Congressmen, Shultz Clash Over Nicaragua

Secretary of State George P. Shultz became embroiled in such hot questioning on Central American policy during an appearance Wednesday before a House subcommittee that he temporarily refused to continue answering queries from Rep. Ted Weiss (D-N.Y.) and demanded an apology.

Pointed questions about the Administration’s Central America policy dominated Shultz’s testimony before the House Foreign Affairs international operations subcommittee on the State Department’s proposed budget for fiscal 1986.

Weiss and a fellow Democrat, Rep. Peter H. Kostmayer of Pennsylvania, both accused the secretary of state of trying to mislead the public about the dangers posed by the Nicaraguan government.

After one exchange with Weiss, Shultz refused to answer further questions from the lawmaker until he received an apology for Weiss’ illustration of a point with a reference to the late Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wis.).

In answer to a question about drug control, Shultz had said that Cuba and Nicaragua are “engaged in the narcotics trade in order to raise funds.” Weiss then accused Shultz of “dragging” Cuba and Nicaragua into the discussion “by the heels” and declared that “several of our allies” are engaged in more narcotics trafficking than those two nations are.

‘Have You No Decency?’

The lawmaker said he was reminded of the famous comment made to McCarthy by a defense attorney during the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954: “Have you no decency?”

Weiss also said that for the United States, which has assisted rebels trying to overthrow the Nicaraguan government, to complain that the Sandinistas have a larger army than needed for defense “stands the situation on its head. . . . Your policy is like a Groucho Marx statement, ‘Are you going to believe your own eyes or what I tell you?’ ”

When Weiss finished, Shultz--his face bright red in anger--said nothing. Asked if he had a comment, the secretary of state replied: “I think it is the ultimate perversion to say that an attack on the tactics and strategy of Nicaragua is comparable to the tactics of Sen. Joe McCarthy. When you compare me to Sen. Joe McCarthy, I resent it deeply--I have no further comment.”

When Weiss asked another question, Shultz responded, “I won’t comment to the congressman on this subject until he apologizes.”

‘Lot of Red-Baiting’

Kostmayer later lectured Shultz: “It is you and the President who have raised the level of rhetoric. There has been a lot of Red-baiting going on in the Administration. You have a lot of nerve criticizing a member of this committee for being demagogic.”

Shultz stiffly replied, “I thought I was here at the invitation of the committee, but if you want to withdraw the invitation, I have plenty of other things to do.”

Weiss ultimately told Shultz, “If you conclude that I equated you with Sen. McCarthy, I apologize.”

At the White House, meanwhile, Langhorne A. Motley, assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs, publicly acknowledged that it is only a myth that the $14 million being sought for the rebels fighting the leftist Sandinista government is covert--or secret--aid, rather than overt. “It’s on the front page of every paper,” Motley remarked to a seminar on Central America.

He also conceded that the Administration does not now have enough support in Congress to resume the aid program to the rebels, known as contras, which the lawmakers rejected last year. Unless this backing soon develops, he added, the President’s “hands are tied” in his attempt to help the rebels.