TRAVELIN’ MAN : Dornan’s Globe-Trotting Becomes a Heated Issue in the Race for Congress

From the rice paddies of Vietnam to the deserts of Ethiopia, from the barrios of Managua to the shores of Lake Geneva, Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) is a man on the move, a congressman with a foreign policy all his own.

In the last 19 months, Dornan has made six overseas trips--four at government expense--on behalf of causes ranging from Nicaraguan contras to U.S. hostages in Lebanon. He has visited El Salvador, Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Italy, Malta, Switzerland, Ethiopia and Syria.

Dornan, a flamboyant, right-wing legislator, has gained national attention--and stirred controversy--as a spokesman on foreign policy issues typically addressed by senators, the President and the White House staff.

The outspoken congressman, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, says his travels have strengthened President Reagan’s hand in foreign policy, “sent messages” to enemies of the United States and lent support to a variety of anti-communist movements around the world.

Now, however, Dornan’s travels have become a hot issue in his reelection campaign in the 38th Congressional District. Critics charge that his expeditions, which far exceed those of most House members, have accomplished little and caused him to neglect Orange County problems.

“I think it’s clear that Bob Dornan has an obsessive fascination with foreign policy, to the detriment of his district,” said Assemblyman Richard Robinson (D-Garden Grove) Dornan’s opponent. “The man has this fantasy that he can go around negotiating with heads of state.”

Foreign policy, Robinson said, is traditionally established by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate. The 435 members of the House of Representatives typically focus more attention on domestic problems, a path Dornan has not followed, he added.

“I don’t think the people of the district elected Bob to solve the problems of the Third World,” Robinson said. He charged that Dornan has neglected a host of local issues ranging from freeway congestion to substandard housing.

Unfazed by Charges

Dornan, however, is unfazed. He pointed to a record of “solid” achievement in his district on transportation and housing, adding: “I don’t sweat the travel charge. I’ve made real contributions, and they (Democrats) can’t deny that.”

Dornan contends that his overseas travels helped free Father Lawrence Jenco from Lebanese captivity, triggered “new revelations” about missing American servicemen in Southeast Asia and “shook up” the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

Ticking off his other trips, Dornan said he has monitored the flow of U.S. foreign aid in Ethiopia, discussed arms reductions with U.S. negotiators in Geneva, traveled at Vice President George Bush’s invitation to the inauguration of Oscar Arias as president of Costa Rica and served as a “witness” to elections in El Salvador.

Beyond politics, the Orange County lawmaker said there is a personal reason for some of his travels. Noting his interest in the fate of MIA’s, Lebanon hostages and other victims, Dornan said he was taught as a child that it was his job to help people in distress.

“I have this rescue syndrome,” he said. “Years ago, my dad raised me, and he said if you’re on the beach and you hear somebody scream for help in the surf, I demand as your father that you’re the first one into the water ahead of the lifeguards, because that’s the way I want you to live your life.”

Do the Same for Robinson

Indeed, Dornan said he would do the same thing for his opponent in the congressional race if the situation arose.

If Robinson’s mother were taken hostage, the congressman explained, “suddenly Dick becomes my constituent. And he’s on the phone, saying, ‘Is there anything you can do to help?’ And my answer is, politics notwithstanding, ‘You bet, Dick, let’s put our heads together on this.’ It’s that rescue syndrome. My heart goes out to these people.”

However, some members of Congress, White House staffers, State Department officials and foreign policy consultants question the effectiveness of Dornan’s travels, particularly his recent trips to Syria and Vietnam.

On June 30, Dornan and an aide flew to Damascus at their own expense and met with Syrian President Hafez Assad for about 65 minutes, asking him to use his influence to gain the release of U.S. hostages in Lebanon. The lawmaker carried with him a letter that had been signed by 251 members of Congress making a similar request.

According to Dornan, Assad was impressed with the letter and pledged to do whatever he could. On July 27, Father Jenco was released and taken to Damascus, where Assad turned him over to U.S. military forces.

Dornan and his campaign manager, Brian Bennett, said the trip played a key role in Jenco’s dramatic release.

“Should Bob Dornan not have gone to Syria, when Father Jenco was released three weeks later?” Bennett asked. “What we say is: A congressman is elected to serve America and Americans. You better do your homework. You better know what’s going on in the world.”

