Soviets Hear U.S. Protest on Nicaragua

In his final meeting Thursday with Soviet Defense Minister Dmitri T. Yazov on ways to improve military relations, U.S. Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci strongly protested an incursion into Honduras by what the White House has called the “Soviet-supported Sandinista army.”

Yazov gave no indication that he had advance word of the Nicaraguan move, Carlucci said, but one of Yazov’s aides offered a legalistic excuse for the Sandinista attack on Contra bases in Honduras.

“It was not a vigorous attempt to defend the Sandinista action,” Carlucci told a press conference. He said he rejected it out of hand.

He said he told Yazov that the incursion was inexcusable and conducted “in blatant disregard of the accords the Sandinistas have signed,” an apparent reference to the Central American peace plan signed by five Central American leaders last August. The move represents “totally irresponsible and indefensible behavior” and was undertaken while the Sandinistas were negotiating a cease-fire with the Contras--”a clear act of bad faith,” he added.

Official Sees Irony

Later, a senior Pentagon official traveling with Carlucci acknowledged that there was irony in the Sandinista attack, at a time when the United States and the Soviet Union are talking about reducing military tension. Although he agreed with the White House description of the Nicaraguan army as “Soviet-supplied,” he said that “we don’t think the incursion was planned in the Kremlin.”

A day earlier, before the invasion, Yazov had told Carlucci that the Soviets were “very sympathetic to the Nicaraguan people, who are suffering hunger.”

Carlucci retorted sharply, according to U.S. officials, that tanks and helicopters, which the Soviets supply to the Sandinistas, “have very little to do with satisfying appetites.”

Carlucci said the Sandinistas have made him cynical about the Central American peace process, but he declined to say that the accords on which the process is based are now dead.

Cynical About Sandinistas

“We continue to believe that the accords are a valid way to restore peace,” he said in response to a question. “We continue to support them. But . . . I’m cynical about Sandinista participation in the process.”

The senior official traveling with Carlucci said later that “the basic intent” of the U.S. troop deployment in Honduras is “to reassure the Hondurans, not to scare the Sandinistas.”

“These (Central American) countries, particularly Honduras, stood by us throughout this whole process,” he said. “When Congress voted down the funds for the Contras, Honduras and others wondered if the United States would stand by them.”

The official said he expects the Sandinistas to overrun the main Contra base camp in Honduras. “The Contras are running out of ammunition, and it’s hard to fight without ammunition,” he said.

Talks Called Cordial

The military action in Central America overshadowed the three days of talks with Yazov, the first formal meeting between the defense chiefs of the two superpowers. Carlucci characterized the talks as “cordial and businesslike” despite the points of disagreement.

“I would not claim the talks solved any significant problems” he said. “We began to discuss things which concern us, such as dangerous military activities, military doctrine, and on the number of forces.

“We set up a process that could lead to military-to-military contacts (lectures and sports competition, for example). It is good to keep the dialogue going, but the dialogue itself did not resolve any problems.

“There were no breakthroughs. It was good but not sensational.”