1983: United States

THE PRESIDENCY

Despite the advantage of a rebounding economy, President Ronald Reagan seemed almost continually involved in controversy or in confrontation with Congress in 1983. Relations with the Soviet Union remained on a rocky road, and hundreds of U.S. troops died as the United States found itself deeply entangled in Lebanon and invaded Grenada. Even the Republican-controlled Senate battled with the Republican chief executive on such divisive matters as Reagan's proposed defense buildup and the massive budget deficits he projected for future years. In spite of these sore points, though, by a combination of tactical retreats and the creation of bipartisan commissions, Reagan managed to achieve agreement from Congress, with its larger and more assertive Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, on such troublesome issues as social security and the MX missile.

While all of his top advisers said they expected the president to seek a second term in 1984, for most of 1983 Reagan resisted their pressure for an early announcement of his political plans. However, he began a series of campaign-style appearances in the summer that indicated he might run, and a campaign committee was established in October. At the age of 73 by Election Day 1984, he would be the oldest major party presidential candidate ever.

Economic issues.

Recovery.

Although the worst recession since the Great Depression was apparently over as the year began, unemployment remained in the range of 9 to 10 percent for most of 1983. However, Reagan basked in the glow of an economy that virtually exploded after some 18 months of stagnation. By the end of June, the president was able to say, 'The American economy is beginning to sparkle.' At the same time, the inflation rate remained low, and only chronically high interest rates, usually associated with large federal budget deficits, threatened to slow the pace of recovery in the months before the 1984 election.

The recession—which was far deeper and lasted far longer than Reagan or his advisers had anticipated—left definite scars, and at times, even Reagan's optimism seemed to waver. In November 1982, for example, as he was recording a radio talk on the nation's economy, the president unwittingly spoke into an open microphone and indulged in some gallows humor, saying, 'And I am prepared to tell you, it [the economy] is a hell of a mess.' Conditions did look grim. Civilian unemployment climbed to 10.8 percent of the labor force in December 1982, its highest level in over 40 years, and some 12 million Americans were out of work in one of the bleakest holiday seasons since the end of World War II.

Yet by the time Reagan delivered his State of the Union message to Congress on January 25, 1983, he could declare that America was 'on the mend.' The Federal Reserve Board's looser monetary policy, started in the summer of 1982, had begun to show an effect. On January 11, for instance, the nation's leading banks cut the prime lending rate to its lowest level in several years. As for the problem of unemployment, in January the president signed into law a 5-cent-a-gallon increase in the gasoline tax; it was hoped that this would generate over $5 billion a year, earmarked for highway and bridge repairs that were expected to provide more than 300,000 jobs. The next month, under bipartisan prodding, Reagan reluctantly agreed to support a speedup of federal construction projects to create jobs and provide government stimulus to the still-lagging economy. Congress passed the emergency jobs bill in March. Still, unemployment remained an issue for millions of Americans.

Interest rates, still extraordinarily high by historical standards, did not fall as much as the decline in the pace of inflation, and the high rates threatened to stall the economic rebound. In fact, both short-term and long-term interest rates edged upward again in the summer, as the Federal Reserve, concerned about a possible revival of inflation, began to tighten up somewhat on growth of the money supply. At the economic summit of industrial nations that Reagan hosted in Williamsburg, Va., in late May, Japan, Canada, and the major nations of Western Europe sharply criticized the United States for its high interest rates and huge budget deficits, contending that they tended to make the dollar stronger than it should be, thus weakening their own currencies.

Despite the level of interest rates, though, the U.S. economy took off strongly, expanding at an annual rate of 9.7 percent in the second quarter and 7.9 percent in the third quarter. In a move that won widespread praise on Wall Street and in the business world, Reagan reappointed Paul A. Volcker to a second four-year term as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Although Volcker was blamed by some critics in 1982 for triggering the business slump by an excessively tight monetary policy, he was credited by almost everyone with breaking the back of inflation. Consumer prices were rising at an annual rate of some 13 percent when Volcker was named to the Fed chairmanship by President Jimmy Carter in the summer of 1979. At the time of his reappointment, the inflation rate had dropped to about 4 percent.

Budget.

