Distemper over Central America

By Ed Magnuson

After Shultz and lawmakers tangle, the prospects for aid dim

The point of contention was familiar: U.S. military and economic aid to Central America. So were the adversaries: Secretary of State George Shultz and members of Congress. And so were the results: election-year posturing and exploding tempers. Only this time the shouting on Capitol Hill was not merely for effect. The Administration's urgent requests for emergency military aid to the government of El Salvador and for the contra rebels fighting Nicaragua's Sandinista regime were clearly in peril.

Last week's flare-up occurred during hearings by the House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations. Although the subject was an Administration request for $259 million in additional military aid to El Salvador over the next 18 months, Wisconsin Democrat David Obey could not resist lecturing Shultz about Lebanon. Obey charged that State Department briefings for Congressmen on Lebanon had been "the least informative, the least substantive and the most pitiful I've ever witnessed." Now, Obey went on, "we appear to be in a position where we are going to run into another foreign policy failure in El Salvador."

Shultz, who has shown flashes of temper in recent months, listened with increasing impatience as Illinois Democrat Sidney Yates joined the assault. He read aloud part of a New York Times story reporting that a former high military official in El Salvador had named Roberto d'Aubuisson, the right-wing candidate for President in the March 25 election, as a leading figure in the death squads that have been murdering civilians. "How many killers have been brought to trial?" Yates asked. Shultz could not cite one, but argued that the murders had decreased in number. If death-squad activity continues, Yates persisted, would not the elections be "meaningless"?

"Do you think elections are meaning less?" snapped Shultz.

"That isn't what I said," replied Yates. "There have been no efforts to change the situation there. The attitude of this Administration is that El Salvador will receive as much money as is necessary from now until eternity."

Shultz had heard enough. "I really don't understand you people!" he exploded. "Here we have an area right next to us, which a cross section of Americans on a bipartisan commission studied very carefully . . . and have concluded that it is in the vital interests of the United States. Now there are problems there. We all know that. And what you're telling me is that because there are problems, let's walk away."

"No!" Yates protested. "I'm not saying that."

"Yes, you are!" shouted Shultz. "What I'm telling you is that we have to struggle with these problems. That's the reality."

The reality, as Shultz and some Republican legislators see it, is that placing stringent human rights conditions on aid funds is counterproductive. Rather than bowing publicly to such U.S. pressure, they say, Salvadoran right-wingers are more likely to go their own way, blocking land reform and unleashing the death squads even more. In the long run, this argument goes, such activity creates more sympathy for the rebels, lifting their chances to win the military struggle. In the event they do win, they would almost certainly turn out to be even more authoritarian than the present government, and El Salvador would join Cuba and Nicaragua as a Soviet client state. Under Secretary of Defense Fred Ikle publicly accused some Congressmen of wanting to "wash their hands of Central America like Pontius Pilate" and charged that "un der the cloak of being concerned about human rights" they would "impose a course of action" that actually would help the leftists in Central America.

If Congress does not approve the requested aid, the White House has suggested that Reagan might use his Executive authority to draw from emergency military funds. The Administration contends that the rebels will increase their attacks in an effort to disrupt the elections and that the Salvadoran army is running short on ammunition, M-16 rifles, trucks and helicopter spare parts. Maryland Democrat Clarence Long, chairman of the subcommittee, warned Shultz: "The Administration would make a great mistake if it chose to bypass Congress." Replied the Secretary: "Pass our supplemental [aid request] right away. There it is. Act on it."

The full House Appropriations Committee seemed unlikely to do so. Many of the legislators want to wait until they see who wins the election before turning more money over to El Salvador. Their main worry is that a victorious D'Aubuisson might end up the beneficiary of U.S. aid.

The Administration fared no better last week in a clumsy last-ditch effort to increase U.S. aid to the contra guerrillas in Nicaragua. Alaska Republican Ted Stevens agreed to attach a request for $21 million for the rebels to a bill being considered by the Senate Appropriations Committee to provide funds that would help poor people pay their fuel bills. The backfiring tactic was devised by top White House Aides James Baker and Richard Darman. Even some Republicans on the Republican-controlled committee were outraged by the stratagem, which would have forced Senators opposed to funding the Nicaraguan contras to vote against aid to low-income Americans. The committee rejected Stevens' amendment, 15 to 14. The Appropriations Committee also delayed voting on a similar effort to attach funds for El Salvador to a bill providing emergency food aid for drought-stricken African nations. Declared Republican Senator Pete Domenici: "If the entire Administration policy for Central America is handled as poorly as this was handled, it is doomed."

Eventually, Congress will produce some sort of aid package for Central America. By trimming and delaying the Administration's request, the lawmakers are scoring political points at home. In the process, they are gambling that America's already fragile Central American policy can survive the stresses of the next few months, and most especially the leftist threat in El Salvador. --By Ed Magnuson. Reported by Barrett Seaman/Washington

With reporting by Barrett Seaman