PRESIDENTIAL LETTER FROM CONGRESSMAN HAMILTON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86M00886R001400140026-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 26, 2011
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: June 5, 1984
• Content Type: MEMO

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OLL 84-3015/1
5 June 1984
MEMORANDUM FOR: Rear Admiral John Poindexter
Deputy Assistant to the President for
National Security Affairs
SUBJECT: Presidential Letter from Congressman Hamilton
1. Attached you will find our suggested answer to Congressman
Hamilton in response to his letter to the President dated 31 May.
2. As I informed Ron Sable, Congressman Hamilton has not been
directly in touch with the Agency on this matter. We received inquiries
concerning the President's speech from the House Intelligence staff. The
staff informed us they were calling for Congressman Hamilton.
3. For your information, the staff is basically attempting to
identify hard intelligence held by this Agency on the exact amount of
arms shipped. from Nicaragua to the Salvador rebels. As we are unable
to give a precise answer to this question, we will probably find them
hammering this issue further. As the letter indicates, our basic response
is that the quantity of arms shipped into Nicaragua by the Soviet Bloc
is far in excess of Managua's needs. There can be no question that many of
those arms are being shipped on to Salvador. At no time have we indicated
to Congressman Hamilton or any other Member of our Oversight Caamittees
that we expected or predicted that Nicaragua would be sending tanks,
armored personnel carriers or other heavy equipment into Salvador.
4. Please let us know if there is any other information we can
provide.
air George
Director, Office of Legislative Liaison
Attachment:
As Stated
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Clair E. George, Director, office of Legislative Liaison/CIA
Presidential Letter From Congressman Hamilton
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The Honorable Lee H. Hamilton
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Mr. Hamilton:
Thank you for your letter of 31 May to the President, which
has been referred to me to answer. I have been in contact with
the Central Intelligence Agency about the information it has given
to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on the
delivery of Communist military-associated equipment to Nicaragua
and the provision of arms to the guerrillas in El Salvador. I am
assured that the Agency has given you all of its finished
intelligence on these topics.
I am also told that Mr. Richard Giza and Mr. Thomas Latimer of
the HPSCI staff spoke with the Agency asking about the President's
interview of 28 May with Irish television. They were referred to
articles in the National Intelligence Dailies of 29 and 31 May
which discuss the most recent arms deliveries to Nicaragua by
Bulgarian and Soviet merchant ships. Copies of those articles, as
well as a more recent NID article of 2 June, are enclosed.
I would like to address the substance of this problem,
beginning with the Soviet and East European supply of heavy
weapons to Nicaragua. The Bulgarian arms delivery of late May
contained at least 41 T-54/55 medium tanks, 38 BTR 152 armored
personnel carriers, as well as other military-related equipment.
With this latest delivery of Soviet-made equipment, Nicaragua has
effectively doubled its armor holdings--which now include some 110
medium tanks, 26 light amphibious tanks, and 100 armored personnel
carriers--since May 1983. The tanks and other major items of
hardware appear intended to boost the Sandinistas' own
conventional and counterinsurgency capabilities.
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In addition to these major armor shipments, Nicaragua
continues to receive a steady flow of small arms and ammunition,
for its own purposes and to supply the insurgents in El Salvador.
Over the last four years, the unprecedented growth of Nicaragua's
military machine has enabled Managua to free up other stockpiles
of arms and ammunition fo ivery to the guerrillas in El
25X1
Salvador. stated in the past that air and ship
traffic from Cuba regularly brings small arms and ammunition into
Nicaragua. We estimate that from early 1982 to late 1983, the
Salvadoran insurgents received about 80 percent of their
ammunition and 45 percent of their ragua. These
figures are derived captured 25X1
guerrilla documents, and regarding the 25X1
infiltration of weapons in o Salvador wring the specified
period. Moreover, earlier this year 25X1
indicated that the guerrillas were prepared to receive some 3.8
tons of ammunition and other military-related supplies. In 25X1
addition, recently reported that arms,
ammunition, ano o er supplies are being flown into Honduras from
Nicaragua, and then transported into El Salvador; the aircraft
used reportedly belong to one of the Salvadoran guerrilla factions
and are regularly based in Nicaragua.
In sum,. neither the National Security Council nor the CIA
believes the President's statement was misleading. As always, the
Agency is ready to brief you personally and in detail should you
wish more information.
Sincerely,
John M. Poindexter
Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security
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Nicaragua: Deliveries of Communist
Military-Associated Equipment
by Soviet Merchant Ships
Number
of Ships
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Honduras
TEGUFICALPA
Nica-ragua
MANAGUA*3&Ddino
Soviet-made
radar in storage
New Soviet made , V MA
early warning radar
osta Rica
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The President
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President;
May 31, 1984
Executi:,. !'e;istry
84- . 5G'J
You were quoted in the press as stating that there is a "flood" of Soviet
arms flowing through Nicaragua's ports to guerrillas in El Salvador.
According to the reports, you cited the presence of a Bulgarian ship unloading
tanks and armored personnel carriers at a port in Nicaragua. You were also
quoted as saying that "just a week or two ago-, there were Soviet ships in
there unloading war materiel" and that the Sandinistas are "funneling this
through to the guerrillas in El Salvador."
The implication for the American people of those remarks is that the
Soviet Union is stepping up the provision of war materiel to the guerrillas in
El Salvador, perhaps even to include the introduction of tanks and armored
personnel carriers.
I requested the Central Intelligence Agency to provide me the intelligence
which supports your dramatic assertions. Their response is that they have no
intelligence to support your claim that the recent.Bulgarian and Soviet
shipments to Nicaragua are being sent on to the Salvadoran guerrillas. My own
guess is that t`aose supplies may well be for Nicaragua's own use in fighting
'off the attacks of the contras who are armed and funded by the United States.
That, in fact, is the CIA's own judgment as to the purpose of the Bulgarian
and Soviet shipments you cited.
If such is the case, then your statement was clearly misleading and is in
need of being publicly corrected.
With best wishes, I am
Sincerely yours,
LEE H. HAMILTON, M.C.
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U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
; PERMANENT SELECT COMMITTEE
84 JUN 4 A l l .012I0TELLIGENCE