Violent Acts Set Back Peace Efforts
In a few short days, a deadly mix of missiles and bombs has jarred President Clinton’s foreign policy, darkening a season of optimism with crisis and uncertainty. The Middle East, Northern Ireland and Cuba - all had been on the plus side of his presidency.
Now, the eruption of bloodshed by Muslim fanatics, IRA bombers and Castro’s MIG pilots has thrust Clinton’s foreign policy into the political crosshairs.
“President Clinton doesn’t have the foggiest notion of how to deal with our enemies,” Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole charged after the downing of two small planes carrying anti-Castro Cuban Americans. Those are stinging words in Florida where politics can be inseparable from a get-tough-on-Castro stand. Other GOP rivals had harsh criticism as well.
Even before the Cuba flareup, Clinton’s foreign policy was under attack. Pat Buchanan has led the charge with his America First banner, vowing to impose tariffs on imports and build a fence along the Mexican border.
Further, Buchanan says it would be a “terrible, terrible mistake” to send American troops to the Middle East to serve on the Golan Heights, enforcing a hoped-for peace settlement between Israel and Syria, as Clinton has suggested.
Generally, foreign policy is not a burning topic in presidential races. Americans expect their presidents to stand tall on the global stage and deftly handle foreign policy problems. However, people start paying attention when American soldiers start getting killed. That was the administration’s fear in sending troops to Bosnia - another move sharply criticized by Dole and others.
That’s not to say candidates don’t try to exploit a situation such as Cuba or other foreign policy problems.
“People will try to make hay out of this, just like Bill Clinton did with George Bush over Haitian refugees,” said Michigan State University political scientist James Granato. “In any campaign you want to accentuate the differences or the perceived failures.”
Clinton attacked Bush for turning Haitian refugees away from U.S. borders. But after he was elected, Clinton embraced Bush’s policy.
After a rough start for his administration, foreign policy has been a source of pride for Clinton, one that he talked up in last month’s State of the Union address.
The White House handshake that Clinton engineered between PLO chief Yassar Arafat and the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin has a prominent spot in Clinton’s campaign video.
Sunday’s suicide bombing in Israel shattered a six-month lull in terrorist attacks. It came at the opening of Israel’s campaign for national elections May 29 and could give a boost to opponents of Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.
Similarly, IRA bombings in London have seriously threatened the peace process. And the downing of the civilian planes by Cuba ended a period of relative calm between Washington and Havana that had seen slight progress on refugee issues and other matters.
In the Middle East and Northern Ireland, though, it may be that the setbacks are temporary - a bump in the road. With Castro, the United States has little or no influence despite decades of pressure.
The administration says foreign policy requires patience, discipline and steady leadership by the world’s sole remaining superpower.
“The alternative, of course, would be to not care and to just pull up the drawbridges, come back home and be isolationist,” White House press secretary Mike McCurry said. “And indeed, we’ve got some people who try to make that argument in this country. But that’s not the president’s view.”