AID FOR NICARAGUA THE FOCUS OF FIERCE INTERNAL POLICY DISPUTE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302450057-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2012
• Sequence Number: 57
• Publication Date: December 8, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302450057-9
ARTICLEAPAZ EARED
THE WASHINGTON POST
ON PAGE
8 August 1980
lb ? -
STK
'car
Fieriece .Interna
By John M. Goshko
? ' ?
Washington PoseStaff Writer
:Conservative groups within the ex-
ecutive branch are trying to sidetrack
President Carter's intended $75 mil-
lion in aid to Nicaragua in hopes that
Ronald Reagan, if elected in Novem-
ber, will quash the controversial plan
to help that country's revolutionary
government.
Administration sources who favor
the-president's policy of working with
leftist forces in Central America, say
the Nicaraguan aid idea has produced
misgivings and in some cases outright
opposition among many officials of
"the. V.S?intelligence-community and,
a lesser extent, the Defense De-
partment. ?' .
These loyalist sources say further
that;while those intelligence and mili-
tary officials are not monolithic in
'their views, some are so hostile to the
Carter approach that they, have been
trying through press leaks and other
means to portray Nicaragua's Sandi-
nista government is a Soviet: J*0 Cu,'
bin puppet supplying arms to Commii-'.
nrst insurgents In
nelglboviimg, Sal-
vador:..............'. "";`"i4'44*
_?-The apparentaim, according -to the"
sources is to ',block Carter froth..
bursing the aid to Nicaragua until af-
ter the T.T.S. presidential election. Op-
ponents of Carter's policy reportedly
, are hopefulithat,Ileagan will win the
election -.?;and ::,,reverse the United
States' direction in Central America. .
The administration's !..,,internal bat
tling over Central American -policy,
which basically has "pitted the State
Department against intelligence and
Pentagon officials, has been especially
intense since the Marxist-Oriented
Sandinistas won a bloody civil war a
year ago for control of Nicaragua:.
The conflict involves a debate about
how the United States should deal
with:the' 'violence?aliCferthents. in the
Should it cultivate the Sandinii-
tai?_ and, other. 'exponents of 47adical
change, or should it Write them :off as
communist puppets and try to isolate
them by supporting the rightiA-mili,
tary.forces inneighboring countries?!'
?
'Carter came 'down ? oil the side of
the 'State Department, which has ad-
t,macatediyatience luicl,:colpperatIon with
4.1iejeTt,Jilut supporters , of that".-polieg
1:coictencr gial the 0P134.11.ta have been-
qargiuull. action :_that now
!:apbeara- to eenter?on.:what: State. 174;
-gards ai the linchpin- Of ithat
ocus
ispute
olicy
Of particular concern to State was
a recent leak to syndicated newspaper
columnists Rowland Evans and Robert
Novak, who generally reflect a strong
anti-communist line. In a column pub-
lished by The Washington Post Aug.
1, they, asserted that two convoys of
ships carrying Soviet arms from Cuba
recently were4 unloaded secretly in
Nicaragua for eventual transfer of the
arms to leftist guerrillas in El Salva-
dor.
Although the Evans and Novak col-
umn did not identify a source for the
information, it left the clear impres-
sion that it came from U.S intern-
ee Ufficials: -However; three-high-
e governmen .0.1rces, with access
to major intelligence on Central
America, consulted separately by The
Washington Post; said 'categorically
that the column's assertions went far
'beyond any- information in the hands
of U.S. intelligence agencies. .
According to these sources, when
'Cuban President _Fidel Castro was in
Managua in mid-July for the first an ,
niversary Celebration- of c.the Sandi-
- nista victory, U.S. intelligence de-
te'cted' two Cuban vessels in 'the vicin-
ity of Nicaragua: " s
But the sources std;" the intellit
gence report did not go' beyond' that
fact: No one' in' the- U.S. ?government,
they insiited, has -'any evidence that
the ships were carrying arms or other
cargo that was' unloaded in Nicaragua.
