Buchanan Urges U.S. Dialogue With Iran, Iraq

Reform Party presidential contender Patrick J. Buchanan declared Monday that the long-standing U.S. policy of “dual containment” of Iraq and Iran is unsustainable, and he suggested opening a dialogue with the oppressive nations.

Delivering a foreign policy speech, Buchanan asked: “If we can engage China and North Vietnam and even North Korea, why can we not at least talk to Iran and Iraq?”

The third-party candidate also countered claims by his rivals that he is an isolationist.

“As one who has supported every great foreign policy initiative from Kennedy to Reagan, I reject the isolationist label, especially when made by those who spent their youthful careers marching against the Cold War policies that brought us victory,” he told an audience at the Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank.

The remarks followed a foreign policy speech Friday by Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, and a controversy in September stirred by publication of Buchanan’s book, “A Republic, Not an Empire.”

Buchanan derided Bush’s speech, saying: “I think the governor read it very well.” As to the substance, in which Bush proposed toughening relations with Russia and China, Buchanan said Bush was being advised by people who “feel a sense of loss” at the passing of the Cold War and “are looking for a conflict.”

Buchanan’s book created a stir by questioning the United States’ entry into the war against Nazi Germany. The former television commentator wrote that Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich was no threat to the country after 1940.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who also is seeking the GOP nomination, condemned the writings, while New York developer Donald Trump, who is considering challenging Buchanan for the Reform nomination, called Buchanan an “anti-Semite.”

In his speech, Buchanan excoriated the Clinton administration’s foreign policy, saying it had misfired in Somalia, Haiti and the Sudan, had risked alienating Russia and had brought misery to the people of Serbia without removing its leadership during NATO airstrikes.

He also challenged claims of Serb atrocities in Kosovo, saying one estimate put the number of ethnic Albanian deaths at 2,500.

“Twenty-five hundred is a terrible tragedy; Auschwitz it is not,” Buchanan said.