ARMING MANAGUA

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP90-00965R000504730018-7
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
1
Document Creation Date: 
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date: 
February 8, 2012
Sequence Number: 
18
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
June 16, 1986
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
File: 
AttachmentSize
PDF icon CIA-RDP90-00965R000504730018-7.pdf85.82 KB
Body: 
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08 :CIA-RDP9O-009658000504730018-7 STAT- ~. ,.~ ~'''~'' R APPEAL ~ 1~t1 fll~ ?iltYil~~ior! WASHINGTON POST 16 June 1986 ~~/ Rowland Erawat and Robert Novak 'n 1Vlana a g ~~ Even though the House has grown a tittk warmer toward giving President Reagan 6100 rnildan for anticommunist guerrillas, mode and more Soviet acme are pouring into Nicaragua in an effort to beggar U.S. aid to the contras as too tittle, too late. White House officials are Preparing to deliver that message in confidential briefrc?s this week for Speaker Thomas P. O'Neiti and lesser Democratic lead- ers. Nobody is hoping to convert the speaker's deep and emotional opposition to the contras. The president's men just want to ease the intensity that for weeks has kept the issue from a House votes To do that, Reagan and his aides pray O'Neill witi consider the implications of the Soviet buildup in Sandinista armed power. He will be advised that more Soviet acme have reached Nicaragua this year than in all of 1985 and that Soviet pilots are actually "test-flying" just-delivered helicopters. If help for the anticommunist resis- tance is further delayed. the Soviet buildup cook! make the Sandinista forces so strong that the military balar>ce in Nicaragua would be fromen. The contras then never could be transformed from a ragtag band to a serious operational force with a chucce of changing the regime in Managua. Such warnings have not prevtousiy been received with respect in the Dem- ocratic hideaways of Capitol Hill. Aided by a handful of Republican defectors, an overwhelming majority of House Demo- crests has voted to block contra aid, But small, scattered signs of change give the president new hope. Rep. Olympia Snows, a liberal Re- publican from Maine, has told head counters she probably will switch and vote yes when the contra aid bill comes up (even though, a colleague told us, ?she will be handwringing all the way"). Also included in a group of fence-sitting House members that recently visited Central Amerip was Rep. Richard Ray, a moderate Democrat from Georgia. He also leans toward a switch. White House insiders beGev~tftey have acquired allies among House'~em- ocrats who could help the president mitigate O'NeiU's wrath over thy'-Con- tras as killers of babies and nuns: Y'hese congressmen heard sharp attacks on the Sandinistas in private talks with Central America's four democratically elected Presidents. from Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador-[Hoch sharper than is heard in public. That may reflect Reagan's efforts to Pump up support for the contra plans by talking on the telephone to his C~1tra1 American counterparts, One president received the impression that while Reagan does not want to send any,U.S. troops to Nicaragua, he will if he hay to. But the rapid Sandinista military ~uP also e~lains the trend of the fence-sitters to Reagan. Until cr0a4; no Soviet pilot has ever been known t~tr fly a combat aircraft for or in a eeuntry hostile to the United States o4 the American mainland, According ttr White House sources. Soviet "technical assem- bly persocutel" and test pilots are- bact- ~g ~ new batch of MI-8 heli~Qpiers that arrived at Corinto last nwnth. The MI-8 is a t f-the-line Soviet counterutsurgency weapon, esrgne or utcx movement of troo s, s ort-tan e reconrtalssance an rat su or tom t units. -speed in the Nicaraguan buildup is seen by Maecow as imperative in the interest of beating resumed U.S, aid to the contras, there was no time to train local pibts before the heGco t~ers~ ar- rived. Instead. the Kremlin ?ti9Tced a negative response in Congress'~nd a Reagan administration reaction bZ,send- ing Soviet pilots. They are flightiesting and training, but not flying combaLmis- sions as of now. Another development that will be carefully analyzed for the speaker is completion of the new Sandinista 'fnili- tary port of EI Bluff on the Caribbean, the first major harbor on the Atlantic side of the isthmus. The new rrulitacy harbor transforms the supply-line prob- lem, cutting weeks from future arms debveries from the Soviet Uruori .and Cuba. Until now, Soviet supply Ships have had to circumnavigate Seuth America and unload at Corinto?~ the Pacific side, the only harbor in Nicara- gua safe for large ships. - Tip O'Neill over the years has- paid more attention to stories of atr-octities than the Soviet military and even.strate- gic threat on the American mainland. Now_ he is being asked to look at hard uitelLAence m hopes that he will Hasten con?ressional action ore it comes too late to matter. . , `;'JBti. Ncw;gmrr a ~yndtcatr , Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08 :CIA-RDP9O-009658000504730018-7