Kerrey, Tsongas Differ on Enforcing Iraqi Surrender

Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, who opposed President Bush’s Persian Gulf policy, said Sunday that if he were President, he “certainly would” use military force to enforce the Iraqi surrender that ended the Gulf War.

Rival Paul E. Tsongas said that as President, he would not move militarily against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein but would aid dissident Kurdish and Shiite forces in Iraq.

The two Democratic presidential candidates were interviewed in Bedford, N. H., on ABC’s “This Week With David Brinkley.”

Republican challenger Patrick J. Buchanan said on the same program that he would act against Hussein if the Iraqi leader were close to having nuclear weapons.

Kerrey, a disabled Vietnam veteran who won the Medal of Honor, voted in the Senate in August, 1990, to continue economic sanctions against Iraq, opposing Bush’s plan to go to war with Iraq over its invasion of Kuwait.

On Sunday, Kerrey said he would use the U.N. Security Council resolution and “make sure in a multilateral fashion we enforce the terms of (the Iraqi) surrender.”

When asked if that meant he would use military force, Kerrey replied: “In a multilateral way, I certainly would.”

Kerrey said he didn’t know whether a vote by Congress would be needed before Bush could send troops or order bombing raids.

Tsongas, a former Massachusetts senator, said he does not favor action to “take Saddam Hussein out for the sake of taking him out.”

But he said: “Nuclear terrorism to me is a great threat, and Saddam Hussein is a source of some of that threat.”

Buchanan said he would “maintain a policy of containment” toward Hussein. He added, however, “I don’t know where he stands in terms of nuclear weapons, but if he were close, I would act.”