The Check Is Nearly in the Mail

By WILLIAM A. HENRY III

The scene was quite familiar.

Arguments made time and again echoed anew; results that were foregone conclusions took arduous days to achieve. Complained Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole: "We already had this vote. We've been here. We were here in March." But however lost their cause, Senate opponents of the Reagan Administration's $100 million aid package for the contra forces in Nicaragua dug in and fought. They offered impassioned rhetoric and put forward more than a dozen amendments on matters ranging from the use of U.S. military trainers to funding for Nicaragua's closed opposition newspaper La Prensa. Nearly all of them were defeated. Finally, after two stormy days of debate, the Senate last week voted by the expected margin of 53 to 47 to enact the package. The measure provides $70 million in military help and $30 million in "humanitarian" aid for the contras, plus $300 million in assistance to Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala. It now faces a House-Senate conference committee, where Speaker Tip O'Neill may again attempt to stall it. But even Democratic opponents expect it to pass before November's midterm elections.

Just how much difference the aid will make is unclear. The Administration has been funneling millions to the contras since 1982 to assist their insurrection against the Soviet-backed Sandinista government, although in 1984 Congress restricted the help to "humanitarian" supplies such as boots and bandages. But Administration officials said privately last week that Nicaragua's Pacific coast may be targeted for raids and that the contras may attempt to seize and hold a small piece of territory along the country's northern Atlantic coast. Moreover, the military aid to the contras would be parceled out in installments and would be contingent on congressional agreement that peace negotiations were stalemated. Senate opponents of the aid bill focused on two arguments: that morally the contras do not deserve help and that politically the assistance is a first step toward another full- scale involvement like the Viet Nam War. Said Ohio's Howard Metzenbaum: "Make no mistake, the contras are not freedom fighters. They are U.S.-backed terrorists." Tom Harkin of Iowa warned that U.S. military trainers were likely to be drawn into skirmishes with Sandinista soldiers, who have been crossing into Costa Rica and Honduras in pursuit of contras. But Dole, speaking for the aid measure, warned, " The game is over, and now it's time to act. The Sandinistas are already firmly in Moscow's pocket."

One of the sharpest exchanges came during debate on a proposal by Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts to prohibit use of U.S. troops in Nicaragua except in cases of declared war or prior congressional approval. Kennedy demanded to know whether Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, who opposed the amendment, could personally guarantee that troops would not be sent. Lugar stated his personal opposition to deploying U.S. troops but declined to make any pledge. Asserted Lugar: "The thrust of our foreign policy is not to go to war. It is to try to bring about democracy." As the outgunned and outnumbered contras acknowledge, that will be a long and primarily military task.

With reporting by Ricardo Chavira/Washington