Reagan Loses Battle but His Cause Gains

President Reagan lost a battle in the House of Representatives on Thursday. But in the long run he appears to have advanced his crusade for U.S. military aid to Nicaraguan rebels.

Amid the polarized and partisan debate over aid to the contras, the outlines of a new consensus could be faintly discerned: in favor of military aid, but coupled with a serious new attempt to negotiate with the Sandinistas.

Several key Democrats who voted against Reagan on Thursday said they will support another move to provide military aid to the contras next month--if the Administration can convince them that it has made a genuine effort to bring the Managua regime into peace talks.

Secret Aid in Past

If Congress approves such aid, it would be the first overt military aid for the contras, who received secret aid from the CIA from 1982 until 1984.

Reagan called the House vote “a dark day for freedom” and asked his national security advisers for a “damage assessment,” aides said.

But he also expressed confidence in final victory. “We are gaining ground,” Reagan said in a statement after the vote. “We are winning converts. The next battle will bring us the victory this just and good cause rightly deserves.”

“We’ve come a long way from $27 million for humanitarian aid,” noted Rep. Richard Cheney (R-Wyo.), referring to the contra funds approved by Congress after an agonizing, three-month-long debate last year.

House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. (D-Mass.) said dolefully that he too sees Reagan gradually winning the struggle over U.S. policy on Nicaragua.

O’Neill warned in a dramatic speech on the House floor: “Just as covert aid became overt aid, just as humanitarian aid now becomes lethal, just as we have moved from the role of arms supplier to the role of trainer and adviser . . . I see the pattern continuing, step by step, into a situation that brings our boys into the fighting.”

Reagan argues that he wants to help the contras overthrow the Sandinista regime so that American troops will not be needed for the job.

But the President’s emphasis on military aid and his heated rhetoric--he has called the Sandinistas “a cancer” that directly threatens the United States--have made many Democrats skeptical of his declarations that he also seeks a peaceful, diplomatic solution to the conflict.

The issue of whether a negotiated settlement with the Sandinistas is possible, in fact, has long divided the Administration--and the contras themselves. In recent months, Administration officials have said that increasingly they doubt any peaceful compromise is feasible on U.S. terms, which require the Sandinistas to offer the contras a role in government. Ironically, some of the contra leaders--notably Arturo Cruz, a member of the main rebel organization’s three-man leadership--have appeared more willing to compromise than Reagan.

Many Skeptical

Because of the Administration’s hard line on those issues, many in Congress were openly skeptical of Reagan’s 11th-hour offer to delay military aid to the contras for 90 days to give the Sandinistas a last chance to negotiate.

But they said that they could approve military aid if the Administration made a good faith attempt to negotiate--and if Congress retained the power to decide whether the Sandinistas had responded adequately.

“The key factor is whether there’s a subsequent vote by Congress (to approve military aid),” said Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, a moderate Democrat who has voted against contra aid until now. “If there’s another vote where Congress decides, I’ll look at that.”

Rep. Michael D. Barnes (D-Md.), a leading opponent of the Administration’s policy, said that “it’s quite possible” such an approach could win. “This issue has not died,” he said.

Would Accept Delay

The question may be raised again as early as next week in the Republican-led Senate. Reagan told Senate leaders on Thursday that he would accept a bill that includes the 90-day delay--but not if it requires a second congressional vote to release the aid, as Democrats want.

Reagan’s comment suggested that the pattern of the Nicaragua debate will continue: The Administration will seek increased military aid for the contras with a minimum of restrictions on its use and Congress will approve most--but not all--of what the President wants.

“It is the hope of the people and government of Nicaragua that this vote marks the beginning of a new U.S. policy,” said Myriam Hooker, a spokeswoman for the Nicaraguan Embassy. But she added: “We aren’t dancing in the streets. We expect, probably, that one of the alternatives will succeed.”