REAGAN WILL TAKE SOME MAJOR RISKS BEFORE JOINT SESSION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505400075-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 75
• Publication Date: April 24, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09 :CIA-RDP90-005528000505400075-7
F GTf ^LE APPEARED
~E~ YURK TIMES
24 April 1983
Reagan Wi11 Take, ~
dome IVlajor Risks
Before Joint Session
w~-ssn~rcmx
Y nine times in the past quarter of a
century have American Presidents
gone before a special joint session of
Congress. In 18'i2, Richasd'Nixoa re-
ported on the arms agreements signed in Mo.~
c~ ssZth the Soviet leadership. In lfl?8, Jimmy
Carter sharev the triumph of the Camp David
relics on the Middle East. In earlier times, Lyn-
don Johnson made a major address on voting
riehts leg+sla:ion, Ha.-n~ S. Truman araounced
Marshal: Plan aid to Europe and Franklin D.
Roosevelt reported on the Yalta conference.
If President Reagan wanted to seise the na-
tion's attention and focus the political spotlight
on Cen*_-al America, he has done it by choosing
::is same august platform for a major add.-ess
on that bedeviled region neat Wednesday night
His extraorriiaP.ry move has raised fears
among Congressiotsal Republicans that this
might be an exaggerated reaction to the House
Foreign A,`fairs Committee vote last week re-
ie=ring the Pmsideat's request for anot!-er S50
million in military aid to EI Sals~ador.
"At :hat rate, can you isagine haw aany
tirne< he would have to come up here to defend a
5700 billion budget," asked one pro-Reagan
Congre`sional Rapublicar. "It's a high risk
svategs? be^.ause some people will say he's
tr+':^g :c crzg t=< into another Vsetaam," added
a Senate Republican leadetslup.sourrx.
"There is 2 real opportunity for him to create
bipar-asan support if he stresses the U.S. com-
nti~ent to economic development and to social
and political justice," suggested Repr~ta-
tive Michael Barnes, an influential Democratic
critic of the Administration. "But if he comes
up here and gives a Red scare speech, it will
further polarize the debate; it will raise ten-
sioru not Daly internatioaaIly but within Con-
gress and make it even more difficult for us to
act rationally on these questions."
T2~e white House irssists it has not tmderesti-
mated the risks the President is taking by obvi-
ously tying his persona) Prestige w success
Wednesday night. For the first two years of his
Administration, political advisers like White
Haue Chief of Staff James A. Baker 3d deliber-
ately protected him from public disfavor aver
the draining Salvadoran war by keeping him
from being t:oo closely tied w ft. But William P.
Clark, the national security adviser, has en-
couraged the President to speak nut on Central
America, once last month and
again this week. ,
white House officials say
that Mr. Baker and his eatou-
tage enthusiastically endorsed
the idea of going before a spe-
vial session, Partly because
they wished to mead Peaces
with Ms. Clark after persistent
reports of friction be~veea him
and the Baker group. But the main impetus has
been the steady erosion of support for Acimini~
tratioa policy iL Congress, discouraged by the
drawn-0ut milita:z? smuggle in El Salvador and
a.n~ous about the dangers of covertly aiding
NiCarag-tans fighting the CA.,e1;n;~, A move t0
cut off funds for the covert activity was put off
by the House Intelligence Committee until after
Ms. Reagan's speech. In the meantime, several
commitee members acxepted a C.I.A. invite.
lion to take a guided tour of the secxet Nicara-
guanfront this weekend.
"Fve're getting nibbled to death on Capitol
Hill." a White House official acltnowledged.
"T'ne perception of the situation in Central
America is bad." he went on. "There's a stmag
feeling in t_he R'hite House that the speech the
President made 12s month seas not high visibil-
ity. It did not get much attention. we had the
feeling that we were seeing the beginning of a
long downward roll an Central America in Con-
gress, in the media and among the public, and if
we didn't step in and stop it noR, if we didn't
make our case, we'd lose ~. the long nm."
5'OVIC't ~t5S1~ T~1P@c'i't5
President Reagan found fresh support for his
case is the disclosure last week that Brazil had
slapped four Libyan planes from carrying
mu~aitions to Nicaragua under the guise of
medical supplies. "The episode," he said,
"wbm the aspirin they were supposed to be car-
nirtg turned out to be hand grenades and
thirtgs, is just further evidence that there are
outside forces, all of them principally aligned
with or sympathetic to the Communist bloc,
who are is there and intervening fa the legiti-
mate arfairs of those ootmtries. ?'
Another serious worry lies in Soviet threats to
put medium?rdage missiles into the Caribbean
area in reprisal for scheduled American missile
deployments in western Europe later this year.
Defense secretary Caspar w. Weinberger re-
minds visitors that this shows the dangers of al-
lowing neighbors like Nicaragua or II Salvador
to fall under forces linked to Moscow.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09 :CIA-RDP90-005528000505400075-7