HARKIN & KERRY, BACK IN A WAR ZONE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000503970002-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: April 23, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

F
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000503970002-9
WASHINGTON POST
ARTICL3 APPL&REQ
011 PAGE L-
23 April 1985
Harkin ~ Kerry,
Back in a War Zone
By Myra MacPherson
Washington Post Staff Writer
MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Around
midnight, Sen. Tom Harkin got up
from the cane-backed chair and stood
on the veranda at the home of For-
eign Minister Miguel D'Escoto. For a
moment, the tropical breeze softened
the harsh realities he and Sen. John
Kerry were facing inside with Ni-
caraguan President Daniel' Ortega
and D'Escoto.
Harkin (D-Iowa) and Kerry (D-..
tt Mass.)-who came here trying to
extract agreements for peaceful
negotiations from Ortega before,
today's congressional votes on
"contra" aid-say the echoes of
Vietnam are everywhere.
For the first time, the Senate has
three Vietnam-era veterans who
returned deeply opposed to that
war-Kerry, Harkin. and Albert
Gore Jr. (D-Tenn.). Kerry got. three
Purple Hearts and returned to lead-
Vietnam Veterans Against the War,
stunning the Senate Foreign Rela-_
tions Committee he now serves on.
by. asking the question, "How do
you ask a man to be the last man to
die for a mistake?" Harkin flew
planes in the Vietnam theater and,
as a congressional aide in 1970,
exposed the infamous, tiger cages
where prisoners were tortured by
the South Vietnamese. Now, 15
years later, they were in Nicaragua,
trying to avoid what. they see as
another Vietnam., ;; :
"Look at it," Kerry said as their
plane touched down here Thursday
night. "It reminds me so much of
Vietnam. The same lushness, the
tree lines."
Two Vietnam Veterans in the Senate,
Finding Parallel Lines in Nicaragua,
Driving into town there were
more similarities: corrugated tin
roof huts, the sad architecture of
Third World countries-the smell
of wood burning. "And the poverty."
The political parallels between
Central America and Southeast -
Asia are not exact, they say, but
both men, from dissimilar back-
grounds, have come to the same
place politically because of Viet-
nam. And they see disturbing sim-
ilarities. For the first time, a U.S.
president is publicly pushing Con-
gress to fund guerrilla -attacks'on a `'.
country. with which ' the; United
.'stop funding their enemies. They
--.talked to a pro-contra archbishop and
dtp priests who told of contra atroc-
ities..Many voices in a nation of few-
ter than 3 million,
The senators had been getting
blips all day of news from Washing-
,ton: Reagan, facing defeat in the
wljouse and a close call in the Senate,
.might seek a compromise, might ask
?tor only "humanitarian" aid. "Seems
to me Reagan has made one hell of a
political mistake,,". said Harkin.
Bumping along on the way to one
meetin . Harkin caustically said: "Do
you rea y t mk the CIA plans to set
up soup kitchens along the Honduran
7b order?:'
at midnight,. Harkin rubbed
-his eyes and returned to the meeting
Oat began at 6 p.m. and would last
,until 1:30 a.m. In the hall he noticed
;a frail old woman saying her rosary.
"Such an odd touch, thought Harkin,
to the disconcerting language of war
they were all speaking. She was Mi-
guel D'Escoto's 85-year-old mother.
,;, In addition to being foreign min.
Ater, D'Escoto is a priest. -
"If you look back at the Gulf of
1 Tonkin resolution," Kerry said, 'if
you look back at the troops that
were in Cambodia, the history of
The body count and the misinter-
.' retation of the history of Vietnam
and. look at how we are inter.
~pretrn ??? e' struggle in Centre
a4merica and examine the CIA in.
ment, the mining of the P,ors the
ort to un the contras,
F is a direct and unavoidable
kA a tween these two periods of.
cur history "
"Once again," said Harkin, "a pres-
ident ;.,~.
is relying on deception, distor-
tion and duplicity to garner support
i kfor an unpopular policy, a policy not;
supported by the American, people,-
, for intervention . in an underdevel-
`bped country,"
The land is swirling with divergent
views, and the senators listened to'
many of them. They heard tales of
iaepression from anti-Sandinista busi
nessmen and politicians, They lis-
;tened to Sandinista leaders who said
'all censorship'and economic suffering
-would abate if only Reagan would
What Ortega Said
in Managua itself, there is the look
of war, but it is deceptive-merely
..he cracked and crumbled ruins that
main-'unrest
ored from the 1972"
earthquake. On Friday, earthquake
tremors rattled keys hanging on the
wall at the U.S. Embassy.. The quake
registered 6.5'on the Richter scale.
