COKIE ROBERTS REPORTS: THE PRESIDENT'S SPEECH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000100680004-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 17, 2007
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: April 28, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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RADIO TV REPORTS, INC.
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PBS Network
DATE April 28, 1983 8:00 P.M. CITY Washington, D.C.
SUBJECT Cokie Roberts Reports: The President's Speech
PAUL DUKE: The President's speech was a bold attempt by
Mr. Reagan to mobilize public opinion behind the view that a
greater U.S. commitment is essential in Latin America. Cokie
Roberts has been talking to senators and representatives, and
we'll have a report on their reaction.
COKIE ROBERTS: Most lawmakers seem pleased at the style
of the President's speech, if not all of the substance.
DUKE: Actually, the Administration has had trouble over
its Latin policies ever since Mr. Reagan took office, which, as
Linda Wertheimer tells us, is the reason the President felt
compelled to make the trip to the Capitol in the first place.
LINDA WERTHEIMER: Lately, Paul, the President's
policies have been taking a beating in Congress, and he clearly
decided it was time to pull out all the stops and rescue what he
could. He tried to ease a skittish Congress into line.
PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN: We've discussed all of these
issues, and more, with leaders and members of the Congress.
Their views have helped shape our own thinking. And I believe
that we've developed a common course to follow.
WERTHEIMER: It was seven weeks ago that a conciliatory-
sounding President announced that he would ask Congress to work
with him to provide additional military aid to El Salvador,
money, the President emphasized, important for the welfare of
both nations.
PRESIDENT REAGAN: The nations of Central America are
among our nearest neighbors. El Salvador, for example is nearer
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to Texas than Texas is to Massachusetts. Central America is
simply too close and the strategic stakes are too high for us to
ignore the danger of governments seizing power there with
ideological and military ties to the Soviet Union.
WERTHEIMER: Without American help supporting the
government, the Administration fears leftists could seize power
in El Salvador. Congressional opponents disagree.
MAN: What the Administration fears most, it is con-
tributing most to. If they follow their policy, there's a far
greater likelihood of a Marxist government in El Salvador than if
we tried a negotiated solution. And the Administration is
following a policy that allows the guys with the guns to deter-
mine the future of El Salvador, not the politicians.
WERTHEIMER: Politicians in the United States began
meeting immediately on the President's request for military aid
to El Salvador. Four congressional committees have the power to
say how much aid and under what conditions. And many members
don't see the situation as the President's men do.
MAN: If we simply wash our hands of the conflict, then
indeed, Mr. Chairman, the military strength that the Soviets and
the Cubans have assembled in the region is quite adequate to turn
Central America into another Eastern Europe.
MAN: It seems to me that, in a sense, you've become
your own worst enemy, with all the rhetoric about -- it's not
that El Salvador itself reminds people of Vietnam, it's what you
all are saying reminds people of Vietnam. It's talking about,
you know, we're going to have an Eastern Europe in Latin America
and we're going to have a -- the dominoes are falling. And even
if it's all true, I would have thought you could have come up
with something different.
WERTHEIMER: Vivid memories of Vietnam concern the
congressmen and their constituents. Older members heard other
Presidents make assurances and gave them support. Younger ones
ran against politicians who supported that war.
El Salvador, they all agree, is different, a neighbor
nation where our interests are plainly involved. But the concern
about military possibilities remains strong.
MAN: I hear from people my parents', my father's age
more than I do from younger people on this issue.
SENATOR DANIEL INOUYE: I'm always haunted by the fact
that I did support this conflict in the beginning. Because,
whether directly or indirectly, my decision played a role in the
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death of men and the expenditure of our treasury.
WERTHEIMER: The doubts of a moderate like Inouye raise
questions for other members of Congress, a quiet man, a Democrat
who tries to support Presidents of either party on foreign policy
questions. Inouye's concerns led members of both parties to
reconsider support for the Administration.
MAN: I think we're building a strong bipartisan
coalition in Congress that transcends what the Adminitration
thinks is the traditional opponents of the Administration on this
issue.
MAN: The fact of the matter is, the American public are
getting growingly concerned. The international public opinion is
growingly concerned. And most importantly, the results that our
policy are leading to are dramatically awful.
WERTHEIMER: Congressional concerns about U.S. Latin
American policy were intensified by recent and renewed charges
that the United States is involved in a secret war against
Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government. President Reagan
acknowledges aiding the guerrillas in Nicaragua, but says teh aid
is tied to El Salvador, that the leftist government in Nicaragua
is helping leftist insurgents in El Salvador.
