REAGAN DECIDES TO PULL HINTON IN EL SALVADOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201020037-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 37
• Publication Date: May 29, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201020037-0
L?.ICLI L?7 I'
0 1 5 ` -
Reagan Decides
To Pull Min ton
In El Salt>
By John . Goshko and Lou Cannon
wa:a,Prm Past surrwruen
President Reagan has decided to replace
Deane R Hinton- the U.S. ambassador .to
El Salvador, .-As part of the president s .at?
tempt to -shore -up -his Central-A- merican
policies by.putting ''his own people'rin the
key positions.-6 ealing with tbe.eegion, ad-:
ministration-officials said --
Hinton's impending departure-vvmm re- -
vealed a -day after Reagan -ousted Thomas
0. Enders.,as assistant secretam ..of state
-for inter-American affairs -in -e move tie-
scribed by :one officia1 as reflecting `Zm-
happiness with the execution .of U.S. pol-
ic~ - in Central America
A senior' administration official-mid last
night that Gerald F.-. Thomas. US. am.baf-
sador to Guyana, is `a good poesIdir' to
replace Hinton. Another senior official
said that Thomas has been recommended
for the lob by nation security.affairs.ad.
vise- 'A'tlliam P. Clark and that the deci-
sion would soon be before Reagan.
Hinton, s career diplomat..is-completing
two veers as ambassador to Salvador,
whose civil war between leftist guerrillas
and the US.-backed government is the
focal point of U.S. involvement in the re-
gion. :iinton .is about to begin a two-
month leave, and. an administration of i-
d el said. 'be Won't be coming back"
Asked' about this by Washington Post
correspondent Christopher Dickey in San
Salvador, Hinton said. "I think-that story
might be traced in Washington. No com-
ment- I have said all along that.I'.m ready
to serve or to come back. We'll see ..... I-
serve my president, our president, where
be.. thinks I -can best serve. It's up to
him."
The official said the decision to replace
Hinton was -dictated both -by the fact
that "he?s tired out after two years in e
pressure cooker" and by Reagan's desire
to staff major Central. American policy
fobs with people of unswerving loyalty to
-his ideological view of the region. Hinton
was picked for the El Salvador post by
Reagan's first secretary of state; Alexan-
der M. Haig Jr. - _
c;r~C7C?~ ?CS
Z? N_f T' ICE:
ation officials the
onguia
?pian :celled poi .announcing -the replace.
:mebt of -End rs and Hinton ,at F. late-
rata as s'-Package deal". ,to make .the .
cuanges appe r -to be a routine :rotation
of diplomaticiesignments. But that plan
was changed trse ,o f Concern -over pre-
matttre leaks.aoou ..Enders' ouster.
Some .administration officials vester-
.alao aougjr_.U counter reports .cuot-
`ing- Othter-mffiCii& as sav rig that the
t?nppmg ofd signaled -shift to-'.
'R'te s ?ougner;ore dogmatically anti
mmunrst stance in Latin America with
' k trol over:.poliq from
eyState3e"
R . + ?senior:of tj ompanuing Meagan
:8t {he iJliamsbur?g .summit insisted that
?ntiers' replacement - by Langhorne A.
'[ ny) Motie}~ _ j5. ambassador ;ro Bra-
'ziL r ulted from conflict. in personalit,-
atherihan polir v Ttre bffitai; wt~o de-
ciihed to*e4dentified. said that Secre-
tary of State George P. Shultz. would now
'exercise -Xiew'tO-day -direction over Cen-
Anerican policy. But 4zhis seas
. eeted withskeptias:n by.other-ofncjEL.
said`5htiliz does-not,have the time-
Tpl~:,effor, to play Gown Clark's
Tole, weB-placed -administration -sources
have made'itJclear Enders was dropped
.because".be-hae run afoul of Clark -and
-i%-A.1~mbesaedor Jeane J. Kirkpatrick.
:another influential 'Reagan adviser.
They, together with other critics in the
:Pentagon and CD_ had become increas-
;ingh dissatisfied With the State Denai-t-
ment's assessment of the situation ' in
-Cenral America and believed that End.
ens, instead of putting priority-on a mil
itai f defeat of the guerrillas in El Sal-
vador; favored a diplomatic solution to
the -rvil warthere.
Precisely what policy changes will re-
sult from Reagan's reshuffle of personnel
.is still unclear. But Enders' dismissal un-
iderscored -anew that Central America re-
mains at-the-top of the presidential agen
-da, -generating public and political con.
troversy:overshadowirrg even such peren-
nial foreign policy concerns as the Middle
East and arms control.
The origins -of the current US. in-
volvement in the region, long troubled by
political instability- and social inequality,
go back to 7978; when leftist Sandinista
'-guerrillas^m -Nicaragua toppled an en-
trenched. U.S.-allied dicatorship and set
that country on a Marxist-influenced,
Cuban-supported course. -
The Nicaraguan revolution, aided by
-what the Reagan administration con-
tends .are massive communist arms sup-
port and direction through Cuba, gave
fresh impetus to a simila, leftist guerrilla
insurrection in El Salvador and -threat-
ened to 'revive still other insurgencies in
countries of the isthmus.
.But,:while, Reagan has given top pri-
-orrnv to -combating the trend through in-
fusions of military ,aid and the -dispatch
.of -U.S. -military advisers to El Salvador
and'-Honduras, the Salvadoran -civil -war
has dragged' on inconclusiveh?. The sit-'
cation confronting the administration in
-the region has these characteristics:
? EL SALVADOR -Despite U.S. aid,
:the Salvadoran mrlitan?'s fight against
the guerrillas has been stalemated, and
most experts believe prolonging that sir,-
uation, will lead eventually to a -guerri"
.takeover _ Reagan's proposed solution-
more arms and training, including plans
to send :.100 advisers to a new Braining
base in .'Honduras--has -encountered .in-
creasingir stiff opposition from Congress,
where there is fear of a growing U.S. in-
volvement reminiscent of Vietnam.
Politically, plans have been -made for
elections at. year's end that would carry
forward El Salvador's transition . from
-military dicatorship to civilian rule. But
the Salvadoran left's refusal to partici-
pate has caused widespread charges that.
the elections will be an unrepresentative
sham -giving power to the right, that
'.human right,,, abuses continue unabated,
and that the only .solution is through
the land of negotiations with the
guerrillas that. the Reagan adminis-
tration opposes so vehemently.
? 3' 1CARAGUA: U.S. efforts to
choke off the flow of arms from the
Sandinista regime in Nicaragua to
the leftist guerrillas in El Salvador
have brought Reagan to the edge of
confrontation with Congress over
revelations that the administration
has been funding covertly en anti-
Sandinista guerrilla movement of
about 7.000 men. with uncert i.n U.S.
control.
LCQ ~Z'.~`UF~
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201020037-0