REAGAN AIDE SAYS CONTRA CAN FELL SANDINISTAS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302630002-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: January 9, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302630002-9
ARTICLE OW
ON PAGE
NEW YORK TIMES
9 January 1987
Reagan Aide Says Contras
Can Fell Sandinistas
By BERNARD GWERTZMAN
Sperlal to The New Yurk I In. --
WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 ? -
gan Administration's top official .n
Latin American affairs pi euicted to-
day that if Congress keeps ,u;iptying
military aid to the Nica cguan rcbeis,
the Soviet-backed SanUtii a invern-
. ment "will not survive
The official, Ellie', AM
ant Secretary of State lot -Amer-
ican Affairs. in enect ruled nu( rile pos-
sibinty of serious peace aegotiA.!ons in
Centrai America until trie Nicaraguan
rebels, known as contras, ar:. able to
put significant military pressure on the
Government in Managua.
His call for increased military ac-
tivity and his prediction about the (Ani-
mate overthrow of *he Sandintstas !f
they do not yield to American demands
for "democfati2.tition" tht.ir '.7.3???,,-
flient were issued as the Pentagon an-
nounced plans tor me lates( show :if
American military power in waters off
Central America. fhe battleship iowa,
accompanied by the guided-missile
cruiser Yorktown and the destroyer
Deyo, will conduct operations off the
region's eastern coast, the Pentagon
said.
Overseer of Policy on Contras
Mr. Abrams is the official in char
the Central intelligence Aftencv dis-
tributes support to the contras, His
comments were a further signal that
Lhe Reagan /Administration intends to
make an all-out effort to pi oss Con-
gress for continued military support
for the contras, even though some in
Congress have said the cause has been
set back by recent disclosures about di-
versions to the contras of payments
from Iran.
This week, bills were introduced' in
Congress to block the last $40 million
appropriation from the $100 million ap-
proved last year fee the Nicaraguan
rebels. Some top officials have said
they view the expected battle over
funding for the contras as one of the
major foreign policy priorities for the
Administration.
Some senior State Department offi-
cials who lack Mr. Abrams's enthu-
siasm for the cause of the contras have
expressed concern that the Adminis-
tration is becoming so tightly locked
into an anti-Sandinista policy that if the
contras falter on the battlefield, pres-
sure may build up within the Adminis-
tration to commit American forces on
their behalf.
Meeting in Miami
On Monday, Mr. Abrams and other
officials met in Miami with the Costa
Rican Foreign Minister to discuss a
new peace plan that State Department
officials said the Nicaraguan Govern-
ment was sure to reject because it
would compel the Sandinista rulers to
institute Western-style democratic re-
tot ms.
ivay Mr Ab i said in a tele-
vis,d !ley., cohierence with corre-
;ponclents in European countries, "If
you believe in negotiations, if you want
the Contadora process to proceed, and
succeed, we believe that the only way
to do it is .rough ific military pressure
that the ,_:ontras can put in the Sandin-
ista regime...
"That' 3 the next step," he said. His
referen..e to the Contadora process
was to the efforts of a group of Latin
American natici:s to negotiate a peace
treaty for Cmc -al America.
"What is needed is a process of ne-
gotiation." Mr. Am ams said, "and that
can be achieved only, only through
pressure on the Sandinistas. If there's
no pressure tney'ro tot goitig to negoti-
ate, they're not going in compromise."
'Sandinistas Will Not Survive'
Mr. Abrams saiu that while no one
can know the future, "I would say that
if this current L3. policy is main-
tained, it seems to me the Sandinistas
will not survive."
"Either they will be forced to com-
promise, or refusing to compromise,
the Nicaraguan people will rise up and
get rid of them, just as the Nicaraguan
people got rid of the dictatorship which
preceded them, the Somoza dictator-
ship," he said.
This is the fourth consecutive year in
which the Iowa has sailed in Central
American waters. This year it will
carry Pioneer drone aircraft, which
can carry sensors, radars and televi-
sion cameras and can sena back recoil-
tiaissance information or fire direction
data.
For the last year, the Reagaii AUrnin,
istr3tion has stressed tne importance
of providing the contras with military
quipment to put pressure on the Nies-
agLia,-. Government. But the Adminis-
tration's stated goal has gradually
,hifted from that of insuring the se-
car, ; of Nicaragua's ,ieigriburs, such
a, ciunduras, El Salvadoi and Costa
iPea. to that of lot cu ig internal
nanges in iNIC,11 agua
Controversy Over a Letter
Dining he la.,t year there nas been
n,,,,ur ,1!,p(aic. i-iver what ihould hap-
pen to the contras if the Sandinistas
agreed to the American deinands. Last
April, Philip C. Habib, the special
United States envoy tor Central Amer-
ican negotiations, wrote a letter to
some members of the House, promis-
ing that the United States would cut off
all support to the rebels as soon as the
Sandinistas signed a peace treaty.
That led several conservatives, in,
cluding Representative Jack F. Kemp,.
a New York Republican, to demand
Mr. Habib's dismissal on the grounds
that he was willing to. "sell out" the
contras.
The conservatives said the letter left
open the possibility that the Sandhi's-
, tas would repudiate the accord once
the contras were cut off from funds.
Mr. Abrams, who had approved Mr. -
Habib's letter, said last May that he
wished he could have rewritten the let-
ter to make it clear that funds to the
contras would not be cut off until an
agreement was carried out.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302630002-9