Any assertion to thateffect,they'said,
is Sheer speculatiOn., t-
State Department ?Meth s,-rwht e
tefusing to discuss the intelligence-re-
-port; said all their evi'denee indicatei
that the Sandinista government :has
'been scrupulously 'ohserving,its-often.
xestatedpledge not to interfere th any
- ? .
,way In the affairs of neighboring
,countries.
Department sources also said they
have reason to believe that the Sandi-
nistas, who make no secret of their
friendship for Castro, have received
some largely outmoded '? military
equipment and arms from Cuba to aid
,their efforts to build a Nicaraguan
"people's army."
' But whatever weapons the Nicara-
'guans have appear to be largely de-
fensive in nature: the sources said.
.,They also noted that Nicaragua's mill-
tary strength appears to be well below
the level of all other Central Amer-
""Cankoinitries7exeeK ?Coste Rica,
which has no army . vt.c.,4L
The advocates of 4 liberal' policy in
Central America believe-the leak in
the Evans and Novak column was part
of e deliberate campaign snip Car-
ter from disbursing further aid to Nic-
aragua. During the long effort to get
the aid approyed in Congress, foes
'succeeded in attacking a stipulation
that carter 'cannot re1ease the funds
without first certifying that Nicaragua
is not aiding violent revolutiyary.
movements in other ,Countries.-..,,,,:-
An intelligence assessment to sup-
port that certification is being made
and is expected to be ready for Car-
ter's review shortly after the Demo-
cratic convention. But, administration
sources say, if opponents of the aid
can plant, in Congress and elsewhere,
new doubts about Sandinista inten-
tions, it might become_ enough, bf an,
election issue to force Carter to delay
acting until November. s t
' Similarly, these sources say, the at-1
tempt to force Carter into a holding
pattern on Nicaraguan aid may be re-
flected In-the spate Of reports abbut a
meeting during the Managua celebra-
tions last month between Castro and
United Nations Ambassador Donald
McHenry, who headed the U.S. dele-
gation.
Some versions of the meeting imply
that Castro spoke harshly of Reagan
and voiced the strong hope that Car-
ter would be reelected. However, per-
sons who were present said the theet-
ing, which took place at a public re-
ception and was overheard by dozens,
said the two talked only in general
terms and that Castro's remarks about
the U.S. election appeared :to be
largely jocular in nature. ????? -
' 'There is no' question that the U.S.
election is being watched very closely
in Central Arneriel. Reports from the
'region have noted that rightists in
Guatemala, El Salvador and Hondu-
ras, resisting U.S. pressures fo'politii
cal--:and social- liberalization,I, are
openly hopeful of a. -Reagan tyittory
that might change U.S. policy.s
"Althoughilleagan has given no eieA
about,liqw he would dear with'
the region, he has strongly attakked
Cuba on many occasions, and the Re-
sps*lican?Parsty.illatform says:,
coNsIVOD
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302450057-9
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302450057-9
!!We deplore the Marxist Sandinist 2
takeover, of Nicaragua and the Marx?
ist attempts to destabilize El Salva-
dor; Guatemala and Honduras. We do' "
not 'support United States assistance
to 'any Marxist government in this
hemisphere, and we oppose the Carter
administration aid program for the
government of Nicaragua. However,
we will support the efforts of the Ni-
caraguan people to establish a free
and independent government."
That is in accord with the thinking
of. many officials in the Central Intel-
ligence Agency and the Defense Intel-
ligence Agency, who make no secret
of their belief that Cuba and. the So-
viet Union. are using Nicaragua as .a
wedge to extend their influence
throughout the Caribbean basin. ?
3ut it -is directly! contrary' to the
State Department view that Nicara-
gui5s ideological direetion is stilt a
question and that Moscow ; seeking to
diiiert attention from its invaasion of
Afghanistan, would like nothing bet-
ter' than to see'the"United 'States
Moye into an openly hostile stance th-
ward Nicaragua or other radical gov-
ernments or groups in that area..
neclassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302450057-9