In his budget proposal for the 1984 fiscal year, submitted to Congress on January 31, Reagan called for increased military spending and a freeze on outlays for many domestic programs. A deficit of $188.8 billion was projected for fiscal 1984 (October 1, 1983-September 30, 1984), slightly below the record $207.7 billion deficit then envisioned for fiscal 1983. (The fiscal 1983 deficit actually turned out to be $195.4 billion.) Reagan also proposed contingency tax increases, to take effect in fiscal 1986 if deficits did not decline sharply by that time.

The budget was criticized by both Democrats and Republicans. Most of the fire centered on the president's proposed 14.2 percent increase in defense spending authority to $280.5 billion, an increase of 10 percent after adjustment for inflation. In a major setback for the president, the House on March 23 adopted a Democratic budget plan by a vote of 229 to 196. It proposed scaling back the planned military buildup (calling for a 4 percent real increase, after inflation), more funds for domestic programs cut back by Reagan in prior years, and a $30 billion tax increase to reduce the deficit. In the Senate, a budget midway between Reagan's proposal and the House measure was adopted by a vote of 50 to 49. After weeks of Senate-House bargaining, Congress finally adopted a compromise measure in June that provided for higher taxes, lower defense spending, and more domestic spending than Reagan had proposed. The congressional measure, which allowed for a 5 percent real increase in military spending, was opposed by Reagan, who vowed to veto any appropriations bills calling for large spending or tax increases. In late October, though, Reagan signed a $104.4 billion appropriations bill for social programs that exceeded his budget requests by over $9 billion. In November, Congress passed a $249.6 billion defense appropriations bill, a real increase of only about 4 percent.

Arms issues.

MX missile.

President Reagan got bipartisan support from Congress for the controversial MX land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), after his original plan for basing the nuclear weapon was rejected by the House late in 1982, in a stunning setback for the commander-in-chief. Reagan had proposed the so-called dense pack system, which would have clustered 100 MX missiles in a small area, on the theory that attacking missiles would destroy each other, allowing many of the MX missiles to survive and be fired against an enemy. On December 7, 1982, however, the House voted, 245-176, to eliminate funds for production of the MX missile. It was the first time since World War II that a house of Congress denied a president a requested weapon. Faced with a stalemate over the MX, at the start of 1983, Reagan named a bipartisan commission headed by a retired general and former national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft, an opponent of the dense pack plan, to develop a new basing method for the MX.

The Scowcroft panel recommended placing 100 MX missiles in existing silos now housing the older Minuteman ICBM's. The panel also backed development and deployment of a new Midgetman missile, a smaller, more mobile land-based ICBM, by the 1990's. Reagan endorsed the proposal on April 19, paving the way for congressional approval in late May of $625 million in research funds for the MX. In order to achieve this significant victory, the president gave assurances to congressional Democrats that he would be more flexible in arms control negotiations with the Soviets. In September, Congress authorized $2.2 billion for MX production.

Arms control.

Talks continued throughout much of the year with the Soviet Union on the basing of intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe. In late 1981, Reagan had proposed a 'zero option' plan under which the Soviets would remove their intermediate-range missiles in exchange for U.S. cancellation of plans to deploy Pershing II and cruise missiles in Europe, beginning in December 1983. In March 1983, Reagan offered a modified plan to reduce the number of intermediate-range missiles deployed or about to be deployed, so that both of the nuclear superpowers would have the same number of missiles in the region. Then, in September, the president offered yet another plan under which the United States would have the same number of nuclear warheads as the Soviets but would deploy some of its missiles outside Europe. This plan was refined in a November proposal under which both sides would be limited to a total of 420 warheads.

But arms control talks between Washington and Moscow—which also included a separate set of negotiations on strategic arms reduction — got almost nowhere. Reagan dismissed Eugene Rostow as director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency on January 12. His choice of a successor, Kenneth Adelman, the deputy U.S. representative to the United Nations, ran into considerable trouble in the Senate, which had to confirm the appointment. Critics questioned Adelman's commitment to arms reduction and his knowledge of the technical details involved in the Geneva negotiations. But Reagan stuck by Adelman, and the Senate eventually confirmed him.

The selection of Adelman and Reagan's description of the Soviet Union, in a speech, as an 'evil empire' and 'the focus of evil in the modern world' did little to advance the disarmament process. In a televised address on March 23, the president created new controversy with a call for long-term development of antimissile technology, including the use of laser beams to knock attacking missiles out of the sky. This 'star wars' plan, as it was soon called, was immediately denounced by the Soviets as a violation of a 1972 treaty essentially barring antiballistic missiles.

