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Contra-versy in Congress
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11008 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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6 / 1986 |
2,531 Words |
| Author
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Timothy Goodman
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The Contra aid debate figures to be this years' biggest political drama. U.S. military assistance to Nicaraguan rebels seeking to overthrow the communist Sandinista regime has become the top foreign policy initiative of President Regan's second term.
The Nicaraguan struggle constitutes the first major test of the "Reagan Doctrine": the worldwide rollback of communism. The preliminary front for this struggle is the U.S. Congress, which for months has debated whether or not to approve military aid. This unusually partisan and acrimonious debate has sharply divided Congress.
Until this year House speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill (D-Massachusetts) and Majority leader Jim Wright (D-Texas) had been able to defeat Contra aid almost at will. In 1984 Congress barred all U.S. aid to the rebels, ending three years of covert CIA support.
On April 23, 1985, the House decisively rejected $14 million in military aid, and the following day it rejected by a narrower margin the same amount in humanitarian aid. Only after Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega flew to Moscow to request Soviet aid did Congress reverse itself and approve $27 million in humanitarian aid.
By January 1986, though, congress appeared to be tending more in Reagan's direction. The Sandinistas had by then lost almost all of their friends in Congress, due primarily to Ortega's October 15 crackdown in which he rescinded what few civil liberties had been allowed to persist in Nicaragua until that time. The incontrovertible evidence of Sandinista human rights violations, the growing Soviet military presence, the repression of the church and the press, and the support for leftist subversion throughout Latin America made it no longer possible to defend the Sandinista revolution on its merits.
Representative Robert Torricelli (D-New Jersey), a vehement Contra foe, observed in early January that "support for the administration's position has been slowly building." He added, "The question isn't whether they can get the current level of assistance--that's certain--but whether they can get lethal aid. I think they probably can."
Choosing up sides
Despite such evolutions, was clear that the administration faced an uphill fight in winning congressional approval of Contra aid. Although most House Democrats supported humanitarian assistance, nearly all opposed military aid, declaring that Reagan was relying too much on force and neglecting negotiations. House Intelligence Committee chairman Lee Hamilton (D-Indiana) called Reagan's request "just a further escalation of the conflict. I don't think the policy is working: The Sandinistas are more repressive, the war is continuing, the peace process hasn't moved anywhere."
On February 3, 31 House Democratic moderates led by Representatives Dave McCurdy (D-Oklahoma) asked Reagan to delay any aid request until after the March meeting at which Central American leaders would try to revive stalled regional peace talks. One week later, nine liberal Senate Democrats sent a similar request urging Reagan to rely on negotiations and eschew force.
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