CONTRAS NEED A SUCCESS SOON, CROWE SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807470006-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: February 13, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807470006-3
19-3).
WASHINGTON POST
13 February 1987
Contras Need a Success Soon, Crowe Says
By George C. Wilson
Washington Poet Staff Writer
The nation's top military officer
said yesterday that Nicaragua's
contras offer the best hope of pro-
tecting U.S. gains in Central Amer-
ica, but he acknowledged that the
rebels must have "some kind of suc-
cess" soon to maintain the support
of the American public.
Adm. William J. Crowe Jr., chair-
man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
added in a breakfast meeting with
Pentagon reporters that he could
not estimate how long it would take
the contras to force the leftist gov-
ernment of Nicaragua to change its
ways. But if the contras fail, he said,
"the chiefs certainly would be op-
posed to direct U.S. involvement."
Crowe, who was asked to specify
what he sees as the U.S. military
objective in supporting the contras,
replied that "it is part of our overall
policy to protect our gains" in Cen-
tral America and "contain Nicara-
gua so she doesn't interfere with
what we've already done."
"We would like to see the contras
succeed in obtaining a change in the
way the government of Nicaragua
does its business" so it becomes
.more pluralistic, stops its repress-
sion and brings the contras into the
political process,* Crowe added.
"We have a good prospect" of
achieving those objectives "if we
are determined and hang in there,"
he continued. "You've got to have
some kind of success" with the con-
tras to keep the United States com-
mitted to the cause. "I don't know
of anybody that would ask the
American public to go along indef-
initely without progress," he added.
Crowe's assessment that the con-
tras have "a good prospect" of mod-
erating the Sandinista government
contrasts sharply with that of re-
tired Army general Paul G. G -
man who formerly hea t e U.S.
"ern Command, which over-
sees military .activities in Central
America. The views of these two
four-star officers represent the
poles of military opinion which Con-
gress must examine as it decides
whether to approve President Rea-
gan's request for $105 million for
the contras in fiscal 1988.
"I don't think they [the Sandinis-
tas) regard the contras as a serious
threat; Gorman told the Senate
Armed Services Committee on Jan.
28. "I think they've got the situa-
tion under control. Therefore, why
should they be considering chang-
ing their ways of doing business?"
Gorman, who serves on a pres-
idential panel assessing U.S. strat-
egy, faulted the Reagan administra-
tion's emphasis on giving the con-
tras guns and sophisticated equip-
ment rather than helping them
wage the kind of unconventional
warfare that proved successful for
the Vietcong in the Vietnam War.
The Vietcong moved through Viet-
namese cities and countryside with
relative ease, especially at night.
"A sound, unconventional warfare
campaign does not involve people
with guns up front," Gorman told
the committee. "It involves a lot of
patient preparation of the battle-
field. Unless and until you have got
the ability to move at will in the
society that you want to attack, you
are not going to be an effective in-
surgent .... They [the contras]
are not that kind of force, partly be-
cause the Central Intelligence
Agency has failed to train them for
unconventional warfare."
The contra force, Gorman con-
tinued, is "a cross-border raiding
force. We are talking about people
who have received a modest
amount of weapons training and a
lot of fancy web gear, some good
weapons. But I do not think they
have got the apparatus in the coun-
try that would enable them to be
militarily efficacious."
"Unless and until we are able to
launch a genuine unconventional
warfare campaign, the use of that
kind of military instrument is not an
option that the president of tjne
United States has," Gorman sal&of
the contras.
While declaring "it ought to be
possible" to build an intellice
network in Nicaraguan cities so
rebel forces could successfully
wage unconventional warfare, Gor-
man said, "I have not heard anyone
describe a plan that would in the
long haul say we are going to have
an alternative to the Sandinista re-
gime. I do not see a way out of our
present difficulty."
Gotcnan ret rtmmnnd ed th2t tho.
U.S. military take over the training
of the contras from the Central In-
telljence Agency... owe said he
had "a bias" in that direction but
added that the CIA had been "very
skilled" in some of its training.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807470006-3