‘Piece of the Mosaic’

Dornan said that, while his trip may not have been the sole factor in Jenco’s release, it was a “piece of the mosaic” that also included efforts by British cleric Terry Waite, Jesse Jackson, the late Rep. George M. O’Brien (R-Ill.) and Margaret Papandreou, the wife of Greek President Andreas Papandreou, who met with Assad shortly after Dornan.

As evidence, he pointed to a press release issued by the Greek Embassy in Washington on July 30. In the release, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Shara is quoted as saying that his nation would intensify its efforts to win freedom for the U.S. hostages in Lebanon because of the written appeal by members of Congress and the visit by Mrs. Papandreou.

“Even while they’re trying to stroke Greece . . . they still saw fit to include me, which is pretty nice,” Dornan said.

Since his release, Jenco has warmly praised Dornan for visiting Assad. He planned to appear at one of the congressman’s recent fund-raisers but had to cancel at the last minute because of a late plane connection. Dornan included a picture of Jenco and himself in one of his election brochures and referred again to the Syrian trip in a political mailer sent this week to district voters.

Not Everyone Agrees

Not everyone agrees, however, that Dornan’s trip helped free Jenco.

“I have heard a lot of rumors about why he was released,” said Peggy Say, the sister of Lebanon hostage Terry Anderson, the Middle Eastern bureau chief for the Associated Press. “But that isn’t one of them.

“I know Assad was impressed with the letter. But to say that it convinced him to do something, or led to a release, implies that the Syrians . . . have control, direct or indirect, over the captors. I don’t really believe that’s the case.”

Several Middle Eastern specialists in Washington said the groups holding the U.S. hostages, such as Islamic Jihad, are believed to be loyal to the Iranian government of the Ayatollah Khomeini. Syria, they said, does not have control over the hostages and its relations with Iran have been strained.

“I doubt very much that the Syrians are in a position to influence (the captors) on the release of the hostages,” said one consultant. “Assad has a lot to gain by being able to intercede, or give the appearance of being able to intercede. But can he get a final solution and free a hostage by himself? No.”

Divide and Conquer

A State Department spokesman who asked not to be identified praised Dornan for his involvement. But he said the congressman’s trip may have encouraged the Syrians to believe they can use members of Congress to put pressure on the executive branch--a divide-and-conquer approach that he said is not healthy for U.S. foreign policy.

“What was the final nudge to get Jenco released?” the spokesman asked. “I don’t think the letter by itself did anything. The kidnapers obviously felt it was in their best interests to let someone else go. That’s why it happened.”

Asked if Dornan’s trip had helped gain Jenco’s release, a spokesman at the Syrian Embassy in Washington said: “Right now, Mr. Dornan is running for election. He is dealing with public opinion, and I don’t want to say anything good or bad that would affect that situation. The government of Syria does not wish to get involved in an American election.”

Similar questions surfaced over a trip that Dornan and eight other congressmen took to Hanoi earlier this year. Members of the House Task Force on POW/MIA issues flew there to discuss the fate of nearly 2,500 U.S. soldiers listed as missing in action in the Vietnam War. Dornan also presented Hanoi officials with the names of Vietnamese political prisoners, asking that they be released to their families in America.

Uneventful Meetings

The delegation, headed by Rep. Gerald B.H. Solomon (R-N.Y.) held two days of uneventful meetings and was preparing to depart for Bangkok, Thailand, on the afternoon of Feb. 15. During its last hour in Hanoi, however, the group would earn the title of “the Rambo delegation” from Pentagon and White House officials.

As the meetings ended, Vietnam’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hoang Bich Son startled some members by announcing that Americans might be alive in remote parts of Vietnam not under government control. The Vietnamese could not rule out such a possibility, he declared.

Hanoi officials have steadfastly denied holding any U.S. prisoners since the war ended, and Son’s statement seemed to create a ripple of excitement among the congressmen as they boarded a van to leave downtown Hanoi. Several minutes later, the delegation pulled into a courtyard that had once housed U.S. POWs. Solomon and several officials planned to tour the site, but Dornan and two of his colleagues had different plans.

They quickly walked out to the street and began searching for a specific building nearby. When they found it, the congressmen rushed into a courtyard that appeared to be a military compound and stopped near a pool of water--or cistern--under a concrete awning. The lawmakers grinned broadly and exchanged handshakes, then headed back for the van and a ride to the airport.

