New defense chief plans shift in Salvadorean war

El Salvador's next defense minister promised big changes in waging the war against left-wing rebels. Gen. Eugenio Vides Casanova was nominated this week for the post held by Jose Guillermo Garcia, who resigned after weeks of mounting criticism over his handling of the war. Under him, the Army has suffered a series of reverses. The rebels, however, boasted they would win the war no matter who headed the Army and blamed General Vides Casanova, who had commanded the National Guard, for the 1980 murder of several US churchwomen.