Clinton Aides Divided on Use of GIs in Bosnia : Policy: Aspin wants strict conditions met before committing U.S. forces. But Christopher says that is ‘premature.’

The Clinton Administration’s first apparent internal dispute on a major foreign policy issue bubbled into the open this week, revealing that Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Defense Secretary Les Aspin are at odds over how to approach the politically explosive question of sending American troops to Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Aspin, reflecting the caution of Gen. Colin L. Powell and other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wants to spell out strict conditions that would have to be met before committing U.S. forces to enforce any negotiated peace agreement in Bosnia.

In a television interview this week, he said the Administration should insist on a genuine cease-fire, a withdrawal of Serbian troops from some areas and other measures before sending U.S. soldiers into Bosnia.

But Christopher wants to avoid spelling out conditions now--because that might touch off a national debate and raise doubts about the U.S. commitment to take part in a peacekeeping force.

“It’s premature” to be discussing the issue of what assurances U.S. forces would need, he told reporters Thursday. “Until we see the final shape of the (peace) plan, I don’t think we can determine the basis of enforcement.”

Aspin’s proposal “isn’t an Administration position,” another State Department official said.

Aides to both Cabinet secretaries scrambled to deny that their bosses’ conflicting approaches reflect any serious disagreement. Christopher and Aspin do not disagree sharply over the substance of the conditions the defense secretary proposed, they said. Instead, they disagree over a question of timing: Should the issue of deploying U.S. troops be debated now or later?

Still, that conflict reflects a significant difference in their approach to the issue--and a hidden dilemma in the U.S. strategy for negotiating a peace agreement among the Bosnian Muslims, Serbs and Croats.

When the Administration announced last month that it was joining the U.N.-sponsored negotiations, Christopher promised that the United States would participate in a peacekeeping force if a settlement were reached. The promise was intended to convince the Bosnian government that any agreement it signed would be enforced.

U.S. negotiator Reginald Bartholomew privately assured the Bosnians that the American commitment to peacekeeping was solid. U.N. negotiators said they envisioned a plan that would put U.S., West European and even Russian troops on the ground within 72 hours of a peace agreement. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization drew up plans for a force of at least 50,000 troops.

But while Christopher and his aides were stressing the U.S. commitment to send troops, Aspin and Powell were worried that the commitment might appear too broad, officials said.

“Signing (a peace agreement) isn’t what counts,” Aspin said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “. . . There are these military parts of the agreement that have to be implemented: a cease-fire within 72 hours, withdrawal, lifting the siege of places like Sarajevo.”

The Serbs and other factions should implement those steps first, to prove that they are serious about the agreement, Aspin said.

“Then the number of forces that you need to maintain the peacekeeping there is relatively small and (the mission is) not very dangerous, and I think the American public would accept that,” he said.

Christopher said he would not necessarily disagree with the substance of Aspin’s position. But for now, he said, it is too early to debate the issue--in part because a national debate would shake Bosnians’ confidence in the U.S. commitment.

Already, in fact, the Bosnians are asking for firmer assurances. “We need guarantees . . . and we want them public,” Bosnian Vice President Zlatko Lagumdzija said.