Former top US spymaster Robert Gates outlines these proposals -- and his general views on confronting threats around the world -- in a December 14, 1984, memorandum to his boss, then- Central Intelligence Agency director William Casey, that was released Friday by the National Security Archive.

Gates was tapped by Bush to replace defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the wake of the November 7 election, in which Republicans, facing voter discontent over the war in Iraq, lost control of Congress to Democrats.

The president has described his pick as "an agent of change" at the Pentagon. But the declassified memorandum shows Gates to be a proponent of a no-holds-barred approach to foreign policy, advocate of covert and overt military action with little appetite for diplomatic niceties.

The document begins with a bitter overview of US foreign policy setbacks in Cuba, Vietnam and Angola and complains that "half measures, half-heartedly applied, will have the same result in Nicaragua."

Acknowledging the covert US aid to Nicaraguan "contras" was not having the desired effect, Gates writes that the US goal should now be "overtly to try to bring down the regime" led by Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega.

Ortega, who was voted out of power in Nicaragua in 1990, won the presidential post back earlier this month.

But in 1984, Gates proposed a four-point plan to wipe out what he described as "a second Cuba in Central America."

It called for launching US air strikes "to destroy a considerable portion of Nicaragua's military build-up," particularly tanks and helicopters.

These air raids were to be accompanied by a verbal warning to Cuba and the Soviet-Union that the United States would not allow any more deliveries of such weapons to Managua.

To make good on this promise, Washington was to consider tougher economic sanctions against the Sandinista regime, possibly including a naval blockade of its ports, according to Gates, then deputy director of the CIA.

The plan also recommended switching US diplomatic recognition from the government in Managua to "a government in exile" and giving that government US "military assistance, funds, propaganda support and so forth."

There is no evidence the Gates plan had ever been acted upon by the administration of president Ronald Reagan. But his memorandum allows a rare glimpse of his political philosophy and views on use of military power.

In his writings, Gates comes off as an apparent supporter of what would later become known as "the Powell Doctrine," a concept put together by then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and later secretary of state Colin Powell.

The doctrine, which draws heavily from lessons of the Vietnam War, recommends either using overwhelming military force in reaching US objectives or, lacking a national consensus, refraining from any military involvement.

In line with this thinking, Gates warns his boss that "half measures will not even produce half successes" in Central America.

"If we have decided totally to abandon the Monroe Doctrine, if in the 1980s taking strong actions to protect our interests despite the hail of criticism is too difficult," the CIA spymaster writes angrily, "then we ought to save political capital in Washington, acknowledge our helplessness and stop wasting everybody's time."

The Monroe Doctrine, proclaimed in 1823 by president James Monroe, established the Western Hemisphere as a zone of special US interest in the aftermath of the break-up of the Spanish colonial empire.

Gates's nomination is to be approved by the Senate, and the Senate Armed Services Committee has scheduled a hearing into the matter for December 5.

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