Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell...

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) spoke Monday to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council. From his prepared text:

Need for New Foreign Aid Policy

“The Cold War has ended. We should now systematically re-evaluate the purposes of foreign assistance. . . . We should remove the Cold War agenda from foreign assistance, abandoning the practice of providing aid to support regimes just because they’re anti-communist. We should instead target resources to meet humanitarian needs or larger political principles that we support.

“We should separate economic and development assistance from military grants, training and credits. . . . I propose, as a budget matter and as a matter of principle, that the Department of Defense provide funding for all forms of military assistance. I believe the department also should fund United Nations peacekeeping operations. If military assistance and U.N. troops contribute directly to our national defense, then the Defense Department should fund them.

Support of Democracy

“How the United States responds to the needs of emerging democracies will be an historically defining choice. . . . Over the past 40 years, we have claimed to promote democracy throughout the world. But both our definition of democracy and the relative weight we accorded it were highly selective. Democracy was weighed against anti-communism; democracy too often lost.

“The U.S. helped oust democratically elected leaders in Guatemala and Chile and supported dictators in Vietnam, the Philippines, Iraq and elsewhere. . . . We must not repeat these mistakes.”

Looking Ahead

* Sunday: James (The Amazing) Randi, magician and investigator of claims of the paranormal, will speak at 2 p.m. at Baxter Lecture Hall at Caltech. Sponsored by the Skeptics Society. Call (818) 794-3119.

* Monday: Gen. Colin L. Powell, will address the Los Angeles World Affairs Council 7:30 a.m. at the Biltmore. Call (213) 628-2333.

* Tuesday: Betty Friedan, first president of the National Organization for Women, will speak to the Beverly Hills Inside Edge at 6:30 a.m. at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Call (213) 281-8933.

Announcements concerning prominent speakers in Los Angeles should be sent to Speaking Up, c/o Times researcher Michael Meyers, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053