Kemp Advocates ‘Limited’ Retaliation to Iran Attack

New York Republican Congressman Jack Kemp, in Orange County to campaign for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination, said Friday that he favors immediate but “limited” retaliation for Iran’s strike Thursday against an American-owned supertanker in the Persian Gulf.

“The longer we wait, the worse it becomes,” Kemp told reporters before a $250-per-person fund-raising dinner at Anaheim’s Disneyland Hotel.

“I definitely think we’ve got to raise the cost of terrorist attacks against the United States or our allies in the Persian Gulf,” he said.

He added, however, that any retaliatory action should be accompanied by “strong signals” that the United States does not favor either Iran or Iraq in their struggle for control of the gulf.

The strike in waters near Kuwait intensified hostilities and followed two American attacks against Iranian patrol craft, which the Department of Defense said had fired on U.S. helicopters.

Kemp said the intent of the United States should be to help Iran and Iraq find a way of living together “with the goal in mind of keeping the Soviet Union out” of the strategic gulf area.

Kemp, 53, a nine-term member of Congress, and Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) were expected to share in approximately $40,000 in proceeds from the dinner. About 300 people attended the event.

Kemp, who is thought to be trailing the two leading GOP candidates, Vice President George Bush and Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, said he expects to be one of two candidates left in the race by the time the California primary rolls around on June 7, 1988--well after important primaries in other parts of the country.

“There will be an old guard, conventional Republican and a progressive, conservative,” Kemp predicted, adding:

“And I expect to be the conservative candidate.”

On another matter, Kemp said he was sending money earmarked for his campaign to promote the confirmation of Judge Robert H. Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“I think he was lynched by the special interests on the left in the U.S.,” Kemp charged.

“He’s a decent, able, thoughtful, positive and constructive conservative. I felt outraged at the treatment he got in the Senate Judiciary Committee,” he said.