Scheme for a Constitution Scuttled : North’s Plan: Convention for Contras on Cruise Ship

One of former White House aide Oliver L. North’s plans to generate congressional support for Nicaragua’s contras in early 1985 involved an elaborate scheme to stage a constitutional convention for rebel leaders aboard a Caribbean luxury liner protected by U.S. Navy submarines and aircraft carriers, former associates of North have told The Times.

At the end of a weeklong voyage aboard the 340-foot cruise ship Sea Goddess, according to the sources, Nicaraguan rebel leaders were to land at a pre-selected port where a declaration of independence would be issued and representatives of a new Nicaraguan government-in-exile would immediately travel to Washington, D.C., to seek official U.S. recognition.

Before the plan was scuttled, North and his staff were still debating whether the declaration of independence should be issued from Grenada, Boston or Philadelphia.

“I think they’d pretty well settled on sailing up the Delaware River to Independence Hall (in Philadelphia),” a source who worked on the project said. “Ollie had wanted to do it on Grenada for symbolic reasons but everyone else thought that was too much--it was just too tacky.”

North’s aides went as far as to contact the cruise ship operators to determine what dates would be available for charter in the spring of 1985. Sources said the aides also contacted former Ambassador Walter H. Annenberg to ask if he would raise the $429,000 required to charter the vessel for seven to 10 days.

Annenberg, in a telephone interview, called the plan “an absolute pipe dream” and said he recalled no inquiry by North’s office. “I wouldn’t have given them 15 cents,” he said.

The North-orchestrated plan called for Nicaraguan opposition leaders to adopt a constitution modeled after the U.S. document, a development that North believed would put congressional opponents of contra aid in a difficult spot.

“Ollie would rub his hands together and read the federal oath,” recalled one source. “He was especially gleeful when he got to the part where every congressman swears to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. He figured if the contras adopted the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Congress would have to help defend it or violate their oath.”

Rebels Not Enthusiastic

Nicaraguan opposition leaders were not as enthusiastic, however. For example, Arturo Cruz, a former contra leader, said Friday that he had objected to adopting the U.S. Constitution model because “we have our own constitution.”

“We are Nicaraguans, not Americans,” he said in a telephone interview.

The issue never had to be resolved, however. A few days before the Jan. 21 presidential inauguration, the State Department killed the entire operation. One source said that the department thought “it would have been like rolling a grenade into the contadora efforts” for a negotiated peace in Central America. In fact, the State Department long has opposed official recognition of a Nicaraguan government-in-exile on grounds that it would preclude direct negotiations with the Sandinista government.

Concerned About Shultz

North, who at the time was helping coordinate White House efforts to generate congressional support for the contras, apparently was concerned from the outset that Secretary of State George P. Shultz might not endorse the Sea Goddess idea, a source said.

“He kept saying, ‘We’re going to have to fast-track this,’ ” recalled one former associate of the National Security Council aide, who was dismissed by President Reagan last November. “He wanted to get some enthusiasm fired up fast. He was trying to sandbag Shultz.”

For about two weeks before the inauguration, a group of North associates--meeting frequently in North’s office in the Old Executive Office Building next to the White House--worked at setting up the ambitious plan for a seagoing convention.

Origin Not Clear

It was unclear who originated the idea, but among those who participated in the planning were Richard Miller and Francis Gomez of International Business Communications, a Washington-based public affairs consulting firm that was subsequently granted a $276,000 contract by the State Department’s Office of Latin American Public Diplomacy to aid anti-Sandinista Nicaraguans on visits to Washington in 1985-86.

It also was unclear whether Reagan approved of, or even knew about, the plan. However, former associates of North said he once reported that the President “thinks it’s great.”

North’s team of organizers selected the Sea Goddess (one of two identical sister ships) because its 104 suite-sized staterooms--all the same size and similarly appointed with queen-size beds, private bars and full-size baths--could handle all the necessary Nicaraguan opposition leaders as well as accommodate an international press pool.

Submarine Screen

The cruise ship was to sail around the Caribbean while cameras and reporters recorded the debate among the anti-Sandinista leadership over the language of a new Nicaraguan constitution. To prevent any terrorist or Sandinista-backed attack on the unarmed luxury liner, North told associates, he had checked to see that the U.S. Navy could provide an aircraft carrier umbrella and a submarine screen.

Besides drafting a constitution, the would-be founding fathers of a new Nicaraguan government were to write a declaration of independence. One unresolved issue was where to issue that declaration.

Under a scenario embraced by North, the Sea Goddess would sail to Grenada where the declaration would be issued on “soil liberated from communism.” Then the delegation of opposition leaders would fly by chartered plane to Washington to proclaim a government-in-exile on the steps of the Capitol.

A second scenario--with broader support in the group--would have had the Sea Goddess conclude its voyage by steaming up the Delaware River to Philadelphia. After ceremonies at Independence Hall, the Nicaraguan entourage would have taken a “freedom train” to Washington to proclaim the government-in-exile and seek official U.S. recognition.

‘American Symbols’

“It was all being done for Congress,” a source said. “It didn’t matter that the symbols were all American symbols. It wasn’t being done to win support in Nicaragua. It was to win support on Capitol Hill.”

One contra official called the plan “a loony idea.” Another opposition leader, Cruz, said he recalled no discussions with anyone from the White House involving a constitutional convention at sea.

However, Cruz said he participated in talks about a Nicaraguan constitutional convention, possibly in San Francisco where there is a substantial Nicaraguan refugee community.

“We did discuss where the document should be adopted and Philadelphia was mentioned a couple of times,” Cruz said. “It was all in connection with attracting support from the American people.”

At the time Congress had cut off all U.S. funding for the contras in the aftermath of controversial disclosures about CIA involvement in mining Nicaraguan harbors. The Reagan Administration was frantically working to repackage the public perception of the contra war in a way that could win majority support in Congress.

In that atmosphere, Cruz said, “many silly things were discussed all the time.”