Sen. Lugar Emerging as Major Force in Sensitive Foreign Relations Post

Always known as a cautious, low-key politician, Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) appeared to be stepping out of character last year when he accepted the traditionally high-risk job of chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“It’s a hazardous place to be,” said former Sen. J. William Fulbright (D-Ark.), who was chairman of the committee in the 1960s and early 1970s. “Hardly anyone can survive if they take the job seriously.”

Fulbright should know. He is the most famous of Lugar’s four immediate predecessors as chairman, three of whom were defeated for reelection when voters apparently concluded that they were devoting too much time to foreign policy and too little attention to their home states.

But Lugar has chosen to defy these odds by taking on a variety of highly difficult challenges, such as his successful effort to forge a compromise between Congress and President Reagan on U.S. policy toward South Africa. And no task has been more daunting--or aroused so much criticism--as his recent trip on Reagan’s behalf to monitor the Philippine election.

His admirers are betting that Lugar, 53, a keenly ambitious former Rhodes scholar and one-time mayor of Indianapolis, will overcome his inexperience in the foreign policy arena and succeed where others have failed. Already, he has managed to steer through Congress the first foreign aid bill in four years and he is becoming a major voice in the development of Reagan’s foreign policy.

“He’s the most effective chairman since Fulbright,” said political scientist Norman Ornstein. “The position he occupies is almost a fulcrum in the government--a communications link between (Secretary of State George P.) Shultz, Congress and the White House. Shultz listens to him because he knows he must have the support of the Senate.”

Even liberal Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee praise Lugar, a staunch conservative and Reagan loyalist, for reversing a steady decline in the panel’s reputation that became most pronounced under his immediate predecessor, Sen. Charles H. Percy (R-Ill.).

“Sen. Lugar has been good for the committee--very effective,” said Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.).

Lugar has also succeeded in forging compromises with the most conservative member of the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), who has previously blocked legislation from coming before the panel. For example, a compromise between the two men persuaded Helms to drop his long-held opposition to the Genocide Convention, which the Senate approved Wednesday.

Lugar’s stated goal as chairman has been to develop a bipartisan consensus on foreign policy, which has been a source of sharp friction between Congress and the President ever since Fulbright used the chairmanship to criticize U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

In the last year, he has defused some major policy clashes between Reagan and Congress by persuading the White House to adopt a modest package of sanctions against South Africa, to withdraw its proposed sale of arms to Jordan and to accept a deployment limit of 50 on the controversial MX missile.

Lugar’s effort to shape U.S. policy toward the Philippines represents his greatest challenge to date.

Many other members of Congress thought he made a mistake by agreeing to go the Philippines as head of the President’s hand-picked team of 20 election observers. Rep. Dante B. Fascell (D-Fla.), Lugar’s counterpart as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, declined to join the delegation on grounds that it was not his role to sit in judgment of an election in another country.

And some private experts see Lugar’s Philippine expedition as evidence of his lack of sophistication in foreign affairs. “He was kind of like a Boy Scout in wonderland--very naive about the extent of political corruption he would find there,” said Robert L. Peabody, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University.

Indeed, the extent of election fraud that his delegation witnessed in the Philippines came as a surprise to Lugar, even though he had chaired two hearings on the subject before his departure. He openly acknowledged that he was stunned when men whom he described as “goons” tore up a polling place in the heart of Manila.

Lugar also came in for criticism when he returned to Washington and refused to make the judgment that many journalists were expecting from him--whether Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos had stolen the election from his opponent, Corazon Aquino. But Lugar’s aides explained that the senator was simply protecting the confidentiality of the advice that he offered Reagan. By all reliable accounts, the senator is privately urging the President to press Marcos to step aside in favor of Aquino--ending a 20-year alliance with the Philippine president.

If Lugar succeeds in persuading the President to break with Marcos, his role in U.S. foreign policy probably will be more widely recognized around the world.

To enhance his image as a foreign policy guru, Lugar is also ready to publish a book that, among other things, will make a case for giving U.S. foreign aid to private groups instead of governments in countries such as the Philippines and South Africa, where the government’s policy of racial separation is under fire.

It is Lugar’s low-key style that has enabled him to succeed in the risky role of power broker.

“People are always underestimating him because he is a quiet, patient man,” said Mark Helmke, Lugar’s press secretary. “But underneath that quiet demeanor is one of the most calculating minds I have ever seen. He’s always working out the angles.”

His approach makes him a natural ally of Shultz, a quiet man himself, and the two meet regularly to discuss foreign policy and to coordinate strategy. In addition, Lugar’s relationship with the White House has been improved by the recent appointment of Mitchell Daniels, his former aide and alter ego, as Reagan’s political director.

Lugar’s unwavering conservatism and loyalty to Reagan Administration policy also have proved to be assets in his search for compromise. “You need to have staked out a position to do that job,” said Jeff Bergner, a former Lugar aide. “You can accomplish a great deal if you are not always trying to split the difference.”

Despite all the attention he is devoting to the job, Lugar says that being chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee was never his goal. Before last year, he had not exhibited much interest in foreign policy, and he took the job only after he was defeated by Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) in a race for Senate majority leader.

Although Lugar’s pronounced lack of pizazz probably rules him out as a potential presidential candidate, he was considered seriously as Reagan’s vice presidential running mate in 1980 and his efforts in foreign policy probably will qualify him for the same consideration by the GOP standard-bearer in 1988.

Still, Lugar, who faces reelection to the Senate in 1988, is determined not to repeat his predecessors’ mistake by getting too far removed from the folks back home. A tireless campaigner, he frequently tells voters that his chairmanship has put him in a better position to promote the state. He has even produced a coffee-table picture book of Indiana to give to foreign leaders.

“Hoosiers really like Lugar to be an important person,” Helmke said.