Reagan Warning Given Nicaragua : He Backs Removal of Leftist Regime Unless It Joins Rebels in a Democracy

WASHINGTON —  President Reagan, denouncing the Sandinistas as brutal, cruel totalitarian leaders without “a decent leg to stand on,” openly declared Thursday that the United States supports the removal of Nicaragua’s leftist regime unless it joins with its rebel enemies to form a truly democratic government.

“You can say we’re trying to oust the Sandinistas. . . . We’re saying we’re trying to give those who fought a revolution to escape a dictatorship, to have democracy, and then had it taken away from them by some of their fellow revolutionaries,” a chance “to have that democracy that they fought for,” the President said at a nationally televised news conference.

It was his strongest statement thus far on the U.S. position on Nicaragua and American support for the insurgents known as contras .

1983 Declaration

For months, Reagan has parried questions about whether his goal is the overthrow of the Sandinista government, gradually backing away from his April, 1983, declaration that “we are not doing anything to try to overthrow the Nicaraguan government.”

At his news conference, however, the President told a questioner that he favors removing the Managua government “in the sense of its present structure, in which it is a Communist totalitarian state.”

Pressed repeatedly to clarify whether he was advocating the overthrow of the Sandinista regime, Reagan declared: “Not if the present government would turn around and say (to the contras) all right--if they say uncle, all right, come on back into the revolutionary government and let’s straighten this out and institute the goals” of the revolution.

“I don’t think the Sandinistas have a decent leg to stand on. What they have done is totalitarian, it is brutal, cruel and they have no argument against what the rest of the people in Nicaragua want.”

Over the past week, the Reagan Administration had stepped up its rhetorical attack on the Sandinistas as part of a campaign to win congressional approval for renewed U.S. aid to the contras. Congress last year voted to halt covert assistance after the Administration had spent more than $80 million on a CIA-directed program of ostensibly covert aid to the rebels.

Earlier Thursday, Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger predicted that without military pressure on Nicaragua, the Central American country would become “another Cuba in this hemisphere” and provide a military base for the Soviet Union and a direct threat to U.S. security.

Similarly, in his weekly radio address last Saturday, Reagan called the contras “brothers and freedom fighters.” Thursday evening, he said they are only trying to achieve the goals of freedom that were part of the 1979 Sandinista-led revolution that overthrew rightist dictator Anastasio Somoza.

Sandinista Control

In the months after the revolution’s triumph, radical elements of the Sandinistas came to dominate and finally control the coalition that initially replaced Somoza.

The present government, Reagan said, “is one element of the revolution against Somoza. The freedom fighters are other elements of that revolution. And once victory was obtained, the Sandinistas did what Castro had done prior to their time in Cuba. They ousted and managed to rid themselves of the other elements of the revolution and violated their own promise to the Organization of American States. . . .”

Leaders of several contra factions are now negotiating among themselves on details of a common political program proposal to be presented to the Sandinistas as a formula for the insurgents’ participation in the government. Rebel spokesmen have warned that it will constitute the last chance for a reconciliation and an end to the fighting.

Thus, Reagan’s suggestion that U.S. opposition to the Sandinista government would end if it joined hands with the rebels appeared to echo the contras’ own position.

Covering a broad range of issues in his news conference, the President also:

--Declared that this country will continue to abide by the unratified second strategic arms limitation treaty with the Soviet Union, at least for the present, and will decide within the next few months what to do about U.S. weapons construction that might violate its limits, unless older weapons are retired.

--Ruled out any new taxes, including a national consumption tax or a tax on imported oil, as devices for raising additional revenues.

--Defended his controversial budget director, David A. Stockman, and vowed to keep him in office, despite complaints from veterans groups, farmers, and others about Stockman’s blunt criticism of federal programs benefiting them.

--Affirmed his support for research on the “Star Wars” missile defense program, saying it does not violate any treaties and promising to negotiate with the Soviet Union before actually deploying any such space defense system.

The Reagan Administration’s support for the Nicaraguan rebels, officially secret when it began in 1981, has been openly acknowledged by U.S. officials for more than a year. Originally, however, the Administration insisted that the purpose of the CIA’s covert aid to the rebels was solely to impede Nicaraguan arms shipments to leftist guerrillas in El Salvador--not to overthrow the Managua regime.

Later, the Administration’s official rationale for the program evolved to one of “pressuring” the Sandinistas to agree to U.S. demands that they stop aiding the Salvadoran leftists, cut their links to the Soviet Bloc and increase domestic democracy. Privately, some Administration officials said those objectives could only be attained by overthrowing the Sandinistas. But Congress explicitly rejected that goal, and the Administration continued to disavow any intention of toppling the Managua regime.

In his opening statement, the President said he is anxious to work with Congress on a “sweeping program of tax simplification and reform” that he said should be passed this year.

Questioned on whether tax reform will lead to an increase in taxes paid by businesses, Reagan said such reform will occur through the “elimination of a number of exemptions that have existed . . . and have been unfair in the sense that some are entitled to them and others are not.”

He brushed aside inquiries about possible new taxes, such as a consumption tax proposed by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Robert O. Packwood (R-Ore.) that would be levied on items at different stages of production.

“I would have great difficulty accepting such a proposal,” Reagan said. “This appears to be increasing taxes, which I said we wouldn’t do.” Such a tax, he said, would be “hidden in the price of the product--the tax can quietly be increased, and all the people know is the price went up.”

The President also said the United States must decide in several months whether to continue staying within the limit on multiple-warhead ballistic missiles contained in the unratified second strategic arms limitation treaty.

Both the United States and the Soviet Union have promised “not to undercut” the agreement, although it has no legal force. The new Alaska missile submarine will go to sea trials in the late summer or fall with 24 missile-launching tubes, which will put the United States over the 1,200-missile ceiling by 14.