Bush's organization of covert action. Rodriguez was now to operate out of the Vice
President's office.
December 21, 1982:The first Boland Amendment '' became law: None of the funds provided in this Act
[the Defense Appropriations Bill] may be used by the Central Intelligence Agency or the
Department of Defense to furnish military equipment, military training or advice, or other
support for military activities, to any group or individual ... for the purpose of
overthrowing the government of Nicaragua. '' Boland I, '' as it was called, remained in effect until Oct. 3, 1984, when it was superseded by a stronger prohibition known as
Boland II. ''@s4
February 1983:Fawn Hall joined Oliver North as his assistant. Ms. Hall reported that she worked with
North on the development of a secret `` Crisis Management Center. '' Lt. Colonel North,
an employee of the National Security Council, is seen here managing a new structure
within the Bush-directed SSG/CPPG arrangements of 1981- 82.@s5
March 3, 1983:In the spring of 1983, the National Security Council established an office of Public Diplomacy '' to propagandize in favor of and run cover for the Iran-Contra operations, and to coordinate published attacks on opponents of the program. Former CIA Director of Propaganda Walter Raymond was put in charge of the effort. The unit was to work with domestic and international news media, as well as private foundations. The Bush family- affiliated Smith Richardson Foundation was part of a National Security Council private
donors' steering committee '' charged with coordinating this propaganda effort. A March
3, 1983 memorandum from Walter Raymond to then-NSC Director William Clark,
provided details of the program: ``
As you will remember you and I briefly mentioned to the President when we briefed him on the
N[ational] S[ecurity] D[ecision] D[irective] on public diplomacy that we would like to get
together with some potential donors at a later date....``To accomplish these objectives Charlie [United States Information Agency Director Charles Z.
Wick] has had two lengthy meetings with a group of people representing the private sector. This
group had included principally program directors rather than funders. The group was largely
pulled together by Frank Barnett, Dan McMichael (Dick [Richard Mellon] Scaife's man), Mike
Joyce (Olin Foundation), Les Lenkowsky (Smith Richardson Foundation) plus Leonard Sussman
and Leo Cherne of Freedom House. A number of others including Roy Godson have also
participated. '' [Everything above in parentheses is in the original].@s6Elsewhere, Raymond described Cherne and Godson as the coordinators of this group.
Frank Barnett was the director of the Bush family's National Strategy Information Center,
for which Godson was the Washington, D.C. director. Barnett had been the project
director of the Smith Richardson Foundation prior to being assigned to that post. The