The city is about four hours by car
,rom the war zone, close to the Hon-
luran border. Sitting in the Inter-
,ontinental Hotel, listening to a
..,)j uzak version.of "I Just-Called to
ay I Love You " reminds some of
.he Hotel Caravelle in Saigon, where
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000503970002-9
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000503970002-9
C .
ing secretary of state, but that it was
iou could sip a drink on the rooftop, "interesting" that they had talked to
;?emoved the far off thunder of heavy Ortega more than has Secretary of
artillery. There are some military State George Shultz.
nstallations, some young men in For yesterday's- eight-hour bar-
Teen uniforms carrying Russian gaining session, Senate Minority
but it is the absetytesyou no- Leader Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) told
iK47s
,
cite-the 18- and 19-year-old men. Harkin and Kerry that only one of Bay, Harkin began hearing different
"They are sent to the hills to be them could be present. "So we stories as the war went on. "One pi-
diled and to kill," said an angry, ges- flipped a coin, and Kerry, with the lot I knew well suddenly said, 'I'm
iculating mother;, in Gatling-gun luck of the Irish, won," said Harkin. not going to fly any more bombing
..ipanish, one othousands distressed Harkin was sad and weary at the missions. I'm dropping bombs on
;,.,,t the Sandinista deft. initial White House rejection. They innocent civilians.' They had thim]
Harkin ant Kerry know that the just have an ideological fanaticism off that ship and back to the States
iandinistas' revolution has soured. with respect to Nicaragua that goes the next day.
, .,But in all our talks," said Kerry, "we beyond any bonds of reasonable- "That really made an impression.
ound no enthusiasm, even among ness." And then a friend -of mine from flight
hose who are for the contras, for Harkin recalled how sincere he training was killed. And then another
seeping this war going." felt Ortega had been during the ne-
the
l ti
i
me,
a
As the plane was taking off at the gotiations. At .this cruc
:nd of their two-day trip, Harkin was Sandinista leaders, aware of their
asked if he saw a propaganda ploy in negative image, have softened their
}}e Ortega proposal he was bringing diplomatic posture, such as Ortega's
some. "No," said Harkin, who has concessions on ending censorship
=ieen to Nicaragua four times. "You and the Soviet-Cuban presence if the
nderstand what they've United States stops aiding the reb-
t
e
o u
ve
ieen through. There were always els. They also argue that their own the Navy my career. I saw the frus-
people in the United States talking deep suspicions and fears are justi- motion on all sides, including those,,
,:,bout overthrowing the government. fied; the united States has invaded who said, 'Goddam, if they'd just let
"But I don't detect a rigid total- them three times, they often point us go up and bomb Hanoi, that's what
_arianism. They have too many dis- out. Ortega was aware that just last i we've got to do.' There wasn't a
greements for that!" week, for the first time U.S. arms coward among them, they'd go to~.. Kerry responded, "I believe Nic- were used in Honduran "war game" their death if they felt it was right.' ragua understands beyond any maneuvers. but they felt the senselessness and
loubt the United States will never Ortega, a man consistently de- frustration.
olerate'a Soviet-or Cuban base here. pitted as unsmiling and dour, relaxed,,. "So I got out. I was just bumming
'kit we've got to create. a climate of at times' during their meeting, Har- around, met the state Democratic
kin said. "We talked about our kids." chairman in Iowa and worked for the
trust. Look, let's try it! It's better Democratic Party.* Harkin lived an
than killing people. Then if it doesn't Visitors to M8D8$U8 obscure life until he went on a fact-
Kerry, 41, a patrician Bostonian, finding trip in Vietnam as a congres=:
work there will be a lot of congress-
men and senators who will feel be- was a naval officer who also earned a sional aide. But he was becoming
trayed and won't have much hesita Bronze and a Silver Star. Harkin, 45, increasingly political "and then the
tion about making a change. I see an the last child in a family of six, son of tiger cages-boy, that really did it."
enormous haughtiness in the United , a coal miner, lied about his age in Harkin returned to tell the har-
States trying to tell them what to do. - high school to work summeis;laying rowing story of South Vietnamese
Our economic squeeze on them is track for a railroad and had a military prisoners in pits-the tiger cages. At
very sad. The whole population is scholarship to Iowa State in, 1958, least one Congressman tried to re-
suffering." He now serves on the Senate Appro- ' strain him from telling the story and
Harkin and Kerry said the most' I,. priations Committee. Harkin seems ;, 1 releasing his pictures of people hud-
difficult issue with Ortega was a more at ease with people than, Kerry died like animals, peering through
cease-fire, which Ortega agreed to and easily punctuates his sentences bars dusted with lime that had been
on condition that the United States with swear words. dumped down to choke them. Harkin
provide assurances it would give no Waiting for the plane to pick up . resigned before making the pictures
aid'to the contras. more passengers in Belize, Harlan: public.
