 Mr. President, you see that this is how it usually is. Sir, I was just confirming what I said the other day. I certainly have an interesting view on this, and I just assume it was one of your same views. Thank you. Mr. President, do you see any point in negotiating with the Nicaraguans at this point about a possible settlement there? That's what the whole name of the game has been, which is probably January there. Well, will there be more negotiations then? This has always been the target, Mr. Chairman, to negotiate a return to the principles that govern the original revolution, and which has been betrayed by the Sandinistas. Do you have some hope there from those other countries? Lights, please. How do you view congressional support for the aim promotion? Photo ops over. The President has taken the next room. Mr. Chairman, this way, please. This way, please. This way, please. This way, like this way. Thank you. Thank you very much. Well, just this way, please. This way, please. This way, please. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That's the vote going to take place midnight. The vote. We don't know. You don't know? Up to the counter. Well, I know that we're here. We don't know anything about you. Those are as you have presented them. In regard to a bit more of an issue, the President was going to come out of the stones in the reports with a tremendous effect on what we need to conduct. And so far, the approval of the military will tell you a false one. Recently, a company that offered to meet with the troop commanders. They deserve it also. They've been very right. If I can only say, when you have indicated that you cannot fight, some of the county officers will just put some things and rights. They mean they are provided with the necessary support. They can change. They have a turnaround in the military. With us here, the military pressure is also important for the success of the political needs. Now, that's the thing. This is the thing we've been trying to make. Our people understand that they did not attempt to simply overthrow this. This is to simply come back and we've said negotiate out what the original goal was to do. And our people need to hear that. Will you mind if, after we get rid of the press in the next room and after that, well, I'll make some remarks while they're dead. And then, after they get back, call on you to say this, what you said. There's no question that there is a target that they're going to go along these next three weeks to try. And it's the Congress that we must have that support. In fact, I have been saying what you just said, using term jet vindates in the steamer town. So for it, it's not very healthy against the gunship. Absolutely. And we also need a strong and solid front. It's important for the president to have in the same way that, of course, the plan proposed to be, we have some indications there that the Honduras is going to be a bunch more hopeful in every way in allowing forces to go in in the future. And we hope that actually, they weren't passed and it was a slow down for them. Yes. I mean, the secretary, it's true, I mean, supplies, drugs, so it might be assumed. But of course, they don't do that. One of the colleagues was telling us that, of course, they need some discretion, yes, that we wouldn't do it in a discreet manner. That's what the ambassador from the U.S. basically said. But, uh, the important thing is to have the availability. That's right. You may have the information that my trip down to Grenada the other day, I met with the nine prime ministers of the Caribbean, the small island nations, and they brought up on their own, to me, just united totally, that we must continue to provide the help. Nicaragua under the president regime is, they believe, a definite threat to their very survival. That's not going to happen. Yes. They have two alliances. The Pope and you. Let me put it that way. You're a big copy of that. How's the morale of the troops in the field? What are they feeling at this point? About the, that one can find a loafer that they want to speak, but well, I would put it this way. We have to go see them in order to raise up our morale. That's the way. We come back with a path of patriotism and enthusiasm whenever you come out from seeing them. That's great. Adolfo, if we get this funding, what is your assessment as to the increase, the number that will come over? Well, we have to, first we have to get our people in. Secondly, we have to get the peasants to trust that there will not be these inconsistencies that is in and out of the situation. And that cannot be assured by a U.S., by a U.S. decision. And once that happens, and we have the work we've done to give, to new volunteers, we can get them by the hundreds, by the thousands, including the break up of the Sandinista militia and the possible break up of the non-army. What are the units coming out of that? After what happened in the Philippines we have Marcos, I mean, I'm in the middle of years and years and years and years and years and years and years coming over to the other side. I mean, things go wrong. That's our expectation. But we have to have the U.S. firm decision. That comes for anything else. And a long-term commitment, the fact that it should be long-term, this policy of in and out, halfway only has been a disaster for us. That's important. The second part is the diplomatic initiative. So we can give, we need the tools to the Latin American governments so they can start shifting publicly, so they do try and bring in support of our cause and against the Sandinistas. This is, that's why we feel that we also have a very strong Latin American diplomatic initiative to shift them around and give them the weapons to go publicly. I would, I would think we're forces. Latin American governments are hiding behind U.S. indecision. Yes. A very big spiel, sir. Well, thank you. I know that we have four of us who just came in and are deeply grateful to you for the call that brings you all together. I have just met with these leaders of the United Nicaraguan opposition who represent the hope for democracy in Nicaragua. I've heard crews, Adolfo Calero, and Alfonso López. Haiti and the Philippines have demonstrated the desire of people worldwide for democratic rule. Central America, great strides toward democracy have been taken in every country, except in Nicaragua, where the Sandinista dictatorship is consolidating communist control. I think the world is watching to see if Congress