Word: haig
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...Haig has been out front on the El Salvador issue from the first days of the Administration. He overcame objections by Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger that it did not make military sense to stake so large a claim on such an uncertain battlefield and by top White House advisers who were reluctant to detract national attention from the President's economic program. Convinced that this battle would be cleanly and quickly won, the Secretary of State designated El Salvador as the location for a U.S. showdown-not just with a band of 6,000 leftist guerrillas, who were then...
...Haig's view, accommodation with the Marxist, pro-Cuban Sandinistas was foolish because Nicaragua was already "lost." Meanwhile, the government of El Salvador, which has committed itself to land reform and fair elections, stands threatened by subversion; El Salvador's conquest by leftist rebels would have a falling-domino effect on the fragile democratic government in neighboring Honduras as well as the insurgency-threatened rightist regime in Guatemala. Haig's ultimate fear is that the entire region, from Mexico to Panama, might fall into the Soviet orbit, which would not only threaten America's vital security...
...Somoza at U.S. insistence. They justified the military buildup as necessary in the face of American belligerency. Said Bayardo Arce, a member of the Sandinista nine-man national directorate: "Your leaders are forcing us to take dramatic measures. We expect an invasion any day. Look at these declarations of Haig! After words might come action...
...first step in what was supposed to be a justification of the Administration's policies in Central America. The second-and crucial-step was to establish a firm link between that buildup and Sandinista support for, and even direction of, the rebel effort in El Salvador. But Haig decided to avoid any discussion of El Salvador in the State Department's briefing because there were not enough declassified data available to make a compelling case for the link. The Administration insists that its evidence of outside arms shipments to the El Salvador rebels is based partly on information...
Some of this material, however, was presented by Haig and CIA Director William Casey in a classified briefing to a bipartisan group of 26 former security officials and advisers. Although these experts did not wholeheartedly endorse the Administration view that the Salvadoran guerrillas are actually controlled by Cuba and Nicaragua, they agreed that external forces were playing an important role in the Salvadoran struggle. Said Sol Linowitz, one of the negotiators of the Panama Canal Treaty: "We found it sobering and reason for concern. We found what we were shown to be credible and quite persuasive." Added Jimmy Carter...