously
for conservative positions inside the
NSC but has followed the traditional
practice of keeping out of the public
limelight.
The one departure from this prac-
tice came last January when he told
a group of congressional aides flatly
that the Soviet Union "used the Bul-
garians to shoot the pope." ,
It has been the only time any high
Reagan administration publicly
linked the Bulgarians to the May
1981 assassination attempt against
Pope John Paul II.
The congressional aides had been
visiting the White House for a
briefing on Central America.
Asked to compare Mr. Menges
and his replacement at the key Cen-
tral America post, one administra-
tion source said he doubts there are
any substantial differences in view-
point between Mr. Burghardt and
Mr. Menges.
The source said Mr. Menges
might be "inclined to throw fire-
bombs around the room a bit;'
whereas Mr. Burghardt is more
prone to working within the
bureaucracy.
But he described Mr. Burghardt
as a solid conservative who is very
close to John Negroponte, until
recently U.S. ambassador to Hondu-
ras.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/09/27: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100040015-3