KISSINGER BACKS COVERT TACTICS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440115-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 29, 2010
• Sequence Number: 115
• Publication Date: July 20, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440115-0
Kissinger Backs.
Covert Tactics
'Suggests Communist
Regimes Can Be Altered
By OSWALDJOHNSTON,
Tunes Staff f Writer
WASHINGTON-Henry A. Kis-
singer, whose :appointment as head
of a bipartisan presidential commis-
sion on Central merit has stirred
predictable outcries from. both -left
and right, has publicly endorsed
i1&-supported. covertoperalions in
Nicaragua and has hinted that mili-
tary aid to El Salvador-might have
to be expanded. - .
In a joint interview 'with - Sen.
Daniel P. Moynihan (D-N:Y.) in the
spring issue of Public Opinion mag-
azine, the former secretary of state
said that the need for military aid
should be gauged by what is neces-
sary to do the job, not by what
Congress might allow.
Regarding Nicaragua, be said: "It
escapes me why we have to ..._
assert that any'Communist govern-
ment that has established itself can .
never be changed .He added. how-
ever, that the present semipublic
procedure for clearing U.S. covert
activities through Congress threat-
ens the loss of public support; he
suggested instead an -overt Ameri-
can military presence on the Hon-
duran border" if that is necessary to
block arms shipments to antigov-
ernment guerrillas in El Salvador..
"I am sympathetic to the covert
operations if we can still conduct
them the way their name implies,"
Kissnger said.'But if covert opera-
tions have to be justified in a public
debate, they stop being covert and
we will wind rip losing public sup-
P?n- =
On aid to El Salvador, he said:"I
,,can understand senators voting
::against aid to El Salvador. I would
disagree with them, but I can
understand it. I can also understand
supporting an increase in aid I.
cannot understand the rationale for
cutting it." :--
He concluded that the-Adminis-
tration has not yet faced up to what
is needed to prevail in El Salvador,
LOS A ,'GELLS 77,=S
20 July 1983
The Administration's program, he sions, Including the charge that he
said, "strikes me as having been set engineered the overthrow of Chil?
by i:; estimate of the maximum can President Salvador Allende.
Congress will appropriate, not a The archconservative Sea. Jesse
strategic or political assessment." Helms (R-N.C.), who heads the
The bottom line of the former Foreign Relations subcommittee on
secretary's observations was vin- Latin America, said Tuesday that he
tage Kissinger; intends to bring Kissinger before
"If we cannot manage Central the subcommittee for a test of
America, it will be impossible to ideological purity-although Kis-
convinoe threatened nations in the -singer's appointment needs no Sen-
Persian Gulf and other places that ate confirmation.
we know how to manage the global "There maybe someone across
equilibrium. We will face a series of this broad land .farther down on: my
upheavals that will absorb to much .list of preferences for such,a .posi-
of our =energiei that we will be tion than Henry Kissinger, but I
deflected `from our previous poli- cant think of him," Helms said.-
~ciesi~ LiberalsDhlike Him,
T.
'Dr-Pointed at Aataretiea' , . o
86,1'0s he steps into his new role as Liberal bemocrats, mangy molt-1
vated by -the traumatic.memory: of
head of the. presidential commission Vietnam and .its associations with
an ?Centrsl America,, Kl~dnger the Nixon Administration, have.also
seemsl_idrWafy. certain to study raised a chorus of disapproval:
Latin'American policy 4n'-terms of "Dr.-iisainger -has few-Avals In 11
l
'politics and notlo succumb to
globa
a regional parochialism of the sort
he -ridiculed w secretary -of state
under Presidents Gerald R. Ford
,
. and Richard X. Nixon and, earlier, America "But that experience :has
as White House rational security made him a symbol for a foreign
adviser under Nixon: y many would rather -'forget
Hu jesting description of the than repeaiLs'
Latin American region as "a dagger Rep..Howard Wolpe (A?Mich..),.a
pointed at the heart-of Antarctica" :mew -of the House gn
is Kissinger"s most.-memorable ref- laird Qoiait%ee and ?snother:. t-
erence to hemispheric policies dur- spoken 'zritic-Hof the'. =
ingfiis White House years. 'lion`s: Central America policy,-.=Id
In 'the Public Opinion inter-view, at a news conference.Tp day that
Moynihan, who has subsequently the appointment of the presidential
criticized Reagan policies on Cen- _ commission was --not to-try-to takes
tral - America, pretty much agreed second look at policy-:Rather, it is
with Kissinger's assessment that clear the whole purpose is to mobi-
Congress should either let the Ad- lice public _support for a Sailed
ministration do the job in El Salva- policy " '
dor or get out altogether. He; said 'the- commission is "ar.
"A case can be made for doing effort to co-opt, finesse; 'divert at -
notbing,' and a case _can. even be- , tention" from the failure -of U.S.
made1'for doing more than the
President asks, but no case can be . policy Central America "The
Pr
appointment of Mr. Kissinger is
made .for' doing. 45%,of what be
s," Moynihan said. going to raise grave,. second
.askk thoughts" on the part . -of some
may ;,be the last' -sign of ;members'of Congress, he said.
b' agreement -on . any -;of
these: questions until Kissinger't
commission submits.its report Der-
-1-1f, indeed,. any' bipartisanship is
achievable then
Sin . jhg~nnerview,'the question
of Central America policy bas be-
come. =irifianied 'with partisanship
and I{ icsit-ger is hardly likely to
calm those passions. He is reviled on
the right'for having negotiated with
the'Soviets and having started the
proem that led to the Panama
Canal treaties and denounced on the
left-for wide range of trarsgres -
terms Of diplomatic experience or
expertise,"-said Sen.' Christopher.J.
Dodd :(D-Conn.) , an- outspoken -op..
ponent of present policiea
in Central
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440115-0