False Premises

When the Reagan Administration presents its annual aid requests for El / Salvador, it consistently claims that for every dollar allocated for military assistance, three dollars have been allotted for the Central American country’s economic and social development. Not so, declares a report issued last week under the auspices of the Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus, a bipartisan congressional group. The study says the lion’s share of money over the past five years has gone to the military. It warns: “If U.S. aid is composed in the future as it is at present, the next five years will be as violent and unproductive for El Salvador as the past five years.”

The 65-page report, which does not represent the views of the entire 130- member caucus, was released by the group’s chairman, House Republican Jim Leach of Iowa, along with Republican Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon and Democratic Congressman George Miller of California. Contending that the Administration has used “insufficient, misleading and in some cases false information,” the document says that of the $1.7 billion provided to El Salvador since the outbreak of its civil war five years ago, some 30% has consisted of direct military aid and another 44%, the largest portion, is “indirect, war-related economic maintenance” like cash transfers to sustain the government.

The report contradicts several other Administration assertions. It says U.S. strategy aims for definitive military victory over the Salvadoran rebels rather than a negotiated settlement. The report also charges that at least twice as many U.S. military personnel are in El Salvador as the congressionally approved 55.

The State Department called the study “unfair and inaccurate.” It said that in fiscal 1985, which ends Sept. 30, El Salvador would get $321 million in economic aid and $128 million in military assistance. The proportions in fiscal 1986 would be the same. State Department Spokesman Bernard Kalb rejected the report’s contention that aid to repair the ravages of war, like medical care for refugees, is militarily related. He was less insistent on the number of U.S. servicemen in the embattled country. Said he: “We never claimed that we have only 55 military personnel in El Salvador, although we have adhered to our self-imposed ceiling of 55 military trainers.” A U.S. embassy official in San Salvador confirmed that up to 120 American military personnel are in the country at any given time, including U.S. Marines guarding the embassy, medical specialists and communications technicians.

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