Harkin’s Foreign Policy Plan Would Halve Defense Spending

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, criticizing President Bush as incapable of adapting to the post-Cold War world, called Thursday for a 50% cut in defense spending, drastic reductions in strategic arms and a foreign policy based on democratic values and greater cooperation with multinational organizations.

“George Bush is a son of the Cold War and has given no indications that he is capable of coming in from it,” the Democratic presidential candidate said in a speech at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

The speech served as the first detailed description of Harkin’s views on foreign policy.

Harkin said his defense cuts would save $420 billion over the next decade and that he would invest much of that money in the economic rebuilding of this country.

He said he would slash U.S. troop levels in Europe to about 25,000, arguing that a world where the greatest security threats are from terrorists, errant nuclear weapons and drug traffickers requires the nation to have a more flexible and mobile military.

As part of his proposed military restructuring, Harkin said he favors federal assistance to U.S. communities whose economies would be hurt by base closings and troop reductions.

Calling nuclear proliferation the largest threat to the globe, he said the United States should help eliminate all nuclear weapons from the non-Russian republics of the former Soviet Union. He said he would then seek the elimination of all tactical nuclear weapons in the world and negotiate strategic reductions to 1,000 weapons each for the United States and the Russian republic.

Other nuclear powers in the world would be allowed to maintain 500 warheads each.

To head off future conflicts, Harkin said he would “breathe new life into international institutions such as the United Nations” and regional groups such as the Conference on Security and Change in Europe. He recommended a similar group for Northeast Asia.