http://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/22/us/president-asserts-goal-is-to-remove-sandinista-regime.html

February 22, 1985

President Asserts Goal Is to Remove Sandinista Regime

By HEDRICK SMITH, Special to the New York Times

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 -- In the bluntest assertion to date of his Administration's goals in Central America, President Reagan said tonight that his objective is to ''remove'' the ''present structure'' of the Government in Nicaragua.

He used the first news conference of his second Administration for a harsh attack on the Sandinista Government, which he condemned as a ''totalitarian, brutal, cruel'' regime that does not have ''a decent leg to stand on.''

Mr. Reagan's unusually open declaration of objectives punctuated a week of escalating Administration attacks on Managua and increasingly open demands for a change in the Nicaraguan Government.

Gone from his appeals for renewed American aid to the Nicaraguan rebels were assertions used in the past that this campaign was needed to halt the flow of arms to leftists in El Salvador or to put pressure on Nicaragua to make negotiating concessions.

Direct Question Sidestepped

When he was asked the direct question of whether he was seeking the overthrow of the Sandinista Government, the President sidestepped it. But when he was asked whether his goal was to remove the Sandinista Government, he replied:

''Well, remove it in the sense of its present structure, in which it is a Communist totalitarian state, and it is not a Government chosen by the people, so you wonder sometimes about those who make such claims as to its legitimacy.''

Later, pressed again to say whether this did not mean he was seeking to overthrow the Sandinista Government, he replied, ''not if the present Government would turn around and say'' to the Nicaraguan rebels, ''all right, if they'd say, 'uncle,' or 'all right and come back into the revolutionary Government and let's straighten this out and institute the goals.' ''

Economic Growth Welcomed

In his 30-minute appearance, President Reagan seemed firmly in command and poised, although lacking in the humor that has often marked his press conferences. After an opening statement in which he hailed last year's economic growth rate, nearly 7 percent, as the best since 1951, the President dealt with these other issues:

- On the farm-credit crisis, he said he was '' not going to pull the rug out from under anyone instantly,'' but he offered only a $650 million Federal credit program that farm-state legislators have already rejected as inadequate.

- On broader economic policy, he placed emphasis on ''tax simplification and reform'' ahead of cutting the budget deficit as a way to ''protect and prolong'' the economy recovery, and he rejected tax increases on grounds that the election had given him ''a mandate'' against increasing taxes.

- He credited the Soviet Union with a sincere desire to reduce strategic arsenals, but accused Moscow of a new violation of past arms agreements, asserting that the Russians had been converting ballistic missile-carrying submarines into cruise missile-bearing submarines to get around agreed ceilings.

- In a comment that seemed aimed at reassuring Israel, Mr. Reagan said talks with the Soviet Union earlier this week on the Middle East had been merely to exchange views and not to draw Moscow into the Arab-Israeli peace-making process.

- Asked about reports that his Administration was considering withdrawing American bases from Greece, President said he had ''no plans about any moves of any kind.'' He added, however, that there was some concern about ''bilateral problems'' on NATO's southern flank, an apparent reference to frayed relations between Greece and Turkey.

At one point the President seemed to couple charges of Soviet violations of past arms agreements with a veiled warning that in the coming months he might no longer feel compelled to abide by the strategic arms limitation treaty that was signed in 1979 but not ratified, unless Moscow changed its behavior.

'We'll Have a Decision'

''We're going to stay with the treaties that are in effect, that have been ratified and are in power,'' the President said. But he quickly added,''We'll have a decision several months from now to make, with regard whether we join them in violating the restraints'' imposed by the treaty, the President said.

The 1979 treaty, negotiated by President Carter, was not finally approved by the Senate and formally ratified by this country, but both Moscow and Washington have said they would generally abide by its ceilings. The treaty puts specific limits on the total number of multi-warhead ballistic missiles.

Mr. Reagan was referring to the American plan later this year to launch its seventh Trident submarine, carrying 20 ballistic missiles with multiple warheads. To keep the American total of such missiles under the ceilings imposed by the 1979 agreement, Washington must either retire other submarines or dismantle some land-based missiles.

Tonight, the President accused the Soviet Union of violating this provision by ''taking nuclear missile submarines out of action'' but then putting them back in action ''as cruise missile-carrying submarines.'' The treaty does not limit the number of cruise missiles, which fly on lower trajectories than ballistic missiles and normally carry only one warhead.

Reagan Takes Offensive

On some issues, Mr. Reagan seemed on the defensive, but on the Nicaraguan issue, he took the offensive vigorously, coming closer than ever before to signaling that he wants the overthrow of the Sandinista Government, though he avoided that specific language.

In Congress, there has been broad opposition to any such American role, and the Congressional opposition led to a cutoff last year in the support to anti-Sandinista rebels funneled through the Central Intelligence Agency. When a reporter asked tonight whether the United States ''should'' be involved in a campaign against another Government in this hemisphere, Mr. Reagan replied:

''I think what we're doing and what we have proposed doing is within the U.N. Charter and with the O.A.S. Charter and the right of people to do what the freedom fighters are doing.''

As he has before, Mr. Reagan charged that the current rebellion, financed largely in the past by $80 million in covert aid supplied through the C.I.A., had arisen because the Sandinistas had betrayed the original goals of their 1979 revolution and ousted other groups.

The Sandinista leaders, he said, came to power in 1979 as part of a revolutionary coalition that promised free elections, a free press and a free labor movement, and then abandoned those promises.

Mr. Reagan said the United States was trying to help ''those who fought a revolution to escape a ditatorship, to have democracy, and then had it taken away from them by some of their fellow revolutionaries.''

''And I don't think the Sandinistas have a decent leg to stand on. What they have done is totalitarian; it is brutal, cruel.''

The Nicaraguan Embassy immediately issued a statement accusing the President of a ''totally wrong'' version of events. In the statement, the embassy said the rebel leaders were former members of the National Guard under the Somoza dictatorship who were trying to subvert ''the true revolution'' in Nicaragua.