and an operations officer from CIA; and Poindexter, North and myself from NSC. Vice President
Bush chaired the Washington group. Anever seen before. The vice president sat at one end of the long table and Poindexter at the other,ll participants were escorted to room 208, which many had
with speaker phones positioned so that everyone could hear President Reagan, Shultz, and
McFarlane. The meeting began with an overview and an update.... There were animated
discussions.... The conclusion was that by early Tuesday, October 25, the United States and allied
forces would be in a position to initiate military action.... The only legal authority on Grenada wasthe governor general, Sir Paul N. Scoon, ... a Grenadan citizen appointed by the British crown....
Ingeniously, he had smuggled out a request for external help in restoring law and order.... The
detailed hour-by-hour plan was circulated to everyone at the meeting. There was also a short
discussion of the War Powers Resolution, which requires the president to get approval of Congress
if he intends to deploy U.S. troops in combat for more than sixty days. There was little question thatU.S. combat forces would be out before that time.... The president had participated and asked
questions over the speaker phone; he made his decision. The U.S. would answer the call from our
Caribbean neighbors. We would assure the safety of our citizens.@s1@s 1
Clearly, there was no perceived need to follow the U.S. Constitution and leave the question ofwhether to make war up to the Congress. After all, President Reagan had concurred, from the golf (^)
course, with Acting President Bush's decision in the matter. And the British nominee in the target
country had requested Mr. Bush's help!
November 3, 1983:
Bush aide Donald Gregg met with Felix Rodriguez to discuss the general situation in CentralAmerica. ''@s1@s2 December 1983: Oliver North accompanied Vice President Bush to El Salvador as his assistant. Bush met with Salvadoran army commanders. North helped Bush prepare a speech, in which he publicly called upon them to end their support for the use of despeech was one of the bravest things I've seen for anybody [sath squads. '' North later testified that Bush'sic]. ''@s1@s3 Attack from Jupiter January 1 through March 1984: The Wall Street Journal of March 6, 1985 gaadventures in Central America: ve a de- romanticized version of certain aquatic Armed speedboats and a helicopter launched from a Central Intelligence Agency mother ship''
attacked Nicaragua's Pacific port, Puerto Sandino on a moonless New Year's night in 1984. A week
later the speedboats returned to mine the oil terminal. Over the next three months, they laid more
than 30 mines in Puerto Sandino and also in the harbors at Corinto and El Bluff. In aon coastal positions, Americans flew--and fired from--an armed helicopter that accompanied their and sea raids
U.S.-financed Latino force, while a CIA plane provided sophisticated reconaissance guidance for
the nighttime attacks. The operation, outlined in a classified CIA document, marked the peak of
U.S. involvement in the four-year guerrilla war in Nicaragua. More than any single event, it
solidified congressional opposition to the covert war, and in the year since then, no nebeen approved beyond the last CIA checks drawn early [in the] summer [of 1984].... CIAw money has
paramilitary officers were upset by the ineffectiveness of the Contras.... As the insurgency force
grew ... during 1983 ... the CIA began to use the guerrilla army as a cover for its own small ``
Latino '' force.... [The] most celebrated attack, by armed speedboats, came Oct. 11, 1983, against oil
facilities at Corinto. Three days later, an underwater pipeline at Puerto Sandino was sabotaged byLatino [sic] frogmen. The message wasn't lost on Exxon Corp.'s Esso unit [formerly Standard Oil of (^)
New Jersey], and the international giant informed the Sandinista government that it would no longer
provide tankers for transporting oil to Nicaragua. The CIA's success in scaring off a major shipper
fit well into its mining strategy.... The mother ship used in the mining operation is described by
sources as a private chartered vessel with a configuration similar to an oil-field service and towing