Reagan Firm on Contra Plan; GOP Leaders Seek Compromise

Despite growing Republican pressure for compromise, President Reagan held firm Tuesday to his request to Congress for $14 million in aid to the Nicaraguan rebels--insisting that his Central American policy now has the support of the Pope.

In an hourlong meeting with Republican congressional leaders at the White House, the President was told that his new “peace plan” for Nicaragua has not overcome the substantial opposition to his request for aid to the rebels, known as contras.

House Republican leader Robert H. Michel of Illinois told reporters after the meeting that he was searching for “another way out” to make the aid request more acceptable to moderate House Democrats. “I’m looking for some running room out there,” he said.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.), who opposes covert means of aiding the contras, said he advised the President to accept a compromise to save his request from defeat when Congress votes later this month.

‘Has to Deal Realistically’

“I told him he has to deal realistically with some people who share his objectives but disagree with his methods,” Durenberger said. “He shouldn’t go out of this losing.”

But the President, clearly in no mood to compromise, instead stepped up his rhetorical attack on opponents of his aid request. “The President believes that his way is right,” spokesman Larry Speakes said.

Speaking to a conference on religious liberty later in the day, Reagan invoked the name of Pope John Paul II to bolster his argument. “I just had a verbal message delivered to me from the Pope urging us to continue our efforts in Central America,” he said.

Neither the President nor his aides elaborated on this remark, and there was no immediate confirmation from the Vatican. The Pope was apparently responding to a letter from Reagan delivered to him last week by Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.).