Dole Calls for an Assertive Foreign Policy for U.S.

Elizabeth Hanford Dole outlined an assertive defense and foreign policy Monday, calling for the United States to withdraw from an anti-missile treaty with Russia and boost support for Taiwan, a move that would likely antagonize China.

Dole accused the Clinton administration of mismanaging the aftermath of the Cold War by conducting a feckless foreign policy refracted through opinion polls and “the prism of domestic policy,” rather than based upon strategic or security interests.

“Our ability to advance our interests with the world’s major powers, and contain its rogue regimes, has waned,” the GOP presidential hopeful said in a speech at South Carolina’s College of Charleston. “The world remains a very dangerous place, and we Americans are today even more vulnerable to missile attack than we were seven years ago.”

Dole joined Texas Gov. George W. Bush and others in the GOP field in advocating deployment of a nationwide anti-missile defense system. But Dole went further than Bush, saying the United States should abandon, not simply renegotiate, the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia. Her stance was echoed Monday by rival Gary Bauer, in his own foreign policy speech in San Francisco.

The ABM treaty, which forbids such a national defense system, “[binds] us to a deal that reflects the technology and security environment of 27 years ago,” Dole said.

She also opposed making the United States a party to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which seeks to curtail the spread of nuclear weapons by banning explosive nuclear tests.

Like her previous policy speeches, Dole’s remarks Monday tended toward generalities. While promising to “rebuild and restore the military,” she did not say how. Nor did she flesh out her call for improved security at the nation’s weapon labs and “new and stronger relations with other major powers.”

She criticized President Clinton’s recent pardon of several jailed Puerto Rican nationalists and also accused the administration--and Vice President Al Gore by name--of mishandling relations with Russia, “now mired in debt, cronyism and criminality.”

Dole offered a more complex policy toward China. She said it should be admitted to World Trade Organization and that she would work to expand U.S.-China business ties. She also called, however, for “greater political and defense support for Taiwan” and said she welcomed meetings with the Dalai Lama and Chinese dissidents.

In a separate speech before the Commonwealth Club of California, Bauer delivered a scathing denunciation of China and accused “the Wall Street wing of the Republican Party” and the Clinton administration of conducting a policy of appeasement based on economic, rather than security, interests.

“Our foreign policy must have a greater purpose than the corporate bottom line,” Bauer said.

Taking a swipe at the front-running Bush, Bauer suggested “there is no meaningful difference” between Gore and the Texas governor on China policy. “Sadly, many of my fellow Republicans have succumbed to the delusional blandishments of the China lobby--corporate members of which, not coincidentally, contribute heavily to their campaigns.”

Bauer called for deployment of an anti-missile system to protect Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.