A BOOST FOR THE CONTRAS?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807220002-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 5, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: April 23, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/05: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807220002-4
ARTICLE
; i PAGE
%/ BEN WATTENBERG
A boost
for the
Contras?
Is it possible that Amy Carter,
Abbie Hoffman an a
style march on Washington
planned by far-out leftists can
start doing for the Nicaraguan Con-
tras what neither Ronald Reagan
nor the Contras themselves have
been able to do: explain the nature
of the Nicaraguan cause to the
American public and get a weak-
kneed Congress to act with firm-
ness?
The situation in Nicaragua, I be-
lieve, is our most important foreign
policy issue - and that includes
arms control. There are complex-
ities regarding Nicaragua, but from
America's point of view there is an
overriding proposition at stake.
This- N- there enough support at
home tDprevent the consolidation of
a Soviet surrogate state on the main-
land of North America?
There are at least three intrinsic
reasons why Congress has been so
hesitant regarding Nicaragua.
First is that the issue has not
really engaged the minds of the
American people. Opinion polls have
shown that about half the public
doesn't even know whether our gov-
ernment is supporting the Contras
or the government Sandinistas.
Second is what American Enter-
prise Institute scholar Norman Orn-
stein calls "a congressional mood of
post-Vietnam isolationism."
And third is this: In a climate of
apathy and isolationism, activist
groups wield extra leverage on
elected officials. And so, pressure
groups have put the heat on.
Some of them are quite re-
spectable. Others are off-the-wall
leftists who want American foreign
policy to fail whenever it is asserted.
And now it is demonstration sea-
son: This weekend there will be a
Vietnam-st a "Mobiliz
march in as ington and civil dis-
ooedience demonstration at CIA
headauarter_ c_ starrinn that
totalitarian duo of Amy_ and
WASHINGTON TIMES
23 April 1987
who believe they can deny a U.S. gov-
ernment a ncy (the CIA) the right
to interview prospective employees
at a state university (the University
of Massachusetts), a school that
Amy does not even attend. ,
Who's really running the demon-
strations? Because labor unions
have been asked to participate, John
.Joyce, president of the Bricklayers
Union and chairman of the AFL-CIO
Executive Council Defense Commit-
tee, investigated the matter.
Mr. Joyce's conclusion: While
there are many legitimate groups in-
volved, the steering committee in
charge of the show is heavily influ-
enced by radical left-wing organiza-
tions that go beyond being against
American aid to the Contras and on
to open support of the Marxist-
Leninist Sandinista government, and
the communist guerrillas in El Sal-
vador, as well as the Palestine Liber-
ation Organization.
Therefore, what? These sorts of
demonstrations should receive wide
publicity. Even with an attempt to
put a moderate face on it, the truth
of the matter will emerge: People
who are against American interests
'in the world are also vigorously
against any American assertion of
will in Nicaragua.
Sometimes in politics you have to
know who all the players are before
you form an opinion. It is political
legend that "The enemy of my en-
emy is my friend:" In this case patri-
otic Americans, including those op-
posing aid to the Contras, should be
asking this: "Is the friend of my ad-
versary, my friend?"
When the demonstrators take
their masks off and start denouncing
Amen-can imperialism, when we see
Amv and Abbie trash the CIA for
"crimes" in Central America, when
we ow t at ro-Soviet groups are
a rea y savoring victo in Con-
ress -tat should helt) tell
Americans what a part of the co
versis really a
In politics, opportunity comes in
strange packages. Before this is
over, the Contras may be thanking
Amy Carter and the radical left for
bringing the reality of their case to
the American public. Then perhaps
even the Congress will shake its iso-
lationist torpor, and listen.
Ben Wattenberg is a nationally
syndicated columnist and a senior
fellow at the American Enterprise
Institute.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/05: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807220002-4