Shultz Tells Senate Panel U.S. Must Be Willing to Use Force

Secretary of State George P. Shultz, kicking off a broad Senate review of U.S. foreign policy, today reasserted that America must be more willing to use force in defending its interests.

Shultz also said the Reagan Administration will not abandon anti-communist forces in Central America and elsewhere around the globe.

“It is absurd to think that America can walk away from such challenges,” Shultz told the Foreign Relations Committee. He said the tide is turning in the U.S. favor nearly everywhere.

He said the nation “must be wise and prudent in deciding how and where to use our power,” and added: “The direct American use of force must always be a last resort.”

But, he said, “if we truly believe in our democratic values and our way of life, we must be willing to defend them.”

Soviet Bases Unacceptable

The new committee chairman, Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), centered his review on the use of force to combat communism, particularly in Central America. He said it would be a tragedy to send troops there to contest the Soviet-backed government of Nicaragua, but the United States also could not allow the establishment of Soviet bases of operation in Central America.

Lugar, who said his hearings over the next six weeks are designed to forge a new grass-roots consensus on U.S. foreign policy, said Central America is probably the most troubling region for Congress and the nation.

Nicaraguan Role

He advised Shultz that the Administration’s program of providing covert aid to the contras, who are fighting the Nicaraguan government, was “in jeopardy,” and yet, Lugar said, “as a nation, we have not been prepared to employ force directly.”

Shultz, reading the 37-page outline of the Administration’s objectives around the world, said Americans must think about “the moral stakes involved” in defending democracy.

“Passive measures are unlikely to suffice,” he said. “Means of more active defense and deterrence must be considered and given the necessary political support.”

Grenada Action Supported

He reminded the senators that their opposition to the U.S. invasion of Grenada melted away once the American people registered their approval of Reagan’s action.

Shultz said democracies should not be inhibited about promoting their cause “even by collective self-defense” against “the forces of dictatorship.” He did not call directly for the use of U.S. troops, but pointed to Grenada as an illustration of a sensible U.S. response to efforts to spread Marxism.

“Experience shows,” Shultz said, “we cannot deter or undo Soviet geopolitical encroachments except by helping, in one way or another, those resisting directly on the ground.”