has committed to democracy in Nicaragua in our own hemisphere as it was in the Philippines. The Nicaraguan democratic resistance, 40% former Sandinistas now confronts new Soviet weapons including the same helicopters used to massacre the resistance in Afghanistan. Democratic reconciliation remains possible if we support those who share our ideals. However, if we don't provide our friends with the means to stop these Soviet gunships, Nicaraguan freedom fighters will suffer the same fate as the Hungarian freedom fighters did 30 years ago who had nothing to defend themselves against Soviet tanks. The second question that will be answered with this vote is whether Congress is determined to keep Central America free as Ortega and Castro are to make it communist. I've asked for $100 million in assistance and we'll fight for it. Simple humanitarian aid is not enough. These gentlemen definitely agree you can't stop tanks and gunships with bandages and bedrolls. Congressional defeat of this aid proposal could well deliver Nicaragua permanently to the communist bloc. Procrastination risks a military victory for the Sandinistas who hope to finish off the freedom fighters before American help can arrive. We implore Congress not to delay and to provide that help. And for two years the freedom fighters have gotten no military assistance from the United States except that that some of you know has been provided. And Moscow has provided a half a billion dollars in arms. Defeat for the Contras would mean a second Cuba on the mainland of North America. It would be a major defeat in the quest for democracy in our hemisphere. And it would mean consolidation of a privileged sanctuary for terrorists and subversives just two days driving time from Orange and Texas. Now I don't think any of us are going to try and sell the idea that just a little Nicaragua could represent a threat to the United States. But that isn't what they have in mind either. They have in mind being a launching pad for revolution up and down first of all Latin America. We have the definite proof that they continue. The Sandinista government continues to send arms to the guerrillas in El Salvador trying still to get rid of that democratic government that is now installed there. And does anyone can anyone imagine how much more help they would be able to give if once they were totally victorious and had no opposition within their own country anymore and what they could do to unseat the surrounding neighboring democracies. I think it would place in jeopardy the survival of each of those small and fragile democracies now in Central America. Open up the possibility of Soviet military bases on America's doorstep could threaten the security of the Panama Canal inaugurate a vast migration northward to the United States of hundreds of thousands of refugees. And those who would invite this strategic disaster by abandoning yet another fighting ally of this country in the field will be held fully accountable by history. Now that's all that I'm going to say here for the moment and a few moments away. I hope I have a chance to say something. I don't want to add something over to the President. I'm a little more optimistic than that. We're going to tell our story to the American people and we're going to continue to work in Congress and I refuse to give up. I remember a man in Winston Churchill who said, Never give in. Never, never, never. They won't. How tough is the sell on the hill, Mr. President? We'll be talking to our friends later. Thank you. Amazingly, they maintain crowd control with people, though. My darts, he says. I didn't say it. Mr. President, I spent 20 years in Castro's jail. They had an inaudible, almost, and unrecognizable voice on tape from the last time in here. That's where they got it. And I didn't say it. And I told them the other day I thought maybe one of them said it about us. Now, all of you here, we're so grateful for your being here. And I know these three gentlemen are. I wonder if you'd like to hear Cruz say to you what he just said to me in the other room about the goals of, you know, and the concept. Thank you, Mr. President. I don't need to thank you. There's been a tremendous disinformation campaign. And I want to stress there is a coincidence between your America, strategic interest in the region as well as your commitment to democracy. So it's a commitment, a coincidence of commitment. We believe that there should be a two-track approach to be followed with great vigor with the view of finding a political submission. However, even if we come up as we were with an ingenious diplomatic proposer to really deal with Contadora in the right context. That is to say that the democratization of Nicaragua is the centerpiece of that solution. It is essential to have the military support. Because otherwise, whatever initiative in the diplomatic field would take would be lacking teeth. And you know how Carlos of Sandinista is. And we met recently the three of us with the regional commanders at the end. And they told us that to me. We need them in order to bring a turnaround to the president, they said, we do need to relate. We need artillery. We need anti-aircraft weaponry. For instance, so you have an idea, there is a type of machine gun which is essential. The Sandinistas have one machine gun of that type for every 10 minutes. Whereas the rebels only have one for every 100 minutes. So whoever says that the approval of the aid is a militant that is to get into this fully wrong. The only way we will never persuade the Sandinistas to come to the negotiating table through pressure. And we have those courageous young men willing to fight for it. To present. We have been assured these gentlemen that there is no lack of morale among the conference that are out there. They are patriotic and willing to keep on going and they deserve the help that we can give them. I know that you are all on that side. I guess maybe the only thing here is to point out that anything that you can do to be of help such as the groups that you can influence and so forth would be of help on the Congress because in these next few weeks we're going all out to see if we cannot get past this aid once and for all. And I told these gentlemen I was pleased to be able to tell them that last week when I went down to Grenada and met with nine Prime Ministers of those tiny Caribbean island nations. All nine of them they brought it up and with the utmost sincerity they told me they brought the subject up.