Cutting Off The

In a series of frenetic compromises and seemingly contradictory floor votes that left even some veteran legislators bewildered, Congress last week handed Ronald Reagan a major foreign policy defeat. After the Senate passed a highly diluted measure providing humanitarian aid to anti-Sandinista Nicaraguans, the House considered three separate proposals offering various forms of assistance and ended up deciding to cut off aid altogether. The vote effectively scuttled U.S. support of the rebels seeking the overthrow of the Marxist-led Sandinista regime, at least for the time being. Said a "deeply disappointed" Reagan: "This kind of action damages national security and foreign policy goals."

Reagan had been forced to begin giving ground on the issue a month ago. When it was clear he could not get approval for unfettered military aid to the 15,000 contra guerrillas, the President offered to tie his aid package to a new peace proposal. If the Sandinistas would agree to open negotiations with rebel leaders, Reagan said, he would order the funds to be used for nonlethal supplies for at least 60 days. By the time the Senate voted, the President had further agreed to restrict the funds to noncombatants and to involve the U.S. directly in new negotiations. The Senate approved that measure by a vote of 53 to 46.

But the aid issue faced a much tougher climb in the Democratic-controlled House. Speaker Tip O'Neill timed a vote to be close to that of the Senate, forestalling any victory momentum. Over two days, Congressmen voted on three measures: the already abandoned military-aid proposal, a Democratic alternative providing $14 million for civilian aid and peacekeeping expenses, and a Republican proposal similar to the one adopted in the Senate. The Democratic measure passed its initial vote, 219 to 206. Republicans tried desperately to supplant it with their Administration-approved compromise, and they almost succeeded. When the final tally showed 215 against to 213 for, Minority Leader Robert Michel slammed the back of a chair in disgust; 14 of his Republicans had defected. Said Michel: "We could have won it on our side."

Then, in a surprising move, a majority of Democrats turned on their own bill in its final vote. One reason: they wanted to guarantee that the measure could not emerge from conference committee, where it would have been reconciled with the Senate bill, in a form that included some aid to the contras. Republicans, heeding White House wishes, also voted against the bill, and it went down to defeat by a lopsided 303 to 123. Summed up Britain's Economist: "Concession, compromise, confusion--and rebuff."

Among the bitterest reactions was that of Secretary of State George Shultz. At a ceremony marking the tenth anniversary of the fall of Saigon, Shultz said the contra cutoff had dire implications: "Broken promises. Communist dictatorship. Refugees. Widened Soviet influence, this time near our very border." Then he added angrily: "Here is your parallel between Viet Nam and Central America."

Even many Democrats feared that cutting off aid to the anti-Sandinista movement entirely was sending the wrong signal to a Nicaraguan regime that has grown increasingly pro-Soviet. Reagan was quick to promise the Democrats that they would have a chance to reconsider. Vowed the President: "I intend to return to the Congress again and again to seek a policy that supports peace and democracy in Nicaragua." He also ordered Shultz and other advisers to begin a review of U.S. policy options for obtaining these goals.