CRISIS IN THE CARIBBEAN : COMMENTARY : Clinton Mellows in TV Addresses : Media: Thursday’s warning was called his ‘most belligerent.’ On Sunday night, he was a calm victor.

Three days after his aggressive TV assault on Haiti’s military leaders--telling them to step down--President Clinton was comparatively subdued on the home screen Sunday night in declaring apparent victory.

On Thursday, Clinton, using TV as a bully pulpit to warn of an imminent invasion by a 25-nation multinational force, bluntly told the three top leaders of the Haitian military junta: “Your time is up. Leave now or we will force you from power.”

On Sunday, in a television address of about 5 minutes, he told the American public: “Tonight, I can tell you they will go.”

After Clinton’s speech Thursday, CNN’s Judy Woodruff said she felt it was the President’s “most belligerent” statement. Thus began three days of intense concern, debate and some skepticism about whether the United States again should play world cop--a drama that CNN dominated on television with compelling, thorough and committed coverage.

The other networks were on hand at some high points and in their regular newscasts, but mainly stayed with their regular entertainment programming.

CNN viewers, however, received the full impact of the drama, particularly through the reports of correspondents Christiane Amanpour and Tom Clancy in Port-au-Prince, and White House correspondent Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

On Sunday, before Haiti’s military leaders agreed to step down, Secretary of State Warren Christopher described the riveting events as “negotiating by television.” And that’s the way it was for the three days, culminating with Clinton’s announcement Sunday evening that U.S. troops on a peacekeeping mission would start landing in Haiti today in the face of reduced but still present risk.

Television was part of the negotiations from the very start, when CBS anchor Dan Rather, in a reporting coup, not only landed one of the three targeted Haitian leaders--Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras--for an interview, but actually watched with him as Clinton threw down the gauntlet Thursday.

Immediately after Clinton’s speech, Cedras--questioned on live air by Rather, vowed to fight. But the journalistic coup was cheapened when, during a CBS newscast surrounding the interview, the network, through Rather’s co-anchor, Connie Chung, twice threw in plugs for a new entertainment series, “Due South.”

Despite Rather’s interview, CNN, through sheer volume of coverage, took over the story.

The drama heightened extraordinarily when Clinton announced Friday that former President Jimmy Carter, retired Gen. Colin L. Powell and Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) would fly to Haiti for a final attempt to persuade the military leaders to depart and avoid an invasion.

At first, the spin by some television pundits was that the mission was not a negotiation so much as a logistic procedure. But as the talks stretched on through an unexpected four sessions of meetings and much of Sunday, TV suddenly was freely using the words “negotiation” and “deal.”

CNN’s cameras steadily remained trained on the military headquarters where most of the talking was going on. Figures such as Carter and Cedras could be seen while a crowd remained outside. It was a surreal image. But as the day wore on, the length of the talks gave rise to speculation--mostly on CNN--that matters were taking a positive turn.

According to several network spokespersons, ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN had agreed not to disclose the location of any invading forces in order to avoid adding to their risk.

Network representatives said the departure of American planes from Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina on Sunday night, even as negotiations were continuing, was not originally broadcast for security reasons although the news organizations knew about it.

But the news finally made it to the air, according to ABC spokeswoman Sherrie Rollins, after a Clinton Administration adviser gave the go-ahead.