Foreign policy.

President Reagan faced severe personal and political tests late in October when U.S. Marines serving in a multinational peacekeeping force in Lebanon suffered heavy casualties and, soon after, U.S. forces invaded Grenada.

On October 23, a bomb-laden truck exploded after its driver got through security lines and entered a Marine headquarters at the Beirut airport, killing at least 239 Marines. U.S. policies in Lebanon and the adequacy of security for American forces there were immediately called into question. Less than two weeks earlier, Reagan had signed legislation stating that the War Powers Act applied to the conflict in Lebanon and authorizing the president to keep the Marines there for 18 months.

On October 25, U.S. troops invaded the Caribbean island of Grenada, where a power struggle in the Marxist ruling party had resulted in a coup. Reagan said that the invasion was intended to protect the 1,000 American citizens in Grenada and to restore democracy there. In a televised address on October 27, he stated that the invasion forces had discovered huge stores of weapons and ammunition, and he described the island as 'a Soviet-Cuban colony being readied as a major military bastion to export terrorism.' As more information emerged in the ensuing weeks, however, some congressional and other critics questioned these assertions. Six hundred Cubans had been taken prisoner in a week of fighting on Grenada, during which 18 Americans were killed.

Prior to these developments, Central America had dominated much of the president's time. Reagan blamed the Soviet Union and Cuba for fomenting revolution in Central America, particularly in El Salvador, and the United States became more deeply committed to helping the Salvadoran government combat leftist guerrillas. In addition, the Reagan administration channeled covert aid to rebels opposing the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua. In a controversial move that even caught some administration officials by surprise, the president approved large-scale military maneuvers in Honduras, Nicaragua's northern neighbor, and he dispatched a small fleet of warships for several months of patrolling off Nicaragua's coast. Under questioning at a July 26 news conference, Reagan denied that he was planning a war in Central America and said that the display of U.S. force in the region was designed only to provide a 'shield for democracy and development' there.

These developments followed the administration's request on February 28 for an increase of $60 million in military aid to El Salvador, above the $26 million previously approved by Congress. Reagan then raised his request to an additional $110 million in military assistance for the Central American nation, as well as increased economic aid. In a dramatic move, Reagan convened a joint session of Congress on April 27 to make a case for the stepped-up assistance to El Salvador and for his Central America policies generally. In the nationally televised address, the president said he had 'no thought' of sending U.S. combat troops to the region. He later named Richard Stone, former Democratic senator from Florida, to be his special envoy to Central America, and Reagan appointed a bipartisan commission headed by former National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to investigate long-term solutions to the area's problems.

The president's policy on El Salvador drew criticism from congressional Democrats, who contended that the Salvadoran regime had failed to control right-wing 'death squads' accused of killing large numbers of civilians without cause. Congressional critics also urged greater emphasis on negotiation with the Salvadoran guerrillas, rather than escalation of the fighting. Congress finally approved an increase of $55 million in military aid.

On September 5, Reagan went on national television to discuss the recent downing by the Soviet Union of a South Korean civilian airliner flying off course over Soviet territory. The president denounced the Soviet action, which cost the lives of all 269 people aboard the aircraft, as 'an act of barbarism,' and he announced some sanctions against the Soviets. However, in what was generally considered a restrained response to the incident, Reagan did not cancel arms talks with Moscow or grain sales to the Soviets.

Domestic affairs.

On the domestic front, a series of controversies plagued the president. The Environmental Protection Agency came under congressional attack, for reputedly not vigorously enforcing a toxic waste cleanup law and allowing political considerations to influence decision-making. At first, Reagan defended Anne Burford, the head of EPA, but accusations against the agency mounted, and in March, he accepted her resignation. A month earlier, EPA official Rita Lavelle had been dismissed from her post as director of the toxic waste cleanup program, and many other officials left their posts in a major shakeup of the agency. On March 21, the president nominated William Ruckelshaus, a Republican with a reputation for integrity who in the early 1970's was the first EPA chief, to come back to head the embattled agency. Ruckelshaus was confirmed by the Senate in May.

