REAGAN/CENTRAL AMERICA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505400069-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 69
• Publication Date: April 27, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505400069-4
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT
27 April 1983
STAT
REAGAN/ BRINKLEY: Good evening. This is'ABC's World News Tonight.
CENTRAL AMERICA Frank Reynolds will be back on Monday. Tonight at 8:00 Eastern
time. President Reagan speaks to a joint meeting of Congress to
discuss Central America and to tell Congress some things it is
not eager to hear and ask for money it is not eager to give.
It'll be a sort of test for him. here's ABC News correspondent
Mike von Fremd.
VON FREMD: The president and his advisers are hoping that this
speech will convince Congress and the American people that there
is a very real threat in Latin America, and before leaving the
White house this morning, the president made the final decisions
on what he wants to say. Later the president was in New York
City to tall: to newspaper publishers and give them a preview of
tonight's address. REAGAN: We're not accustomed to thinking
very much about that region. not accustomed to worrying about
possibly a military threat in our own hemisphere. We've almost
taken for granted the friendly. independent neighbors that we
have, but we can no longer ignore there's a fire started and
burning in our front yard, and we must respond with both unity
and firmness of purpose.
VON FREMD: As an example of that fire burning in our front
yard, the president will tall: about these Libyan planes that
were trying to smuggle weapons into Nicaragua. Mr. Reagan will
warn that Nicaragua. Libya and Cuba are all aiding leftist
guerrillas in El Salvador. and he will ask Congress once again
to give the government of El Salvador more military aid to fight
the communist threat. The president will officially announce
that he has selected former Florida Sen. Richard Stone. a
Democrat, to be special envoy to E1 Salvador. but some or.
Capitol Hill are opposed to Stone because he was once a lobbyist
for the former right-wing government of Guatemala. Stone's
confirmation, however, seems a certainty, and finally. the
president will say, quote. 'Members of Congress and a president
have come together in meetings like this to resolve 2 crisis.
have asked for this meeting in the hope that we can prevent
one.' Preventing a crisis in Later. America is the theme of the
president's speech, and he is again proposing a hands-or. policy
of military aid to do it. but his congressional critics. such as
Sen. Christopher Dodd who will be speaking immediately after the
president, warn of another Vietnam and say it's time for the
U.S. to keep its hands off. Mike von Fremd. ABC News, the White
House.
MCWETHY: This is John McWethv. El Salvador is the key to
America's increased involvement in Central America. Guerrillas
there want to overthrow the U.S.-backed government of El
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505400069-4