MAN: And what I can say is that your Intelligence
Committee is as concerned about the substance of the allegations
concerning paramilitary activities in Nicaragua and Central
America as all of you.
WERTHEIMER: Last December, that concern led Congress to
pass a special amendment to restrain the Administration. The
Boland Amendment says federal funds may not be used for military
aid for the purpose of overthrowing the government of Nicaragua.
The President says that's not what his Administration intends, bu
the Congress is not entirely convinced.
It became clearer every day that differences between the
Congress and the President on Nicaraguan policy affect El
Salvador as well.
MAN: Members who follow these issues closey are trying
to look at the Central America policy as a whole and not, you
know, simply isolate what are we doing in Guatemala or what are
we doing vis-a-vis Nicaragua or Salvador.
WERTHEIMER: Of the four committees with authority over
aid to El Salvador, the House Foreign Affairs Committee said no
additional aid. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee granted
half the aid request, with some restrictions. The Senate Appro-
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priations approved all the aid, but with very tight restrictions.
And this week the House Appropriations Committee made its
decision.
REP. CLARENCE LONG: Today we're meeting to vote on the
Administration's proposal to reprogram $60 million in foreign
military sales credits to El Salvador.
WERTHEIMER: Chairman Long, just returned from Latin
America, made an agreement with the Administration. He'd keep
the aid alive, agreeing to half the amount, if the President
would appoint a special envoy to the region.
REP. LONG: Never before -- we've offered to spend many
millions of dollars on aid to all kinds of countries. Never
before have we ever got anything for the money. This time we're
getting a little something. We're getting some concessions from
the Administration.
WERTHEIMER: The more critical members of the committee
felt that kind of concession would not help the situation.
MAN: Very frankly, once that ambassador is appointed,
the Administration will have an excuse to say to Congress, "Look,
boys. You asked for this. And now as long as we have an
ambassador appointed at your request, you have an obligation to
meet our funding requests."
WERTHEIMER: Republicans made a plainly futile plea for
the Congress to go along with the President on foreign policy.
MAN: If we make the wrong decision here today, we are
risking the collapse of the government in El Salvador. And we
are thereby risking the security of every man, woman and child in
this country. I think that we should fulfill the President's
complete request for $60 million.
WERTHEIMER: The chairman's compromise carried in the
House committee, pleasing the chairman, but very few others.
Then the Congress waited to hear from the President in an
atmosphere of concern and skepticism.
MAN: Now, if he, you know, addresses the kind of
concerns that the members of Congress have about the political,
social, economic problems of the region, if that's the principal
focus of his speech, I think he'll get a very good reception. If,
on the other hand, he gives a speech, sort of a classic Republi-
can the-Reds-are-coming stump speech, I think he's going to get a
very negative reception and he'll further divide people rather
than pull people together.
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WERTHEIMER: Lawmakers of both parties waited to see
what the President's rhetoric would be, Republicans with some
trepidation, worrying that Ronald Reagan might appear to be too
militaristic. So it was with relief that they received the
President's opening remarks.
PRESIDENT REAGAN: A number of times in past years,
members of Congress and a President have come together in
meetings like this to resolve a crisis. I have asked for this
meeting in the hope that we can prevent one.
WERTHEIMER: Even one of the harshest opponents of the
El Salvador policy approved of the tone of the President's
speech.
MAN: He certainly played down the rhetoric from past
speeches. We didn't have the flamboyant, really militaristic
rhetoric of Alexander Haig in years gone by.
WERTHEIMER: And one Republican critic seemed somewhat
mollified.
WOMAN: I think he made a lot of good statements, and I
did support the statements that he made when they were applauded.
I think it was significant to that extent. And also, it was a
comprehensive statement on his policy in Central America,
particularly with respect to El Salvador and Nicaragua. And I
think it was important to the President to make this policy
statement, because the American people have questioned our
intervention in Central America. So he spelled out and outlined
his reasonings and rationale behind his current policy there.
WERTHEIMER: Because the American people have questioned
the policy, their representatives have been hesitant to implement
it. The President had to convince not only the members of
Congress, but also their constituents that Central America
matters to them.
PRESIDENT REAGAN: El Salvador is nearer to Texas than
Texas is to Massachusetts. Nicaragua is just as close to Miami
as San Antonio, San Diego and Tucson as those cities are to
Washington, where we are gathered tonight.
REP. GERRY STUDDS: Well, that's all very interesting.
The Soviet Union is nearer to Alaska than any of them are to
Washington. But it's irrelevant.