In another flap, administration officials acknowledged that Reagan's advisers had obtained, before Reagan's debate with Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential campaign, a copy of the briefing book being used by Carter to prepare for the debate. David Stockman (now the director of the Office of Management and Budget), who took Carter's role in a practice debate with Reagan, said that he had made use of the thick volume prepared for Carter. James A. Baker III, a senior adviser on the Reagan campaign team (who became White House chief of staff), said he got the book from William J. Casey, Reagan's campaign manager in 1980. However, Casey, who was later appointed director of the Central Intelligence Agency, denied any knowledge of the Carter briefing book. As for Reagan, he said he had never realized that his campaign staff had had the document before the debate. He insisted the controversy over 'Debategate,' as it was known in press reports, was 'much ado about nothing.' Later, however, he ordered his staff to cooperate with an FBI inquiry into the affair. A House subcommittee was investigating the matter as well. Congressional hearings were expected to begin early in 1984.

Reagan ran into criticism in May for trying to replace three Democratic members of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission with three other Democrats who agreed with his opposition to racial quotas and school busing. Opponents charged that he was trying to 'purge' the panel. In October—at which time Reagan's appointees had yet to be confirmed by the Senate—the president dismissed the three members he had been trying to replace. A compromise was reached in November, and Congress passed a bill expanding the panel from six to eight members, half to be appointed by Congress and half by the president. Reagan had no troubles with his appointments of Elizabeth Dole as secretary of transportation and Margaret Heckler as secretary of health and human services. Dole, who succeeded Drew Lewis, was a White House assistant to Reagan and a former member of the Federal Trade Commission. Heckler, a former Republican representative from Massachusetts, replaced Richard Schweiker.

One of Reagan's original cabinet appointees, Interior Secretary James Watt, resigned his post on October 9. Watt had been much criticized by environmentalists since he took over the Interior Department in 1981. His personal remarks had also come under fire, and one of them was the eventual reason for his departure. In a September speech before a group of lobbyists, Watt had described a newly appointed commission as having 'every kind of mix you can have. I have a black, I have a woman, two Jews, and a cripple. And we have talent.' The remark created a storm of protest and calls for Watt's ouster. National Security Adviser William P. Clark was named the new head of Interior; the Senate approved the nomination in November. Robert McFarlane, the Middle East envoy, was named to succeed Clark.

Reagan claimed a victory when a bipartisan commission on social security, appointed by the president and congressional leaders, approved a package of proposals to prevent the nation's basic retirement system from going bankrupt. The package was rushed through Congress and signed into law by the president on April 20. The changes in the social security law, a combination of tax increases and reduction in the growth rate of benefits, were far more moderate than those Reagan had originally proposed in 1981.

On October 22, while Reagan was playing golf at the Augusta National Golf Course in Georgia, an armed man crashed his truck through the facility's gates, took several hostages, and demanded to speak with the president. He later released the hostages and was taken into custody.

Despite the troubled economy and other disappointments, Reagan remained satisfied with his record. On the second anniversary of his presidency, he said, 'I can't think of any place where we should have changed course drastically. My biggest regret is that because the accumulated damages [from previous administrations] piled up so high for so long, putting America's house in order has been a tough and painful task.'

POLITICS

The 1984 U.S. presidential race got off to an extremely early start when six leading Democrats announced more than a year in advance of the national convention that they would compete for their party's nomination. President Ronald Reagan remained silent for a longer time, maintaining some suspense in political circles, but in mid-October he all but officially announced his candidacy. Reagan would be 73 at the time of the GOP national convention—the oldest major party candidate ever to stand for the nation's highest office.

Democratic nomination battle.

The Democratic race opened up after Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D, Mass.) announced on December 1, 1982, that he would not run for president in 1984 or accept a draft from the party's national convention. Kennedy, who had unsuccessfully challenged President Jimmy Carter for the nomination in 1980, said he might seek the presidency in 1988 or later. His decision gave a boost to Walter F. Mondale, Carter's vice-president, as well as to other Democratic contenders.

On February 2, California Senator Alan Cranston became the first Democrat to declare his candidacy; he stated that a major theme of his campaign would be the need to end the nuclear arms race. Cranston was followed on February 17 by Senator Gary Hart of Colorado, who had managed Senator George McGovern's unsuccessful 1972 presidential campaign.

Mondale, who had served as U.S. senator from Minnesota before becoming vice-president, announced his candidacy on February 21 and was immediately accorded the status of front-runner in the contest for the Democratic nomination. Two days later, former Florida Governor Reubin Askew threw his hat into the ring.

