NICARAGUAN DEVELOPMENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504140011-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: April 18, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
to help the Contras.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504140011-9
BROKAW: John Chancel or is
here with his commentar .now.
And tonight he's discussing the
President's controversial plan
prevent further improprieties.
then its accounting policie to
The Air Force says t e
company has agreed= to stre g-
ting phony bills.
indicted on charges of submit
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lifted most of its .ban on
General Electric as a bidder on
defense contracts.. The ban was
imposed last month after GE was
JOHN CHANCELLOR: uIn the
big-money world of Was ington,
rarely has so lit le been
opposed by so roan . The
President wants my $14
million for the Con ra rebels
who are fighting th government
of Nicaragua, b t he has
stirred up massiv_ opposition
to military aid, w ich includes
Pope John Paul II the American
Catholic Church, he Presidents
of Costa Rica a1id Colombia, a
probable majority of the House
of Representati'es, and a large
number of senators.
A lot of p ople, including
many who dion't like the
Nicaraguan government, think it
is wrong to/ pay money for a
nasty little 'war which our side
cannot win / General Paul F.
Gorman, w-y'o headed American
forces in 9entral America, has
said that'the Contras aren't
strong enough to overthrow the
Sandinistas in the foreseeable
future.
Thera is talk of humani-
tarian did instead of military
aid. / And that's how the
compro/nise may come out. But
free ,'food and medicine might
enable the Contras to keep on
figheing. And that seems to be
the hub of the problem.
ontinuing aid to the
Contras would mean continuing
American involvement in a
military campaign which has no
chance of victory. That would
mean more deaths and more
costs. No one knows where it
would end. No one can say
precisely what would acr_om-
plish, o ther than keeping
pressure on the Sandinistas,
which t h e y ' v e been a to
handle so far.
nberger,
Senator David Dur,
who chairs the In elligence
Committee, says th t if we're
really serious ab tit control-
ling-the Sandinis s, we should
get together w' h the other
Central Ameri n countries,
under the OAS harter and the
Rio Treaty, and start some
collective a lion: cut. trade
and diploma is ties, consider a
naval bloc ade.
.Gettiry~ together with your
neigh bo s when you feel,
threat ned is a good rule.
Suppor.ing rebels who can't win
is a bad one. And that's why
aid to the Contras has been in
such trouble..
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT ABC-TV
7:00 P.M. APRIL 18
Nicaraguan Developments
PETER JENNINGS: And now the
debate about support for the
anti-government forces in
Nicaragua. President Reagan
has been facing some unending
opposition in Congress, and
today he was giving some ground
on his request for $14 million
in aid for the Contras.
On Capitol Hill, here's
ABC's Brit Hume.
BRIT HUME: Secretary of
State Shultz was sent to
Capitol Hill today to try to
help salvage a situation that
looked increasingly bleak for
the Administration. He tried
to put the best face on it.
SECRETARY SHULTZ: I think
4 Friday, April 19, 1985
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it is a outstanding example of
the democratic process at work.
HUME: That's the kind of
thing you say when you're
looking for compromise, not
when you. think you're going to
win.
Still, the President kept
trying today, even urging the
orbiting Utah Republican
Senator Garn to get back in
time for the Contra aid vote on
Tuesday. Garn said he would.
SENATOR GARN: I'm well
aware of the vote on the
Nicaraguan aid on Tuesday
night, and I'll be voting just
the way you'd like me to when I
get back.
HUME: But the President
made clear in a speech later to
editors and broadcasters that
he was ready to compromise,
although he didn't like being
rushed.
PRESIDENT REAGAN: My feet
aren't in concrete on this.
Yes, there's leeway. We're
flexible as to the details of
this program. But how much
time do you have? It's
Thursday and they've said the
vote must be Tuesday. I think
it is -- I think it's immoral
to demand that vote that
quickly.
HUME: Immoral or not, House
Speaker O'Neill made clear he
was in no mood to postpone the
vote.
REP. O'NEILL: Of course,
there has to be a direct
up-and-down vote on the
President's measure. We hope
that we can defeat it, and we
think we have the votes.
HUME: Indeed, the Democra-
tic-controlled House Rules
Committee moved quickly this
afternoon to clear the way for
Tuesday's vote as scheduled.
