Reagan Bid for Contra Arms Aid Expected

President Reagan is expected to ask Congress soon for at least $30 million in military aid for the rebels fighting Nicaragua’s leftist regime, Administration officials and congressional sources said Tuesday.

The contras now receive only non-military aid from Washington.

Congress rejected an Administration request for military funding last year. But Republican leaders have told the President that congressional sentiment is slowly moving against the Managua regime because of its alleged human rights abuses and in favor of increased aid to the rebels, officials said.

Advice to Reagan

Democrats have said they will fight any proposal for military aid, however. A spokesman for Rep. Dave McCurdy (D-Okla.), author of the compromise that won non-military aid for the contras last year, said Tuesday that he remains opposed to a change in the program.

At a National Security Council meeting last week, Reagan’s senior advisers urged him to seek the military aid and to campaign actively against Democratic opposition, they said.

White House spokesman Larry Speakes declined to comment on the officials’ accounts but noted that Reagan “has always sought to provide funding and support for the contras.” Speakes and other aides said the President has not decided how much aid to ask for and in what form.

Little Visible Progress

A congressional aide involved in the discussions said Administration officials have informally proposed aid figures ranging from $30 million to $50 million. Last year Congress approved $27 million in non-lethal aid for the six months ending next March 31.

The contras have made little visible military progress in their five-year fight against the Sandinista regime, and some Administration officials have said that they fear the rebel effort could slowly collapse unless U.S. aid increases.

These officials say that the Sandinista army, newly equipped with Soviet-made helicopters, has been increasingly effective in pursuing contra units and pushing them out of populated parts of the country.

U.S. military aid would be designed to improve the contras’ ability to strike at Sandinista units, and some would go specifically for anti-aircraft weapons to defend the rebels against helicopter attacks, they said.

Equally important, these officials said, is the signal of long-term U.S. political support that military aid would send to Honduras, where most of the contras are based, and other Central American countries. Honduras has blocked most shipments of the non-military aid through its territory since October.

“The Hondurans are nervous,” one official said. “They can see the contras aren’t going anywhere. They want to know whether we’re committed to helping them win or not. If we’re not, they don’t want to end up holding the bag.”

Some Administration officials have argued that Reagan will have to commit himself to campaigning personally for the aid for several weeks, if he hopes to win the congressional battle. Some have urged him to include the request for military aid as a key part of his State of the Union speech Jan. 28 to give it an extra boost.