The White Housedenounced .the spotted a small plane with "United ' Haunted by the suffering he. wit-
offer as a slick "propaganda initia?, States of America" emblazoned on its nessed,; Harkin plans to return to
tive" to sway congressional votes,' side. "What the hell is that doing Vietnam this summer to try to find
Former secretary of state Henry here?" he said, and walked up the some of the tiger cage prisoners.
Kissinger suggested that congress- runway to get the number. "Some Like Kerry, he has been denounced
men should not play secretary of ~ goddam general is probably down during his political campaigns for
state. Kerry, out of the T-shirt and here scuba diving on- taxpayer ex- being "unpatriotic."
khakis he wore in Nicaragua, back in - pense. I'm going to find out about it"
pin-stripe senatorial uniform, shot Harkin was-a "gung-ho pilot" who
back on "Face -the Nation" that he "always thought of going into com-
and Harkin had no intention of play- bat. Every fighter pilot's desire was
to shoot down a MiG. Early on when
there wasn't much antiaircraft, pilots
would come back and say, 'Hey,
war's great man, nobody shoots
back.'
"My job was to test-fly damaged
planes once they were fixed." Sta-
tioned in the Philippines near Subic
good friend, Eddie Ferguson. Then I
talked to another friend, a real gung-
ho type and he said he was getting
. out. 'To hell with this, I'm killing
civilians.' " Harkin's voice takes on a
wonderment after all these years.
Like him, I always thought I'd make
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000503970002-9
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000503970002-9
,
~Jthink we need to find a way to ne-
of the State
Enemies
Many Nicaraguan' businessmen
were anti-Somoza, but they were not
ready for the Sandinista aim of re-
distributing wealth. Romero Gur-
dian, vice president of a business-
men's organization called COSEP,
spoke of economic chaos and repres-
sion by the Sandinista government.
The senators asked him whether
they should vote for the contra aid. In the National Assembly, an im-
"Put it this way. In 1981 we sent posing high-ceilinged building with
this letter [protesting restrictive Art Deco sculptured pillars, a ' build-
Sandinista measures] and they put us ' ing from Somoza's days, sits National
in jail. We were the number one en- Assembly President Carlos Nunez.
emy. Since the contras, we have be- He is 33 and looks younger. Like
come enemy number two! We are many of the revolutionaries, he is
still here talking to you because the now struggling with being a polti-.
contras exist."
, ..
Harkin asked what the contras clan.
He is, Impassive when grilled I by
accomplish. Kerry about questions that., ".concern
"Pressure," replied Gurdian. "I us and others-freedom.. of the
believe the people of Nicaragua are press, reprisals against the church,
going to overthrow this government freedom of assembly."
because the economic situation is Nunez says they have made mis-
terrible." takes: "Some of our laws were made
Still, when Harkin asked if the under great tension and contain re-
United states should intervene mil_ strictions on political parties that will
was a flat. "No." - _ ~. war, why would we need censorship?
Another businessman,.. suddenly What sense would there be in having +
k nodded and1;%aid,. "What about MY.. c the draft] We wouldn't have to spend
kid, what about my grandson? Is it to L;._so_much draft Z
our money [40 percent[
be the same over and over "N6 we "
, on defense. Standard of living would
don't want Marines here." ". 1 . go up " `
Thoy want to try negotiations, but Nunez in that "Nicaragua
are suspicious' of the: Sandinistas.-.' wants to maintain a position.of non
"We have to have free elections, free- alliance and independence"-includ
dom of the press" 'ing independence from Russia and
-An inept aircond`it onerewa hot of. C ? Cuba. "We've never been opposed to
.
d
dent
I
epen
n
rice of virgiho Gouyy,
ships with'the United States to release the picture. nor the yellow
Liberal Party leader. Godoy had
At a briefing of the Ministry of
j been in the government after the Defense, Harkin and Kerry are { dried. flowers clutched in her left'.,
revolution but quit to run in last joined by others, including three cori- hand. Next to her is a beautiful 15-
year's election. He then withdrew, gressmen, One is Rep, Tommy F year-old, Jilma Montoya.. "
saying there was no possibility of a Robinson, a Democrat from Little One of the religious workers,
Rock. Neighbors came and told
fair vote.. translates
The senators asked Godoy what Robinson says he is "going to the Jilma that the contras were going to,
be thought of. atrocities said. to be war zone tomorrow: I don't care if it ::rate her. Estrella, a school teacher,
committed by contras. - takes 10 hours; Now I'm a hawk. If brought Jilma down to Managua for
"It is true. These atrocities occur Reagan doesn't have me, he doesn't {. safekeeping. Back in the mountains,,
on both sides." And once again came have anybody, "but I have to keep on her way to teach, Estrella and
talk of peace: "I believe this happens, asking myself who are we to be tell- four others were killed when the.`^
because war is cruel. We are op- ing them what kind of government contras ambushed their white pick
Marxist regime."