Gephardt Expands His Views on Foreign Policy

Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, the Democratic presidential candidate who has built a strong campaign in Iowa on his tough stance on trade, sought to broaden his appeal here this week by devoting an entire swing through the state to fleshing out his positions on other foreign policy issues.

While Gephardt has discussed his foreign policy views elsewhere--most notably in Los Angeles last month--his addresses in Iowa on Wednesday and Thursday represented an attempt by the Missouri congressman to prove to voters in this critical state, home to the nation’s first presidential caucuses on Feb. 8, that he is not a single-issue candidate.

“Now, I’m trying to cover the other areas that I think they (Iowa voters) deserve to know about if I were elected President,” Gephardt said in an interview Thursday. “I’ve been saying a lot of these things, but we never pulled them together and said them in one place to this extent here.”

Scores Reagan Policy

After blasting virtually every aspect of President Reagan’s foreign policy in his addresses here, Gephardt laid out proposals that would seem to fall well within the mainstream of Democratic Party thinking.

In a speech Thursday to the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council, he called for a unilateral, one-kiloton limit on American nuclear weapons tests and said he would also pursue U.S.-Soviet negotiations to ban flight tests of ballistic missiles. Opposed to any deployment of a “Star Wars” space defense system, Gephardt also said he would cut back space defense research from the current level of about $6 billion to $1 billion annually.

In addition, Gephardt said he would push for annual summit meetings with the Soviets, including sessions bringing together American and Soviet military leaders. “If I am elected, the President of the United States, not the general secretary of the Soviet Union, will be the person who takes the initiative in American-Soviet relations,” he vowed.

Gephardt also called for an end to aid to the Nicaraguan contras , increased pressure on South Africa to end apartheid, and a resumption of the Carter Administration’s Camp David Middle East peace process.

Inroads in South

Separately, Gephardt also said in the interview that he has made strong inroads among Democrats in the South since Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) announced on Aug. 27 that he will not run for President. He pointed to the three U.S. House members from Georgia who have endorsed him since Nunn’s announcement as proof that his views appeal to the leadership of the Southern wing of the party.