Down at the White House,
meanwhile, the shape of a
compromise began to emerge
after a series of meetings
between the President and
Senate opponents. It would
mean the Contras would get the
$14 million, but not for
military purposes.
SEN. JAMES EXON: Some of us
who are opposed to any military
aid could vote for humanitarian
aid for a specific period of
time.
HUME: Congress just might
buy that, but the rules
apparently require a vote first
on the money as military aid.
It is a vote for which House
liberals, beaten so often in
the past by the President, can
hardly wait.
JENNINGS: In the middle of
this debate on Nicaragua comes
a claim from U.S. Intelligence
that at least a dozen Soviet
military advisers are working
with Nicaraguan troops. ABC's
John MeWethy says they're not
reported to be involved in
combat, but are providing
technical and tactical help in
some of the areas where the
fighting is heavy.
McWethy has just been to one
of those areas, and he reports
tonight on the Sandinistas'
controversial resettlement
program.
JOHN MCWETHY: It is
daybreak in a combat zone,
Northern Nicaragua, on the
border with Honduras. This is
where what is being debated in
Washington will have its
greatest impact. These are the
people, the peasants, or
campesinos, who are caught in
the middle.
Because of the war being
waged by the pro-American
guerrillas, called Contras, the
government of Nicaragua has
ordered tens of thousands of
these peasants to leave their
villages. They are loaded on
to trucks and are hauled off to
resettlement camps.
Nicaragua says the peasants
and their children are brought
here to protect-them from the
5 Friday, April 19, 1985
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504140011-9
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504140011-9
Contras. Others say it is to
prevent these farmers from
helping the guerrillas and to
provide free labor to work the
.valuable coffee plantations of
this border region.
In either case, resettlement
camps, like this one at El
Escambray, which is just one
mile from the Honduran border
in the land of the Contras,
accomplishes both ends. It is
constantly under the watchful
eye of a Nicaraguan army
garrison and its Cuba advisers.
They are in and out of camp all
day.
Fifty-six families have been
moved into this makeshift
housing in the last two months.
Though ABC had a Nicaraguan
army escort, many in this
refugee camp said quite openly
that they were forced to move
here against their will, that
they supported neither side in
the war, but just wanted to be
left alone.
Guillermo Agucia (?), who
has already lost one son in the
fighting, was uprooted with his
family from his isolated
mountain farm. He was not
allowed to bring his two mules,
his cow, or his pigs, and
presumes the government took
them. He hates it here, but
would not say that on camera.
Others who would talk on
camera said they are content.
For many, this resettlement
camp is providing better
housing than they've ever had
before, a clinic with a nurse,
schools for their children, and
food on the table.
There is little understan-
ding of world politics here,
plenty of criticism for both
the Marxist government of
Nicaragua and the Contras who
want to overthrow it. But
there is a special kind of
feeling about the Yankee:
respect and fear, a feeling
that help from the U.S. would
be welcomed, but. not the kind
of help that brings more
fighting, more killing into the
lives of people who are already
struggling just to survive.
JENNINGS: George Will joins
us tonight with a commentary
from Washington.
George, the Presiden.t
doesn't look like he's doing
too well on this debate with
the Congress. Have you got any
advice for him?
GEORGE WILL: Yes, "Fight
harder," Peter.
Less than three months into
his second term, he's in danger
of suffering a stunning loss to.
his credibility by refusing to
go to the country on television
to make his case for aid to the
Contras. His aides are telling
him he might lose. There are'
two answers to that: He might
now. And second, there are
things worse for a President
than losing, and one of them is
looking silly. And that's how
the President is beginning to
look.
He's saying Nicaragua is a
threat to the stability of the
hemisphere, and ultimately our
national security. He says the
cause of the Contras is just,
indeed they're the moral
equivalent of the Founding
Fathers. Yet. he will not use,
evidently, his fundamental
power. The only thing a
President can do on his own is
move the country, and by moving
the country move Congress. He
doesn't seem to want to do
that.
Instead, he's negotiating
giver more minute restrictions
on this minute $14 million of
aid.
This isn't a compromise,
it's a defeat for the Presi-
dent, and it's one that will
have reverberations throughout
his second term.
JENNINGS: George, thank you
very much for joining us.
6 Friday, Aori' 19, l08`'
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504140011-9