Bush Aware of Honduran Aid Ties : Trial Memos Show Then-V.P. Was Told of Link to Contras

A White House document released in the trial of Oliver L. North indicates that President Bush, while vice president, was informed that U.S. military aid was being given to Honduras as a “quid pro quo” because of that country’s help for Nicaragua’s Contra rebels.

The document, a memorandum distributed at a 1985 Oval Office meeting attended by Bush, strengthens earlier indications that he was aware the Reagan Administration was promising aid to Honduras in exchange for help for the Contras at a time when Congress had prohibited U.S. aid “directly or indirectly” to the rebels.

The memo, signed by Robert C. McFarlane, then-President Ronald Reagan’s national security adviser, urged Reagan to tell the visiting Honduran president of “the importance we attach to his continued cooperation in enabling the FDN (the main Contra organization) to remain a viable element of pressure” against the Nicaraguan government.

‘We Do Expect Cooperation’

“Without making the linkage too explicit, it would be helpful to remind (the Hondurans) that in return for our help--in the form of security assurances as well as aid--we do expect cooperation in pursuit of our mutual objectives,” the memo said. “In this regard, you could underline the seriousness of our security commitment, which the Hondurans seem to regard as the main quid pro quo for cooperating with the FDN.”

At the same time, however, other documents released in the trial show that Bush did not act as a secret emissary to Honduras to broker a specific deal on aid for the Contras. Instead, the documents suggest that Bush was only one of several senior officials who promised U.S. aid and sought Honduran support for the Contras.

The issue of Bush’s role in the Reagan Administration’s secret campaign to persuade other countries to aid the rebels arose last week, when a court document revealed that he visited Honduras in March, 1985, and told the country’s president that U.S. aid was being accelerated in response to a Honduran decision to help the Contras.

Another White House document released this week shows that officials of the White House National Security Council believed that seeking aid from Honduras for the rebels violated the intent of Congress’ ban on Contra aid, even though it may have been technically legal.

In the past, Bush has denied any knowledge of the secret Contra aid operation organized by North, who was on the NSC staff in 1985. But he never has said whether he participated in attempts to obtain supplies and money from foreign governments. He has refused to comment on the disclosures from the North trial, arguing that to do so might affect the trial.

“I think I’ve given a full accounting,” the President told an audience of newspaper editors Wednesday. “Every attorney that advises the President has advised me not to do something that inadvertently would cause a mistrial or would disturb the process that is under way. And so, I don’t like reading charges that I happen to feel are untrue, but I have to stand on that.”

However, Bush did point approvingly to comments from two officials who were present during his 1985 visit to Honduras, both of whom said that he discussed no explicit quid pro quo when he met with Honduran President Roberto Suazo Cordoba.

“There was no goddamn quid pro quo,” said Langhorne A. Motley, a former assistant secretary of state, in a telephone interview. “That’s just b.s.”

Motley acknowledged that the United States used its military and economic aid as leverage to encourage Honduras to help the Contras. But he denied that such a linkage amounted to a quid pro quo.

“You speed up the (aid) pipeline, and at the same time you tell him your concerns,” Motley said. “That isn’t a quid pro quo. . . . We don’t work that way.”

Several NSC documents released in the North trial refer explicitly to Honduran cooperation with the Contras as a “quid pro quo” or a “condition” for U.S. aid, but Motley said that Bush did not take that message to Suazo. “Maybe that was in the mind of some people to do that, but that’s not how it ended up,” he said.

Bush’s name first appears in the documents on a Feb. 20, 1985, NSC memo, which was written as officials were debating the best way to pressure a balky Honduras toward providing more assistance to the Contras.

Alongside the text of a proposed presidential message thanking Honduras for its support for the rebels and promising accelerated U.S. aid “to ensure that our appreciation manifests itself in more than words,” there was a handwritten note by John M. Poindexter, then deputy national security adviser. “Add that we want VP to also discuss this matter with Suazo,” it said.

A follow-up memo from the NSC to the State Department stated that “the vice president will discuss with (Suazo) the issues raised” in the presidential message.

Three weeks later, Bush met with Suazo. They discussed Honduras’ desire for a mutual security pact with the United States, military aid and the Contra issue, according to two officials who were present, Motley and John D. Negroponte, former ambassador to Honduras. But both Motley and Negroponte said that no explicit quid pro quo arrangement was mentioned at the meeting.

Another NSC memo written on Feb. 20 shows that North and other officials were aware that their approach to Honduras would violate Congress’ intent in banning indirect aid to the Contras.