Ohio Senator John Glenn, the former astronaut, announced his candidacy on April 21; he was regarded as Mondale's major challenger. Soon after, Senator Ernest F. Hollings of South Carolina, an acknowledged dark horse, entered the race.

On September 13, George McGovern unexpectedly became the seventh candidate to announce. The former senator from South Dakota, who had received only 17 electoral votes in the 1972 presidential election, began his bid without funding or staff support in place, staking out an unabashedly liberal position on issues.

Meanwhile, a coalition of black leaders had met in Chicago on June 20 and voted to approve the concept of a black presidential candidate running in the Democratic primaries. Jesse Jackson, president of the Chicago-based civil rights organization Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity), was regarded as the most likely contender, but no specific endorsement was made at the session. Over the next several months, however, Jackson behaved very much like a candidate, traveling throughout the United States to address a variety of groups and at one point making a 'fact-finding' trip to Western Europe. His appearances were often tied to black voter registration drives, a strategy designed to alter the political balance in future local, state, and national elections by increasing black voter participation. On November 3, Jackson formally announced his candidacy.

For much of the year, the Democrats scrambled for position in a series of state straw polls—nonbinding votes by delegates to state Democratic Party conventions—with Mondale, Glenn, and Cranston (an energetic contender in this arena) the favorites. Mondale was accumulating strong support within the Democratic organization, and in October, he gained the endorsement of two powerful labor organizations, the AFL-CIO and the National Education Association. A Gallup poll released in early November showed Mondale the top choice of 40 percent of Democrats, followed by Glenn, with 21 percent. Trailing behind were Jackson (10 percent), McGovern (8 percent), Cranston (6 percent), Hart (3 percent), and Askew and Hollings (1 percent each). The remaining 10 percent of those polled were undecided. Although clearly running behind Mondale, Glenn was regarded as having a better chance to defeat the Republican contender in November. Glenn was also expected to profit from public response to the film The Right Stuff, released in the fall, which portrayed him as a hero astronaut of the 1960's.

Reagan candidacy.

President Reagan, meanwhile, was also positioning himself for 1984. In November 1982, two years before the next presidential election, he arranged for his old friend and political ally Senator Paul Laxalt (R, Nev.) to become general chairman of the Republican National Committee, a new post that allowed Laxalt to retain his Senate seat. A Laxalt protégé, attorney Frank Fahrenkopf, Jr., of Reno, Nev., was named to the full-time post of party chairman. On October 13, 1983, Reagan gave his approval for the formation of a Reagan reelection committee, and four days later he filed papers with the Federal Election Commission. He signed a disclaimer at the same time, stating that he was not yet prepared to make a formal announcement, but such an announcement was expected before long.

Reagan's poll ratings at the two-year mark of his presidency were lower than those of any of the last four presidents elected to their first term. A Gallup poll released on January 16 showed that Reagan had an approval rating of 41 percent, with 50 percent of those polled disapproving of the way he handled his job (the rest had no opinion). This compared with midterm approval ratings of 51 percent for Carter, 52 percent for Richard Nixon, 76 percent for John F. Kennedy, and 69 percent for Dwight D. Eisenhower. Reagan fared somewhat better when he was pitted against the Democratic front-runner, running about even with Mondale in a two-way race. However, polls taken in the late summer showed him trailing six percentage points behind Glenn.

Reagan and his aides were puzzled and worried by poll findings that he was significantly less popular among women than among men. A possible reason for this 'gender gap' was a belief on the part of many women that the Reagan administration was insensitive to women's issues. Critics pointed to the president's opposition to the proposed equal rights amendment to the Constitution and his outspoken opposition to abortion. As the gender gap drew increased attention, the Reagan administration moved to defend its record and limit any political damage. Reagan made a point of telling audiences he had named more women to top political jobs than any previous president, and he insisted his economic program would do more for women than programs put forward by Democrats. The Republican Party hired Reagan's older daughter, Maureen, as a consultant to help improve the president's popularity among women.

Although Reagan was a political target for women's groups, organized labor, and blacks, it seemed likely that his political fortunes would rebound along with the economy, which was finally spurting ahead after a long period of recession and very high unemployment. In addition, the president received a boost in the polls in October after a bomb attack on U.S. troops stationed in Beirut and the invasion of Grenada by American forces. A late October survey found Reagan with an approval rating of 49 percent.

