Documents Changed to Eliminate Data on U.S. Military Aid to Contras

The changes that Fawn Hall admits she made in top-secret White House documents at the request of her boss, Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, were clearly designed to eliminate all references to U.S. military assistance to the Nicaraguan resistance.

The Iran- contra congressional investigating committees have obtained copies of four documents that Hall admits she altered in November, 1986, along with one that was changed in 1985. All the memos were written by North to Robert C. McFarlane, who was President Reagan’s national security adviser until December, 1985.

The alterations that Hall made in November at North’s request:

--In a memo dated Feb. 6, she deleted North’s suggestion that there were three alternative ways of halting an expected weapons shipment to Nicaragua from Taiwan: seizing the ship, sinking it or publicizing it to embarrass the countries involved. The altered memo contains only one suggestion: that information about the shipment be declassified “so that we can have it placed in the overseas news media.”

--In a memo dated March 5, 1985, she eliminated North’s suggestion that an unnamed Central American country should receive increased U.S. assistance in exchange for the help that it was providing to the Nicaraguan resistance. But she failed to eliminate a footnote reference to that country, Guatemala--an oversight that she cited as proof that she was not paying attention to what she was typing.

--In a memo dated March 16, 1985, entitled “Fallback Plan for the Nicaraguan Resistance,” she eliminated North’s suggestion “that present donors continue their relationship with the resistance” if Congress did not approve direct U.S. military aid for the contras. In addition, she cut out the entire fallback plan, which hinged on private donations, and wrote instead that “we will need to develop a fallback plan for getting on with support for the resistance.”

--In a memo dated April 11, 1985, in which North outlined how the contras could survive without direct U.S. funding, she eliminated North’s recommendation “that the current donors be approached to provide $15 to $20 million additional between now and June 1.” Instead, she wrote: “That you brief the President on the current situation and urge concerted action in immediate congressional approval of a $14-million CIA supplemental (appropriation) and $75 to $100 million for the next fiscal year.”