Administration Split on Contra Aid Strategy

Faced with mounting opposition in Congress, President Reagan’s advisers are sharply divided over how to proceed with his controversial proposal for supplying $14 million in covert aid to rebels fighting Nicaragua’s Sandinista government, White House sources said Wednesday.

Reagan was informed earlier in the day by Republican House Leader Robert H. Michel of Illinois that his program to aid the rebels, called contras, is “dead in the water” unless it is modified.

Drastic Changes Urged

And some White House aides, citing such warnings, are suggesting that Reagan should make drastic changes in the proposal and delay submitting any request until after Congress has acted on the Administration’s 1985 budget.

However, other White House advisers--chiefly those considered more ideological in their approach--reportedly have urged that the President press ahead with a lobbying campaign and seek a vote late this month as scheduled.

“It’s a classic battle between the pragmatists and the ideologues in the Administration,” said one White House source, referring to the frequent debates that took place during Reagan’s first term between moderate advisers who were inclined to stress pragmatic political factors in making decisions and more ideologically committed advisers who tended to brush aside short-term political considerations.

Reagan, who has strongly supported aid for the contras, has made no decision on either the timing or the exact form of his proposal to Congress.

White House spokesman Larry Speakes said that Robert C. McFarlane, the President’s national security adviser, is preparing “a package of options” for Reagan--both on how to help the contras and on how to sell the program to Congress and the American people.

Speakes said the President, who flies to California on Friday for a 10-day vacation, will receive the list of options in the “next couple of days.”

McFarlane was unavailable for comment, but he is understood to be one of the advisers who strongly believes that Reagan should not pursue his proposal as presently formulated because of the overwhelming opposition in Congress.

The White House declined to disclose the types of options McFarlane is considering, but one White House source suggested that the Administration might try to get around congressional objections to direct covert aid by funneling assistance to the contras through a third country.

House leader Michel told reporters that he brought up the subject of congressional opposition during an hourlong meeting between Reagan and Republican congressional leaders because he “wanted the Administration to clearly understand that, without any change in the formulation of our policy there (in Nicaragua),” the proposal would be defeated in the House.

Minnesota Republican Dave Durenberger, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, predicted last week that Congress would reject a new request for covert aid for the contras.

A State Department official, who asked not to be identified, said department officials have “made the argument that it doesn’t make sense to send it (the proposal) up if you know you’re going to lose. That argues for at least a delay.”

A Reagan adviser, who also declined to be identified, said Administration ideologues have argued that Reagan should mount an intensive lobbying campaign for the proposal “and take advantage of the momentum” they believe was created by the Administration’s recent victories on authorization and funding for the MX missile. “They’re saying, ‘we’ve just come off the MX victories and throwing everybody up against the wall, let’s keep the momentum going,”’ he said.

Another White House source said: “Pat Buchanan and the other hard-liners are saying, ‘Let’s go for it,’ but Bud McFarlane and (Secretary of State) George Shultz are saying: ‘Wait a minute, we don’t have the votes.’ ”

Buchanan, White House communications director, did not respond to a reporter’s telephone call for a comment.

McFarlane and other advisers who oppose pressing ahead with the proposal apparently think that a defeat in Congress would jeopardize U.S. policy throughout Central America and diminish the President’s clout with Congress on other issues.

“There’s not that much division about whether to go for the aid to the contras, but how to go for it,” according to one White House official. “My impression is we’ll eventually go for it, but the question is how it’s packaged, what it will be used for and how much political capital we are willing to expend on it.