Reagan Will Ask fo More Salvadoran Aid

The Reagan Administration has decided to ask Congress for additional military and economic aid to El Salvador this year to help shore up the authority of President Jose Napoleon Duarte, White House spokesman Larry Speakes said Friday.

The new request, which drew a skeptical reaction from Democrats in Congress, could bring military aid to El Salvador to a record level of about $200 million, officials said.

The decision, which took some Administration officials by surprise, appeared to be a victory for Assistant Secretary of State Langhorne A. Motley and Thomas R. Pickering, the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador. They had campaigned for additional aid over opposition from the Defense Department and the Office of Management and Budget.

Opponents of increased aid within the Administration had argued that the Salvadorans have no real need for additional money, especially in a budget-cutting year.

Kissinger Recommendations

“We’re following the Kissinger Commission recommendations, which call for increasing military and economic aid for El Salvador,” Speakes told reporters. He was referring to the presidential panel led by former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger that last year urged Congress to provide $400 million in military aid for El Salvador in 1984 and 1985.

Congress approved $197 million in military aid in fiscal 1984 to help El Salvador’s armed forces fight a leftist insurgency but has appropriated only $128 million for fiscal 1985. Congress has also provided $326 million in economic aid for fiscal 1985.

Speakes said a report that the Administration will seek to increase this year’s aid package to record levels of more than $200 million in military aid and more than $425 million in economic aid was “in the ballpark.” But he added that no final decisions on the supplemental requests have been made.

Officials in the Defense Department and the Office of Management and Budget expressed surprise and anger that they were not informed of the decision before Speakes’ comments. “It sounds like they’re trying an end run around us,” said one, who requested anonymity.

Both Speakes and State Department spokesman Alan Romberg said that the proposed aid requests do not reflect any U.S. concern over the stability of Duarte’s government, which confronts political challenges from rightist parties and doubts within the military about Duarte’s peace talks with the leftist guerrillas. But other officials said that Motley and Pickering had argued forcefully that Duarte needs the additional aid to bolster his authority within the country.

They said the military aid, if approved, would go principally to provide helicopters, trucks and communications equipment to improve the Salvadoran army’s mobility.

Some Defense Department officials argued against the additional aid, saying that the Salvadoran army is doing well on the battlefield and is still absorbing the equipment it has already received. During the last year, the United States has increased the size of El Salvador’s helicopter fleet from 13 to more than 24 and has provided two C-47 airplanes outfitted with machine guns for strafing guerrillas from the air.

Defense Under Secretary Fred C. Ikle said he believes that there is no immediate need for supplemental military aid because of the Salvadorans’ success in the field. “The amount we have budgeted--and Congress approved most of it for 1985 and 1984--is what we think is needed,” Ikle said last year. “And we hope that in 1986, we’re budgeting for somewhat less.”

Rep. Michael D. Barnes (D-Md.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Latin America, said he expects Congress to give any supplemental aid request a skeptical reception.

“We’re trying to find areas for cuts, not areas for increases,” Barnes said through a spokesman. “Since this is a case where they can’t argue that Congress was not generous, I think a request for supplemental aid would be very closely scrutinized.”