Sought Honduras Aid, Reagan Says : Diplomacy: The ex-President provides the first confirmation of what some White House documents called a ‘quid pro quo’ arrangement.

Former President Ronald Reagan says in videotaped testimony released Thursday that he pressured Honduras in 1985 to help Nicaragua’s Contra rebels in return for U.S. military and economic aid, providing the first high-level confirmation of what some White House documents called a “quid pro quo” arrangement.

“In return for our help in the form of security assurances as well as aid . . . we do expect cooperation” on the Contra issue, Reagan said, quoting from a White House memorandum during his testimony for the upcoming trial of his former national security adviser, John M. Poindexter.

“This was a problem in our relationship,” the former President added.

Reagan did not use the term “quid pro quo,” a characterization that has been denied by President Bush and others who were involved in contacts with Honduras at the time. But he made it clear that he saw a direct exchange between U.S. aid to the Central American country and Honduran assistance to the Contras.

“If some aid and assistance is given to (Honduras), you would expect some aid and assistance back from them?” asked Poindexter’s lawyer, Richard W. Beckler.

“Yes,” Reagan replied.

The issue of aid to Honduras became controversial last year, when documents released in the trial of former Reagan aide Oliver L. North revealed that Bush--who was then vice president under Reagan--visited the Central American country to discuss the issue.

Bush said he was unaware of any quid pro quo, even though a White House memorandum he received referred explicitly to such an arrangement.

In his testimony, Reagan also said he may have personally lobbied British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to help Nicaragua’s Contra rebels, but he could not specifically remember doing so.

“It is very possible that this is correct,” Reagan said in testimony videotaped for Poindexter’s trial.

“If there was anyone that I would (have lobbied), it would be that one,” he added, referring to Thatcher.

Reagan made his statements in response to questions from Beckler about a 1984 National Security Council memorandum. The memo, prepared for Reagan in advance of a Thatcher visit to Washington, recommended that the President urge the British leader to allow the Contras to buy British-made anti-aircraft missiles. “On the matter of supporting the Nicaraguan resistance, we should very privately express approbation for anything that HMG (the British government) is willing to do in support of their cause,” the memo said.

Reagan also said he had instructed his aides to encourage other countries to fund the Contras during the period when Congress prohibited U.S. aid to the rebels. “I did not suggest actually soliciting, but (said) that it would be worthwhile to mention to those countries . . . (that) we believed it was something that democracies should be interested in,” he said.

The former President’s eight hours of testimony, together with documents that will be used as evidence in the trial, thus provided additional evidence that Reagan took a direct personal role in seeking foreign aid for the Contras.

When the Iran-Contra affair first erupted in 1986 with the discovery that Reagan Administration officials had secretly sold weapons to Iran and used some of the profits to help the Contras, Reagan initially denied knowing that his aides were seeking foreign aid for the rebels.

Since then, however, as evidence has mounted that Reagan himself participated in the drive for secret Contra funds, the former President has changed his story, saying in 1987 that seeking foreign aid was “my idea to begin with.”

Reagan also recounted a 1985 meeting with Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd in which the monarch promised to increase his aid to the Contras from $1 million to $2 million each month. “As he was leaving the Oval Office and I was escorting him to the door, he told me of the contribution that he had been making to the Contras . . . and his last words were that he was going to double it,” Reagan said. “. . . I said, ‘I think that’s fine.’ ”

Nevertheless, Reagan repeated on Thursday that he never knew how deeply his aides had been involved in seeking foreign aid. He said it was his “impression” that their role was limited to “communicating back and forth . . . on the need for the support of the Contras.”

“I guess that I had never . . . had any inkling that we were guiding their strategy in any way,” he testified.

The Reagan Administration’s attempts to win British approval for a sale of missiles to the Contras have been previously reported, and the 1984 memorandum recommending that Reagan take up the issue with Thatcher was released last year as evidence in North’s trial. But Thursday’s testimony was the first time Reagan has been asked to explain his role in the proposed deal.

At the time, Contra guerrillas were suffering heavy losses to the Nicaraguan army’s Soviet-supplied attack helicopters, and rebel leaders were searching desperately for anti-aircraft missiles to use against the copters. The CIA, which had provided the Contras with weaponry and other supplies for three years, was prohibited by Congress from giving any more.

Chile, then ruled by the military regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, offered the Contras 48 British-made Blowpipe missiles at no cost, according to North’s records. But the Chileans noted that they needed British permission to transfer the weapons.

It is not clear whether Thatcher ever approved the proposed Chilean donation. In the end, the deal fell through because the Chileans demanded that the Contras also buy ammunition and mortar rounds at a price higher than the Contras could afford, according to North’s records.