Times Reporters Toth, McManus Honored

Los Angeles Times reporters Robert C. Toth and Doyle McManus Wednesday received the 12th annual Edward Weintal Prize for outstanding reporting on American foreign policy and diplomacy.

The award was given by the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in recognition of their 1985 series on the CIA’s secret war against the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. Also honored was Ted Koppel, anchor of ABC’s “Nightline,” for his series last year on South Africa.

Edward Weintal was Newsweek magazine’s diplomatic and chief European correspondent over a 23-year period.

In presenting the award to Toth and McManus, NBC’s Marvin Kalb, a member of the award selection committee and a veteran diplomatic correspondent, said the committee found that their “remarkable series” reflected “first-class digging, reporting and writing.”

In early 1985, when Congress was preparing for a critical debate on whether to support Nicaragua’s contra guerrillas, no American news outlet had investigated the full story of the Reagan Administration’s policy--its genesis in the highest councils of the Reagan White House, its explosive growth under leaders who ignored congressional restraints and its lasting consequences for Central America and the United States.

Toth and McManus of The Times’ Washington Bureau searched for the Administration’s original premises, determined how the secret war was really waged and investigated where it went wrong. Their three-part, 10,000-word series was the first such history of America’s secret Nicaraguan war and remains the fullest and most complete account published so far.