REP. CHARLES WILSON: Congressman Studds is from
Massachusetts and I'm from Texas. Mexico and El Salvador and
Guatemala are lot closer to my state than they are to his.
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WERTHEIMER: Talk about how close Central America is
scares some people who worry the President could send the
Marines. Mr. Reagan went out of his way to allay those fears.
PRESIDENT REAGAN: There is no thought of sending
American combat troops to Central America. They are not needed.
WOMAN: The only time that I noticed a bipartisan
applause is when the President mentioned that he had no inten-
tions of sending troops into Central America.
MAN: I was struck by one thing in the chamber tonight,
and that is the extent to which the reaction to the President's
speech divided along partisan lines. With one exception, the
standing ovations were led almost entirely by members on the
Republican side. The exception, interestingly enough, was when
the President said that there was no need to send American combat
troops to Central America, which immediately provoked a standing
set of cheers from the Democratic side.
WERTHEIMER: If the President did answer one of the
fears of the American people, he failed to answer another. He
said nothing about justice for the murderers of American nuns in
El Salvador. Instead, he praised the El Salvador government.
PRESIDENT REAGAN: The government of El Salvador has
been keeping its promises.
WERTHEIMER: But members of Congress say the murder of
the nuns stands as the biggest stumbling block to support for aid
to El Salvador.
REP. LONG: Fifteen thousand murders in two years
without one single conviction, not one. And the American nuns,
who were raped and murdered, beaten and murdered by soldiers, one
of whom confessed. And then the cases were remanded to another
court.
WOMAN: ...members of Congress who are asked to vote for
additional assistance and for assistance, in any category, to
Central America, and specifically El Salvador, that we have also
the right to expect that, in return, that they are going to
uphold the rights of their people and that they will pursue
justice for the murders of the nuns and for others who have died
in El Salvador.
WERTHEIMER: Lawmakers say it's hard enough to get aid
for friendly nations in these times, much less governments that
people distrust. But the President made his pitch.
PRESIDENT REAGAN: What the Administration is asking for
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in behalf of freedom in Central America is so small, so minimal,
considering what is at stake.
MAN: If you look at what we have given to El Salvador
alone in the last two years -- and I believe that totals some
$700 million of assistance, as Senator Dodd pointed out -- that
that really exceeds what has gone to our local governments here
in the United States for maternal and children health programs.
WERTHEIMER: The question now will be whether the
President was able to overcome the objections of the people, to
convince them to convince their representatives to support him on
El Salvador.
PRESIDENT REAGAN: This is not a partisan issue. It is
a question of our meeting our moral responsibility to ourselves,
our friends, and our posterity.
REP. LONG: I think he's going to get a lot of support,
letters of support. But I think it's going to evoke a tremendous
storm of opposition from people who are against it. And this is
going to cause them to reach for their children's notepaper and
send a letter in. So, when the two wash out, I don't think it's
going to come out to a net gain.
MAN: I think the speech will be very effective in
making a lot of members stop and think just what is it that we're
about to do.
WERTHEIMER: What Congress does do will probably depend
on how the President's speech played back in the lawmakers' home
districts. So far, public opinion's been strongly opposed to aid
to El Salvador, and members of Congress have felt politically
brave to give the President even half of what he wants.
WERTHEIMER: The latest congressional attempt to deal
with foreign policy has ended in apparent success, Paul. The
President has appointed that special envoy to the Central
American region that the House Appropriations Committee made the
price of their support for aid for El Salvador. The President's
man in Central America will be Richard Stone. He's a former
Senator from Florida.
There is some controversy here. Stone has been paid to
lobby for Guatemala, and that may be a problem in his confirma-
tion. And then, of course, as we heard some critics of the Latin
American policy are critical of this idea too.
DUKE: And the next step, Cokie?
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COKIE ROBERTS: Well, the first next step was postponed;
and that was the day after the President's speech, the House
Intelligence Committee was scheduled to vote on cutting off funds
to the CIA to have covert actions in Nicaragua. The Intelligence
Committee decided to postpone that vote until after a very
unusual secret session of the House of Representatives. The
House doesn't usually go into secret sessions. It leaves that to
the Senate. Because most people think that it's pretty silly to
think of 435 people trying to keep a secret.
It does give the Intelligence Committee an opportunity,
though, to play the President's game. The Intelligence Committee
is briefed by the CIA and others on secret situations, and they
know what's going on. They've heard the President selectively
declassify, tell secrets to support his position. They can't do
that, except in a secret session.
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