Reagan

WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled Senate on Thursday narrowly approved President Reagan’s request for $100 million in aid to the Nicaraguan guerrillas–the first affirmative vote by Congress in three years on an aid package for the rebels that includes military assistance.

The 53-47 vote was a significant victory for the President, who conducted a tireless lobbying drive for his request and saw it narrowly rejected only a week ago by the Democratic-controlled House. The White House hopes that the Senate vote will help stimulate a reversal in the House, where the proposal will be reconsidered in mid-April.

Not since 1983, when Congress approved covert aid as part of the fiscal 1984 defense budget, has either chamber voted for military aid to the contras, as the rebels are called. Sentiment against such assistance rose sharply in early 1984 after it was learned that the CIA had secretly mined Nicaraguan harbors.

A Reassuring Signal

En route to his mountaintop retreat near Santa Barbara at the time of the vote, the President declared that the Senate action would “send a profoundly reassuring signal to the freedom fighters in Nicaragua and to Nicaragua’s threatened neighbors.”

Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, hailed Thursday’s vote as a “good victory” for the President. “This is a very important issue for him–having spent two weeks turning heaven and earth to get this result,” he said.

But Democrats insisted that the narrow margin did not constitute an endorsement of Reagan’s Central American policy. “The vote was so close you can’t call it a victory for the Administration’s policy here in a body that his party controls,” Sen. Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.) said.

Eleven Senate Democrats voted with Reagan, but he lost 11 Republicans. Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) voted with the majority; Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) voted against the measure. Among the Democrats supporting Reagan was Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey, who earlier had opposed contra aid and is believed to be preparing to seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988.

Senate Democrats failed in their effort to withhold military aid for a brief period while forcing Reagan to seek bilateral negotiations with the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. A Democratic alternative authored by Sasser failed by a 67-33 vote, and another proposal by Cranston calling for bilateral talks was rejected, 66 to 34.

Warnings of Another Vietnam

Advocates of bilateral talks frequently warned that Reagan’s more belligerent approach was leading the nation into another Vietnam.

“It’s time to know where we are going in Central America before we find ourselves with U.S. troops on the battlefield and body bags coming home once again,” Sasser said. “We say negotiate first. This Administration owes that to the American people. This Administration owes that to our brave young men who will be called upon to fight and die in Nicaragua unless peace is achieved.”

Although the President was forced to make a few additional concessions to gain a majority, the package approved by the Senate was not significantly different from the compromise that Reagan offered voluntarily a week ago as an executive order in his unsuccessful effort to win House approval.

The measure would provide $25 million to the contras immediately and release $15 million every 90 days thereafter with the understanding that the President would search for a diplomatic solution during that period. With the first allotment of money, the contras would be permitted to buy surface-to-air missiles to use against Nicaraguan helicopters.

No offensive weapons for the contras would be funded until July 1, and then only after the President determines that the conflict cannot be solved by diplomacy. At least $30 million of the money would be used for humanitarian purposes, $3 million of it for human rights programs.

Direct Talks Not Required

Under the Senate plan, the President is not required to seek direct bilateral talks unless the Sandinistas are willing to negotiate with the contras as well–something the Nicaraguan government has declined to do. Reagan staunchly refused to agree to talks without contras involvement, even though it would have won him broad bipartisan support for the aid package.

Despite Reagan’s opposition, Lugar insisted that the Administration’s special envoy, Philip C. Habib, eventually would go to Managua seeking talks. But Democrats noted that Reagan never kept a pledge for bilateral negotiations that he made to the Senate in a letter last year to win approval of $27 million in humanitarian aid for the contras.

The rejected Democratic alternative proposed by Sasser would have withheld all military aid for six months to encourage negotiations. The President would have been required to enter into the talks if the Nicaraguans first agreed to a cease-fire.

Republicans said that Sasser’s proposal might have gained some GOP support if he had limited the waiting period to 90 days and provided some assistance for defensive weaponry during that period. “He went too far out to the left,” a top GOP aide said.

Cranston’s amendment would have withheld the money for only 90 days but, like Sasser’s proposal, it provided nothing but humanitarian aid during that period.

Amendments Defeated

The Senate also defeated amendments from the far left and far right. The vote was 74 to 24 against a proposal by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) to eliminate all aid. A proposal by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.)–what he described as a “put up or shut up” provision–which would have released all aid on May 15 if the Sandinistas refused to adhere to democratic principles by then, was defeated by a 60-39 vote.

The only amendment that succeeded was one offered by Sen. Alan J. Dixon (D-Ill.) that would prohibit American trainers and advisers inside Nicaragua. It passed by voice vote.

Although the Administration seized upon the recent incursion of Nicaraguan troops into Honduras as evidence of the need for contras aid, Lugar insisted that the fighting along Nicaragua’s northern border had no impact on the outcome in the Senate. However, the Administration hopes that House Democrats will be swayed by the incursion.

Despite the narrow vote, it was apparent that the mood of Congress had changed significantly since last year when the President had to fight almost as hard to get congressional approval of $27 million in humanitarian aid for the contras. Many Democrats who opposed all aid last year voted for the Sasser proposal this time.

As a result, it was frequently compared during floor debate to the Gulf of Tonkin resolution that opened the way for U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.) predicted that the amount would continue to increase in the years ahead as it has since 1981 when the Administration first provided covert aid to the contras.

