Volunteers: Sympathy, but No Support

"I'm satisfied that no agency of the Federal Government had anything to do with this." So said Senator Barry Goldwater, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, after a congressional probe last week into the deaths of two U.S. citizens in a helicopter crash in Nicaragua. The issue was whether the Administration was secretly encouraging private volunteers to join the contra rebels who are battling Nicaragua's Marxist-led government. The U.S. cut off covert assistance to the antigovernment forces last May.

Both Senate and House Intelligence Committees heard CIA and other U.S. officials testify...

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