Baker Blasts Clinton’s Saber Rattling on Haiti : Simi Valley: Former secretary of state says the President’s foreign policy decisions are driven by political agenda.

Calling threats to invade Haiti “a misguided effort,” formeS. Secretary of State James A. Baker III sharply criticized President Clinton’s foreign policy Friday in an address in Simi Valley.

Baker gave the Clinton Administration high marks on its handling of the Middle East peace process and foreign trade treaties, and praised its support of Russian economic reforms and its tough stance in the Persian Gulf.

But Baker characterized the Democratic Administration’s overall control of foreign policy as stagnant and driven by domestic politics.

“I have yet to get a satisfactory answer to three questions,” Baker, a longtime Republican campaigner and former President George Bush’s secretary of state, told a crowd of about 300 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

“First, exactly what are the compelling national interests that require us to invade?” he said. “How will we withdraw once we assume the responsibility for the future of Haiti?”

“And thirdly, my friends, why now?” Baker asked. “Why now, nearly three years after (Jean-Bertrand) Aristide was overthrown and 20 months after the Clinton Administration took office, do we decide to send Americans into harm’s way? Why does the Clinton Administration consider it so vital and so important to make such a momentous decision just weeks before the November elections?”

A nuclear North Korea poses a far greater threat to U. S. interests than does Haiti without democracy, Baker told audience members, who paid $18 to $20 per ticket.

Baker said he supports Clinton’s decision to block the entry of Cuban refugees into the United States. But he criticized the President’s willingness to talk with Cuban Premiere Fidel Castro, saying the U. S. should not negotiate with a head of state who has been at odds with this country for more than 30 years.

In Haiti and elsewhere, U. S. foreign policy lacks direction and consistency, said Baker, who was to leave Simi Valley after his speech to stump for Republican Senate and gubernatorial candidates in Utah.

Unfulfilled threats in Bosnia and flip-flopping in the Clinton Administration’s policies on Haiti, China and Somalia “debase the currency of our credibility as a nation,” Baker said.

Some in the Clinton Administration point out that the United States’ stances on foreign crises in nations such as Bosnia and Somalia were left over from the Bush Administration, Baker said.

“That’s true, but it’s beside the point,” he said. Every American President has inherited his predecessor’s foreign policy problems, Baker said, adding: “Foreign policy doesn’t stop for the inauguration of an American President, and history--sad to say today--doesn’t wait for his education.”

Baker said the United States needs to restore its credibility, which he called “far too precious a commodity to be frittered away by a ‘policy-of-the-week’ toward North Korea or Haiti.”

The United States also should be more careful about where, when and how it engages with other nations, sort out its objectives and stop considering foreign policy as an extension of domestic politics.

He also said the United States should consolidate the authority over foreign policy under the President and recognize “the imperative of American leadership in the international arena.”

“One thing is clear,” Baker said, “the current Administration really does risk squandering the precious legacy of leadership that was bequeathed to it by the Reagan and Bush Administrations.”

After Baker’s speech, 36 people attended a $250-a-plate luncheon with the former Cabinet member to raise money for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation’s speakers forum and to supplement the library budget, said library spokeswoman Linda Schuler.