3,000 U.S. Troops to Go to Honduras: CBS

President Reagan has decided to send up to 3,000 American troops to Honduras as a show of support, but they will be in a noncombat role and not stationed near the border with Nicaragua, CBS News reported today.

The CBS Pentagon correspondent said the troops would probably come from the 82nd Airborne Division based at Ft. Bragg in North Carolina.

There was no immediate confirmation of the report, but it came after the White House said it was weighing all options “short of invasion” by U.S. military forces in response to a reported new Nicaraguan incursion against Contra rebel bases in Honduras.

The report said that the forces would be sent in as an “exercise” and that between 2,000 and 3,000 troops would be involved.

CBS gave no details on when the men would be sent.

The decision was made several hours after the White House announced that Nicaragua had launched an invasion of Honduras to destroy the main camps of U.S.-backed Contra rebels.

At that time, President Reagan’s chief spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, said President Jose Azcona of Honduras had requested U.S. assistance to deal with the invasion. Asked whether this included a plea for military help, Fitzwater replied, “I can’t say.”

Fitzwater said Secretary of State George P. Shultz, national security adviser Colin Powell and White House chief of staff Howard H. Baker Jr., had been dispatched to Capitol Hill to brief congressional leaders.