AFTER MUCH IN COMMON, A SPLIT ON CENTRAL AMERICA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440116-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 29, 2010
• Sequence Number: 116
• Publication Date: June 30, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440116-9
;gin:I C7 7_ ''EARED NEW YORK TIMES
c:; 30 June 1983
After Much in Common, a Si.,....
Cen tral America'
By JANE PERLEZ tibas open for either a Presidential or
SpId.1 t T N.w Y.rt 5lms Vice.Presidential bid. , ,
WASHINGTON, June 29 - Daniel Norman Podhoretz, once a close
Patrick Moynihan and Jeane'J. Kirk- ally of Mr. Moynihan, is the editor of
Patrick have much in common: Won- Commentary Magazine and an arbi-
logical roots in the neo.conservative ter of credentials.
movement, reputations in the ace-. He believes that the Senator's posture
demic community that have enhanced toward Central America is the latest
their public policy positions, strong ezample of this drift. Mr. Podhvretz
support for Israel. edited Mrs. Kirkpatrick's Common-
And, not least, they are Democrats I tary article on human rights, "Dicta-
who have served Republican Admi ls- torships and Double Standards,"
tratioas 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. ?'Tbe U.S. in Opposition," which led
But for all they have shared in the President Ford to appoint him to the
distant and recent past, as well as the
intellectual dialogue they have en-
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.
United Nations. He agrees with Mrs.
Kirkpatrick an Central America.
who perceive Mr. Moynihan as having
moved to the left include Elliott
Abrams,_the Assistant Secretary of
Mrs. Kirkpatrick, once a professor grate for Human Rights who is also
at Georgetown University, is a sharp Mr. Podhoretz's son-in-law and is now
voice molding the Administration's Republican; Carl Gershman, Mrs.
policy; Mr. Moynihan, a former pro.
lessor at Harvard, has been.s'trongly
Kuipatrick's executive assistant, and'
Arnold Beicbman, the author. "We all
believe Pat is making an error," Mr.
Abrams said
In early April, Mr. Moynihan,
the Senator's position that there is lit- .vice t Int h.
tie the United States can do to influ- gence Committee NN the first to Dal).
once internal events in Nicaragua. raise the ossibiii it the Q
"One hates to say it, but the ca- tea ce Agency's involve-
paciry to control events in a consols- meat in covert
opera ons a02i11st t e
dating Marxist-Leninist country like Nicaraguan Government might be.
Nicaragua is very - limited, and we breaking the intent of the Boland
have to face that," be said amendment. That m at
4t Is the Right Tbiag' theeDd of last year, prohibited Ameri-
..~_ Q:~..._.:..L U..- ,... ca n Tor any multary effort
ZUDL
said, should "give arms and advice to an said in an interview
the Nicaraguans who are fighting the the Reagan ARRE15ffi~nra on
,
~
a
.'One has to make careful Pnrden- VVIt
- Co
can't
with It,
tiRl judgments of lesser evils and
it t
greater goods. I think it is possible to, can't bring the the here with it
it
prudentially decide that yes, it is we be sal it can do is threaten that
right thing for us to do - to give arras we'll
a you for 'r non" and advice to persons attempting to s don't threaten that easi-
reclam their own countries from m more tD.
dictatorships; to resistance mdve. than this Admirmi.
people
"
meats in other words.
tration."
These differences of tone and sub- One Inherent Problem
stance have caused reverberations
among tives, who suer He said that one problem with the
pest Mr. Moynihan of distancing him. policy was inherent in the character of
self from them in order to fit the lib. the Administration: "A rightist gov-
eral complexion of the New York ernment, which is a general descrip-
Democratic Party and to keep his op. tion of the Administration, sends out
signals which get received very
badly."
7b e Senator, at home with verbal
dissertations on say, the Soviet Union
or arms control, seems ill at ease on
Central America and skittish about of-
fering solutions. He prefaced his com-
ments with: ?'I don't maw very much
about it, I've never been there." By
c
rick ks ontrast, be Doted that irs Wit-
wroteder doctoraldissertaUoa an Ar-
gentina and has traveled inthe region.
Asked whether. the United States
should enter into negotiations in El
Salvador with the guerrilla, he re-
plied: "I'm not going to a*7 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: 'Rbese things
are still KD~e;iaiiy internal won't go external unless the So lf
et
Union decides that's what they should
do." . ?
Mrs. Kirkpatrick, in an inses view in
her office at the United States mission
at the United Nations, said that ae-
gotiations between the rebels In El
Salvador and the United Stones 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 inand year
out and we do not believe that gives us
the right to negotiate the destiny of the
countries who receive our assist.
ante," 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 to
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
"repruasive 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
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440116-9