Jesse Helms Lambastes Clinton’s Foreign Policy

Sen. Jesse Helms has pro nounced President Clinton unqualified to make military decisions on Bosnia-Herzegovina, saying, “I hope he won’t shoot from the hip.”

The White House brushed off the latest criticism from the North Carolina Republican who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said Clinton was satisfied that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was taking the correct military steps in the intensifying conflict.

Helms lambasted Clinton and his Administration on most international issues during taping of the CNN program “Evans and Novak.”

Helms said Clinton is not qualified to be military commander in chief, “bombed out” in his summit with Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and badly needs a consistent foreign policy.

Although Helms caused a furor six months ago when he said neither he nor those in the armed forces believed that Clinton was up to the commander in chief’s job, Helms repeated the assertion during the Friday interview.

Asked if he had changed his evaluation of Clinton, Helms replied: “No, sir. We’re still getting mail from the military in North Carolina. They don’t like this President. They don’t like some of the things he’s done in the past, and they don’t like some of the decisions he’s making now.”

As to NATO air strikes on Bosnian Serb positions that provoked the Serbs to take some U.N. peacekeepers hostage, Helms said: “This situation is terrible. There is no easy answer.”

Was he concerned Clinton might err in determining whether to commit U.S. force? “Well, maybe he’ll get some good advice from the Joint Chiefs [of Staff] and the chairman thereof and from the Pentagon. But I hope he won’t shoot from the hip, because I don’t think he’s qualified.

“I hope he will acknowledge that he’s not qualified. Not many people are,” Helms added. “But if you were asking me if I would rather have somebody else in the Oval Office, certainly.”

On Clinton’s recent summit meeting with Yeltsin in Moscow, Helms declared that the U.S. President “bombed out,” saying, “I don’t know of anything he accomplished.”

Helms, a staunch conservative, criticized the Clinton Administration’s foreign policy for being “all over the lot.”

On Haiti, Helms maintained that the Administration had made a “serious mistake” in sending troops into the Caribbean nation to restore ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whom he described as “a guy who favors putting bicycle tires filled with gasoline around his enemies’ necks.”

Helms also advocated cutting off all aid to Russia, eventually eliminating all foreign assistance, tightening the embargo against Cuba and rescinding China’s most-favored-nation trading status.

The senator did support Clinton on at least one foreign policy issue--his decision to impose stiff trade sanctions against Japan unless Tokyo backs down on the question of buying U.S. auto parts.