House Panels Vote Down Aid to Contras

WASHINGTON--Two House panels voted yesterday to recommend against giving $100 million to rebels fighting the leftist Nicaraguan government. President Reagan insisted that the money must be approved so the United States will not have to send "our own American boys" into the conflict.

The 9-7 vote by the House Intelligence Committee and 8-5 tally by the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, both Democratic controlled panels, were the opening salvos in legislative battles over the proposal. The issue, however, still must be considered by the full House and the Republican-controlled Senate.

The votes came shortly after Reagan said lawmakers faced "a historic decision."

Nine of the intelligence committee's 10 Democrats voted against the proposal, with only Rep. Dan Daniel (D-Va.) joining with the Republicans. Despite the committee's opposition, however, the request for $70 million military aid and $30 million logistical aid must still go to the House floor.

The House Foreign Affairs subcommittee recommended defeat of Reagan's package in a strict party line vote.

Rep. Michael Barnes (D-Md.), subcommittee chairman, said the two votes mean that "very likely the Reagan request will ultimately not succeed."

Earlier yesterday, a House Democratic leadership task force issued a report contending that "U.S. policy toward Central America must be centered on diplomacy...rather than on the use of force or the quest for military victory."

However, at the White House, Reagan suggested that if Congress does not support the rebels, called Contras, that decision could ultimately lead to use of American troops.

"We must make sure they never are needed," Reagan told members of a Jewish organization. "We send money and material now so we will never have to send our own American boys."

"But if the members of Congress hide their heads in the sand and pretend the Nicaraguan threat will go away, they are courting disaster and history will hold them acountable," he said. "Nothing less than the security of the United States is at stake."

Shout, Shout

In an interview with reporters, Reagan reiterated he has no plans to send U.S. troops to Nicaragua, but said, "I don't go around shouting that because, frankly, while we have no intention of doing any such thing, it doesn't bother me at all if the Sandinistas go to bed every night wondering whether we're going to."

Reagan said opposition to his aid package for the Contras is tantamount to support for the Nicaragua's ruling Sandinistas. It is "Hard not to" equate the two, he said.

Meanwhile, White House communications director Patrick J. Buchanan wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece that the choice is between Reagan's aid plan and communism. He challenged House members to choose sides.

"Whose side are you on?" Reagan's conservative aide wrote. "With the vote on Contra aid, the Democratic Party will reveal whether it stands with Ronald Reagan and the resistance--or [Nicaraguan leader] Daniel Ortega and the communists.

"The time for debate having expired, let us have a division of the House."

Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger '38 had argued yesterday that the leftist Nicaraguan government was becoming a "second Cuba on the American mainland [meaning] the Warsaw Pact will have effectively outflanked us."