(Sen. Chris Dodd - 1983 - Warning signs the size of Buicks)

Another look back at our Foreign Policy the last 25 years. When Senator Chris Dodd was questioned by a panel on Face The Nation on April 10, 1983, no one really knew the extent of aid we were sending to Central America, but it did cause some on the Hill to ask questions.

George Herman (CBS News): “Senator Dodd, you’re one of the Foreign Relation Committees leading experts on Central America, let me ask you this; what is the Reagan Administration trying to do in Nicaragua, what is it’s ultimate aim and is it breaking the law trying to do it?”

Sen. Christopher Dodd: “Well, let me take the second part first. I think they’re clearly breaking the law. The Boland Amendment as adopted in the continuing resolution last fall clearly and explicitly prohibits the kind of activities that the Reagan Administration is engaged in, in Nicaragua and Honduras. Clearly the Administration, beginning at the Republican convention, if you will, in 1980 has as its central aim and goal in Central America, the de-centralization and overthrow of the Sandanista government.

So it would appear while questions of legality were being tossed about, the Reagan Administration were quietly thumbing their noses at the Foreign Relations Committee and setting up secret arms deals. Needless to say, the whole thing would blow up two years later. But by then the damage had already been done and the President sat smiling, shaking his head and not recalling anything.