Strong Confirmation

Dornan later explained that the cistern was “a strong confirmation” of eyewitness reports that U.S. prisoners had been at the site several years after the war ended. Those reports, which referred to the pool of water, had been incorrectly debunked by U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency analysts, who had claimed there was no cistern in the area, he said.

When they arrived in Bangkok, Dornan and other members of the delegation said Son’s comments had been a “major revelation,” proving that live Americans might still be in Vietnam. That evening, Dornan chastised U.S. military officials who analyze reports about Americans missing in Vietnam, suggesting they should be replaced by people who were not “burned out” on the issue.

Dornan said his actions--and those of other congressmen--have called attention to the POW/MIA issue. But Dornan’s actions have also been criticized as misleading and irresponsible by other congressmen, White House officials, Pentagon experts and leaders of the National League of Families, a group of families with relatives who are still missing in action in Vietnam.

A senior White House official, for example, said Son’s comments had been “distorted” by members of the delegation. A few days after making his statement, the deputy foreign stressed that he had been referring to the possibility of U.S. “post-war infiltrators”--not prisoners of war--being alive in Vietnam. Son’s comments were “hardly earthshaking,” the White House aide continued, because he had made similar remarks to previous U.S. delegations.

Negative Fallout

More important, the media hoopla generated by the delegation created “some negative fallout” between the United States and Vietnam, the official said. The misunderstanding surrounding Son’s statement generated a strong denial by the Vietnamese about U.S. prisoners in the country, he explained, and that kind of reaction “can delay” continuing negotiations between the two sides.

Also, the importance Dornan and other members placed on their discovery of the cistern in Hanoi has been ridiculed by officials familiar with the issue.

“That whole incident was a joke to the Vietnamese,” said the White House official. “It’s as if two Vietnamese rushed into your home, pointed at the bathtub and said, ‘This shows they are holding Vietnamese prisoners.’ . . . It’s hogwash.”

Col. Howard J. Hill, the Pentagon’s chief adviser on the POW and MIA affairs, added that the discovery of the cistern “proved absolutely nothing.” He said intelligence experts had debunked the reported sightings of American POWs at the Hanoi site for a multitude of reasons.

Ann Mills Griffiths, executive director of the National League of Families, also criticized Dornan for making “a stupid statement in Bangkok” about the alleged burnout of military officials who analyze intelligence reports about American POWs. The experts who plow through through such data have a “thankless task,” she said, and it was unfair for Dornan to have questioned their performance.

Dornan Confident

Despite these controversies, Dornan is confident that voters will not hold his travels against him. He views the expeditions as a political plus, saying critics “fail to understand” that congressmen have obligations that go beyond their districts.

“Robinson’s error is that he’s thinking like a state assemblyman, not like a congressman,” Bennett added. “He thinks you should be working only on freeways.”

Most important, Dornan said, he has not abused his privileges to take personal junkets.

“I’m not one of these officials whose travel itinerary reads like the logo of a fancy jewelry store, you know, London, Paris and Rome,” he explained. “I’ve been in the trenches. I’ve gotten results.”

In the last 19 months, Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) has made six trips overseas--four of them paid for with government funds. Dornan, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, says his travels have strengthened the Reagan administration’s foreign policy and encouraged support for anti-communist movements. But his opponent, Assemblyman Richard Robinson, (D-Garden Grove) charges that Dornan’s trips have accomplished little and caused him to neglect district problems.

1. MARCH 1985

Dornan travels as an official international observer to El Salvador’s congressional elections. Trip paid for by the Council for Inter-American Security, a conservative lobbying group.

2. MARCH-JUNE 1985

Dornan reviews expenditures of U.S. foreign aid. In Switzerland, meets with Max Kampelman, chief U.S. negotiator, to discuss arms reduction talks. Trip paid for with U.S. government funds.

3. FEBRUARY 1986

Dornan and eight other members of the House travel to Hanoi to discuss MIA issues with Vietnamese. Trip paid for with U.S. government funds.

4. MARCH 1986

Dornan and eight other congressmen tour Nicaragua before House vote on Contra funding. Trip paid for with U.S. government funds.

5. MAY 1986

Dornan, as part of Vice President Bush’s delegation, attends the inauguration of President Oscar Arias. Trip paid for with U.S. government funds.

6. JUNE 1986

Dornan visits President Hafez Assad, urging him to help gain the release of American hostages in Lebanon. Trip paid for with Dornan’s personal funds.