‘Tinkering With $100 Million’

“I don’t believe $100 million is going to do the trick, and I don’t think anybody does,” Bumpers said. “If Nicaragua represents a serious security threat to this hemisphere, why are we tinkering with $100 million?”

Wilson insisted that it was not a Gulf of Tonkin resolution for Central America. “We are asked not to send our sons, but to send a pittance,” the California Republican said.

But Sen. David Durenberger (R-Minn.), chairman of the Intelligence Committee, which has access to Administration intelligence reports from Central America, charged that Reagan had overstated the threat posed by the Sandinistas.

As it did in the House last week, Reagan’s highly partisan campaign on behalf of his contras aid request succeeded only in angering many senators, who resented White House efforts to portray their opponents as supporters of the Marxist regime in Managua.

“No one is more anti-Communist than I am,” Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) said. “I deeply resent the President’s sickening display of neo-McCarthyism in this debate.”

WASHINGTON — Blunt-spoken Donald T. Regan testified today that he repeatedly urged President Reagan to break off arms sales to Iran, once telling him, “We’ve been snookered again.”

And when it became known late last year that money from those sales had been diverted to the Nicaraguan contras , Regan said, he pushed for making a clean breast of the story despite the opposition of former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter and the doubts of the late CIA Director William J. Casey.

Regan, who was fired in February as Reagan’s chief of staff after being blamed by the Tower Commission for allowing “chaos” to descend on the White House, was the next-to-last public witness in the long congressional Iran-contra hearings. He is to be followed by Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger on Friday.

Kept in the Dark

Regan said he never knew that Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, a member of the National Security Council staff, was conducting covert operations, including the transfer of Iranian arms sales profits to the contras.

Asked his reaction when he learned last November, he replied in a single word–”horror.”

Recounting his version of the arms-sales history, Regan said that on Dec. 7, 1985, at a meeting with the President, Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Weinberger, he had said “we weren’t getting anywhere” with Iran despite the arms sales and had recommended: “Why bother, cut your losses, get out of it.”

Enter McFarlane

Instead, he said, the President sent former National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane to London to talk with Iranian representatives to see whether the attempt at better relations could be salvaged. He said McFarlane returned “quite disgusted with the sleazy type of characters that he had met there.”

Yet, when the matter of arms shipments came up again the following month, Regan endorsed further shipments. “It seemed again a worthwhile effort,” he testified.

One thousand TOW missiles then were shipped to Iran from the United States, but the hostages were not released.

Then, said Regan, he told the President that “I thought we ought to break it off, that we’d been snookered again. And how many times do we put up with this rug-merchant type of stuff? Or words to that effect.”

Seemed to Understand

Regan said the President seemed to share his view.

“Did he instruct anyone to terminate their activities?” asked Terry A. Smiljanich, the associate Senate committee counsel.

“No,” Regan said.

“There was a pause then, and I sort of lost track of what was going on.” He said the budget then occupied his time.

Among Regan’s disclosures and quips:

–Iran was running a “bait-and-switch” operation, with hostages the bait and Reagan the victim.

–He is certain that Reagan did not know of the diversion of arms-sales proceeds until Meese told the President last Nov. 24, the day before Meese announced discovery of the fund diversion on television.

“This guy was an actor and he was nominated at one point for an Academy Award,” Regan said of the President. “But I’d give him an Academy Award if he knew anything about this” and hid that knowledge so skillfully.

–He said he doubted Reagan would have approved of the fund diversion if he had known about it.

–”It didn’t occur to me that men of that caliber (Poindexter and North) would be destroying documents or . . . clean up the record.”

Passengers wait to drop their luggage while traveling during the holiday season at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., on December 22. The airport is scheduled to close for most of July 4 to accommodate events celebrating Independence Day in the capital. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo

June 17 (UPI) — Officials at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport announced Tuesday that the airport is scheduled to be closed for much of July 4 amid a predicted record-breaking week of travel for the holiday.

There are no scheduled flights to or from the airport after noon on July 4, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority announced in a release. The day before will also have no flights for several hours in the early afternoon.

The MWAA said the schedule disruption is to accommodate Independence Day celebrations coinciding with the country’s 250th birthday.

“Many events will include downtown flyovers or other aerial displays such as fireworks or parachute jumps, which will affect flights periodically at Reagan National,” the agency said.

Airport officials expected flight operations to return to normal July 5.

AAA projected Tuesday that a record-breaking 72.2 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles away from home to mark Independence Day between June 27 and July 5. That’s up from 71.8 million in 2025.

Stacey Barber, vice president of AAA Travel, said traveling for the July 4th holiday “is tradition.”

“The 9-day travel forecast includes travelers who are vacationing all week and people just getting away for the long holiday weekend,” Barber said. “While the overall number of Independence Day travelers appears to be plateauing, we’re still expecting record volumes this year.”

Among those traveling for the holiday, AAA projected the vast majority — 61.4 million — will do so by car, 5.85 million by air and 4.93 million by other modes of transportation such as bus, train or cruise.

The Top 10 domestic destinations for the holiday week are Seattle; Orlando, Fla.; Anchorage, Alaska; Miami; New York City; Chicago; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Fairbanks, Alaska; Denver; and Boston. The Top 10 international destinations are Vancouver, Canada; Rome; Dublin; Paris; London; Calgary, Canada; Reykjavik, Iceland; Amsterdam; Athens; and Barcelona, Spain.