Foreign Policy

* It is difficult to follow Jonathan Clarke’s logic in Commentary (Column Right, Feb. 19). His hopes for the Republicans to restore a measure of credibility to America’s standing in the world are being dashed! Then he identifies “the debacle in Somalia” as one of President Clinton’s early foreign policy missteps. Not exactly. The Somalia affair may well be remembered as one of James Baker’s finest moments. In the last weeks of a Republican Administration, the United States dispatched Marines to Somalia on a mission of incredibility. If it worked, it would be to the Republicans’ advantage. If it failed, it would be to the Democrats’ disadvantage. Bingo!

However, responding to the impacts of the peso and Chiapas crises on American foreign trade and investments in Mexico requires a much more sophisticated approach. It includes asking, “What if is works?” and answering that one will require more time than the Republicans’ first hundred days. It will require bipartisan cooperation rather than competitive partisan duds that have led to the notion that European and Japanese banks should take the lead. It might even lead to an era of greater international cooperation. Meanwhile, Mexico will be our neighbor much longer than any Administration to be elected in 1996.

CHARLES G. GUNNERSON

Laguna Hills