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Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Senator John Bennett Johnston (D - Louisiana) and Senator Lawton Chiles (D - Florida) on leather couch talking to Linda Wertheimer. Linda Wertheimer, Did you anticipate that it might be dangerous when you planned this trip? Did you think of the possibility that you might be in danger? Senator John Bennett Johnston (D - Louisiana) Well, as a matter of fact we did, but that wasn t the overriding thing. And we thought it would be reasonably safe. So we went. Senator Lawton Chiles (D - Florida), I think it like we knew other guerillas were around there, there are death squads, there are other things around there. But you always think, certainly they won t be after us. Linda Wertheimer, Did you have confidence in the guides and the people who were supposed to be looking after you? Senator John Bennett Johnston (D - Louisiana) Up until the time we started taking rounds, yes. At that point I think we wondered, what are we doing here. And why are we lost? I think our pilot really was lost.
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Senator Lawton Chiles (D - Florida), If I had gotten killed in that trip, I would have been mad as hell. Since we came out alright, I don t have much concern about it anymore. Linda Wertheimer, When they began to shoot at you, did you understand what was going on? Senator John Bennett Johnston (D - Louisiana) Not initially. We heard some noise, which the pilot himself didn t know what it was. He said, what was that. It sounded like maybe a belt flapping on something outside. And we thought that maybe the plane was coming apart, the rotor was breaking up or something. Until we saw this hole in the glass, up in the canopy about this size and somebody about that time said that s a bullet hole. Then we began to hear the bullets whizzing by.
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Linda Wertheimer, Did you have any idea where you were and who was shooting at you? Senator John Bennett Johnston (D - Louisiana) Well, we didn t know where we were, but it was very plain who was shooting at us, that is the Salvadoran guerrillas. At it was very plain that they were hostile. Linda Wertheimer, You thought you d have to land? Senator Lawton Chiles (D - Florida), We were looking for a place to land. I think everybody on the ship felt that we were going down. I know I was more concerned with the plane falling than I was in at getting shot at. Then the colonel we had on board, who has been under more fire than anyone, was a little more seasoned, he was not a part of the crew. He got on the intercom and said check your instruments, if they re alright, let s get the heck out of here.
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Linda Wertheimer, Now in a situation like that, if anything had happened to you, the United States government would have had to send somebody down to try to find you or rescue you. Senator John Bennett Johnston (D - Louisiana) It would have been, I m sure, quite a foray of American might that would have been brought to bear on rescuing us if we hadn t very quickly been found. Linda Wertheimer, Does the risk in a situation like that, outweigh the benefits? Senator John Bennett Johnston (D - Louisiana) If you knew what you were getting into, certainly the risks outweighed it. They thought we were going from one place in Honduras to another place in Honduras over territory which they thought to be friendly.
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Linda Wertheimer, You ve now had a rather personal experience of this war. Does that affect your thinking about policy in the region? Senator Lawton Chiles (D - Florida), We were in a situation of peril for a very few minutes. There are an awful lot of people in this country, especially in El Salvador, that are in that position daily.
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Paul Duke introduces brief item on sexual abuse hearings. Senator Paula Hawkins (R - Florida) My interest in this issue developed when I was a very young girl at age 5 and was sexually abused by a good friend of our family. I ve not told this before. I was a witness at age 5 in a court case, in California where a lot of other children testified also. All the children were judged by the judge to be lying. And I ll remember that to my dying day Children, ages 4 to 10 approx, seated at table as a panel.
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Paul Duke introduces brief item on bankruptcy reform was held up, extension of old bill complicated by Reagan s trip to China. Congressman Dan Glickman (D - Kansas) This bill, if passed today, will have to be flown 8,000 miles to Shanghai to be signed at a tremendous cost to the taxpayer of the United States. And probably Mr. Chairman, this is the first bill in the history of this House that has been literally Shanghaied on its way to passage.
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Paul Duke introduces brief item on federal deficit. Representative Henry Hyde (R - Illinois) You want to know where's the beef , the national debt would buy 4907 Wendy s hamburgers for every American. That s over 235 million of us. You want to invite the rest of the world to lunch? How about 244 hamburgers for every person in the world.
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Paul Duke introduces brief item that polls indicate public doesn't think Congress is handling national problems well. New US NEWS poll - legislators rate most respected among them, Barber Conable (R - New York), Senator Howard Baker (R - Tennessee), Representative Jim Wright rated best Speaker in House. Paul Duke notes that "two most respected Republicans , Conable and Baker are retiring.
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
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Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
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Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Title Sequence
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Hosts Paul Duke, Cokie Roberts and Linda Wertheimer. Duke gives intro to program: Account of Senate investigations of Central America conflict, Tension between Congress and the CIA, and efforts to promote American shoe industry.
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Paul Duke introduces first segment on Congress and the CIA. Congressmen angered over CIA aid to Contras in Nicaragua.
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Representative Dan Glickman (D - Kansas) attacks CIA mining of harbors in Nicaragua. It s clear however, that the recent disclosures of CIA mining of Nicaraguan harbors in violation of principles of international law, destroys our ability to play any constructive role whatsoever in that region.
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Fidel Castro, in fatigues, and aides marching through street.
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Shot of people walking down stairs from jet airliner to runway.
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Former CIA Chief William Colby, The Good Ole Days were days which Congress didn t really want to know, didn t want to ask. And that stems out of the old tradition of the spy service, and the team runs the spy and nobody else should be worried about it.
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Hallway outside of Congressional hearing room, men entering, security guards. Meeting of Senate Church Committee. Close up of Frank Church (D - Idaho) CIA chief Richard Helms testifying, Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, whom I worked for most closely, usually left it to me as to how the order was to be carried out within the agency. I don t think that any of them had ever gone to the pains to find out exactly what the agency hierarchy was or who would be the next fellow to learn about it. So they left that judgment to me.
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Intelligence Committee meeting.
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Representative Lee Hamilton (D - Indiana) It is apparent that there is not an easy relationship between the Congress and the Central Intelligence Agency. Neither group has the confidence of the other.
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
CIA chief William Casey exiting Capitol.
Lawmakers - April 26, 1984
Senator David Durenberger (R - Minnesota) Right now that trust relationship has broken down. Over the last year or two, it has broken down to a degree between the Committee and the Administration. And the serious problem is that it is now in danger of breaking down between the 16 members of the Committee and the rest of our colleagues because they re not sure we can trust the Administration, so why should they trust us.