Third party challenge.

In another development, John B. Anderson, who as an independent candidate had received 7 percent of the popular vote in the 1980 presidential election, announced on June 7 that he planned to form a new party to challenge the Democratic and Republican organizations in 1984. Anderson said he would not necessarily be the standard-bearer of the new party.

Transition.

On September 1, Democratic Senator Henry ('Scoop') Jackson of Washington, a member of Congress for nearly 43 years, a two-time presidential candidate, and long a leading voice in military affairs, died at the age of 71. Earlier, two veteran Republican senators, Howard H. Baker, Jr., of Tennessee and John Tower of Texas, announced they would not seek reelection in 1984. Baker, the incumbent majority leader and a member of the Senate since 1967, said he might seek the Republican presidential nomination in the future, although not in 1984. Tower, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a 22-year veteran of the Senate, said he was leaving politics for personal reasons.

Campaign costs.

The Federal Election Commission disclosed that the cost of getting elected to Congress was going up, and fast. According to a report by the commission released in May, the average cost of winning a U.S. House seat in 1982 was $265,000, an increase of 49 percent in two years. Winning Senate candidates spent an average of $2 million in 1982, a 71 percent increase.

CONGRESS

The first session of the 98th Congress convened on January 3 with Democratic members confident that their party could again become the dominant force in shaping legislation in the U.S. House. Their confidence was based mainly on the results of the November 1982 elections, in which Democrats increased their already large House majority by 26 members. On opening day, the party lineup was 269 Democrats and 165 Republicans, with one seat left vacant by the death on December 27 of Representative-elect Jack Swigert (R, Colo.). (A special election to fill Swigert's seat was won on March 29 by Republican Daniel L. Schaefer.) Furthermore, most of the new Democratic representatives appeared to be willing to support the leadership. As a result, the party leadership felt able to break the back of the conservative coalition of Republicans and Southern Democrats—the so-called Boll Weevils—that had established ideological predominance on many issues in 1981 and 1982.

As if to prove the point, the House Democratic leadership stripped Representative Phil Gramm (D, Texas), one of the most outspoken of the Boll Weevils, of his membership on the prestigious Budget Committee. In response, Gramm resigned his congressional seat, switched parties, and then regained his seat as a Republican in a special election held on February 12. Meanwhile, Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr. (D, Mass.) was reelected speaker of the House, and Robert H. Michel (R, Ill.) was returned as minority leader.

In the Senate, the Democrats seemingly had less to cheer about. With only five new members in all—the smallest post-election turnover in the 68-year-history of popularly elected senators—the Senate had changed little, and the party lineup (54 Republicans and 46 Democrats) had remained the same. (Later in the year, Republicans picked up a 55th senator, when Daniel J. Evans was appointed to succeed Democratic Senator Henry M. Jackson of Washington, who died on September 1.) Howard Baker (R, Tenn.) and Robert Byrd (D, W.Va.) were reelected majority leader and minority leader, respectively.

The early months of the session were marked by bipartisan action that produced a major overhaul of the near-bankrupt social security system, a jobs creation program, and an agreement on funding for the controversial MX intercontinental ballistic missile. The bipartisan spirit was less in evidence, however, during consideration of the budget for the 1984 fiscal year, as Democrats in both houses fought strenuously to reverse President Ronald Reagan's spending priorities. The Democrats also persistently sought a stronger congressional voice in foreign policy decisions.

Foreign policy.

Central America.

Congress generally divided along party lines in responding to the administration's widening involvement in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Both houses, however, slashed the presidential requests for supplementary military aid to the right-wing Salvadoran government. During its November-December 1982 lame-duck session, Congress had appropriated $26 million in military aid to El Salvador for fiscal year 1983. Calling that amount insufficient to enable the Salvadoran government to defeat leftist guerrilla forces, President Reagan in March requested $110 million more for the fiscal year. The request ran into stiff congressional opposition, principally because of alleged human rights violations by the Salvadoran government. Congress extracted a promise from the administration to limit the number of U.S. military advisers stationed there to no more than 55 and persuaded Reagan to name a special U.S. ambassador to Central America—a post that went to former Senator Richard Stone, a Florida Democrat. Under these conditions, both houses eventually approved a figure of $55 million in supplemental aid.