Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post
Newsgroups: americast.wpost
From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com
Organization: American Cybercasting
Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com
Subject: On the Stump, Clinton Quietly Got 11 Briefings on Events Overseas<By Don
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 92 05:06:14 EST
Message-ID: <26.1992Nov6.050614@AmeriCast.com>

On the Stump, Clinton Quietly Got 11 Briefings on Events
Overseas<By Don Oberdorfer=Washington Post Staff Writer=

In a venerable downtown club in New Haven, Conn., on Sept. 8,
then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton heard an earful about
U.S. problems with Japan.

His briefer in an hour-long private session on Japan, Mike
Mochizuki of the University of Southern California, suggested the
United States should take a fundamentally new approach to the
critical economic relationship. Rather than continue the Reagan-
Bush policy of seeking to remake the Japanese economy in the more
open U.S. image, a Clinton administration should work through
Japan's unique existing economic structure to achieve greater
market share for U.S. products, Mochizuki proposed.  Clinton did
not commit himself to any course of action as president, but his
questions reflected a surprising knowledge of Japanese economic
and industrial policy, according to Mochizuki, a third-generation
American who had never met Clinton before and was recruited for
the briefing by their mutual friend, Occidental College economics
Prof. Derek Shearer.

The meeting in the Quinnipiack Club was one of 11 intimate
foreign policy briefings arranged for Clinton by his staff since
last spring on such subjects as Yugoslavia, Africa and the Middle
East. Like the Sept. 8 briefing, which also included an hour-long
discussion of China policy by former U.S. ambassador Winston Lord
and former assistant secretary of state Richard C. Holbrooke, the
meetings were carved out of Clinton's busy campaign schedule and
not announced to the press.

Although polls showed that foreign issues were of little concern
to the electorate, Clinton gave five full-scale speeches on U.S.
foreign policy in the past year and issued more than two dozen
campaign statements on the subject. In addition, a hefty
salesman-style case secured by two locks and carried to the three
presidential debates by adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger con-
tained Clinton-approved answers to dozens more foreign policy
questions than came up in the domestically oriented campaign.

While still a diplomatic novice compared to President Bush, who
spent much of the past two decades dealing with foreign policy,
Clinton is described by aides as far better prepared for this as-
pect of the presidency than is generally realized.

In his first post-election policy statement, which he read to re-
porters Wednesday afternoon in Little Rock, Ark., Clinton em-
phasized "the essential continuity of American foreign policy"
and pledged to work closely with Bush during the transition on
six pressing questions: the Mideast peace process, the START II
strategic arms reduction talks, world trade talks, relations with
Russia, the war in Yugoslavia and famine in Somalia. Evidently
with Iraq in mind, Clinton also warned "any adversary" nation
against doubting U.S. resolve during the transition period.

"The Cold War is won. Now we have a chance to build a new peace.
We have entered a global economy," said Clinton in his statement
setting the tone and overseas priorities for the transition and
perhaps for at least the early days of his administration.

A review of Clinton's campaign statements and interviews with his
foreign policy advisers suggest that Clinton is likely to em-
phasize several points, called by advisers "the three
pillars":<The importance of revitalizing the U.S. economy in the
context of the new global economy. Clinton told ABC's Ted Koppel
in a post-election interview broadcast Wednesday that "I am going
to focus like a laser beam on this economy, and foreign policy
will come into play in part as it affects the economy."

Nevertheless, fixing the economy is the work of many months, if
not many years, with other world problems and crises likely to
challenge the Clinton presidency long before this is accom-
plished. Rebuilding the economy and engaging problems abroad are
"not sequential," said former State Depart- <"Foreign policy will
come into play in part as it affects the economy."< -President-
elect Clinton>

ment official Anthony Lake, a senior Clinton adviser.

While laying a stronger economic base for foreign policy will
take time, said Lake, an early start can be made developing "the
political basis" if Americans see the new president dealing with
U.S. problems. "And in diplomatic terms he'll have to be engaged
right from the start," Lake added.  Reconfiguring U.S. military
priorities and deployments to reflect the demise of the Cold War.
While Clinton has called for only modest budgetary cutbacks
beyond those already proposed by Bush, "he will not put money
into space-based" anti-missile defense systems favored by Bush
and President Ronald Reagan, said Michael Mandelbaum of the Johns
Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, also a Clinton
adviser. "There will be fewer troops in Europe, but also more
flexibility and mobility," he added.

Greater emphasis on promotion of democracy overseas as a tenet of
U.S. foreign policy. Clinton devoted an entire speech on Oct. 1
in Milwaukee to this theme and alluded to it in his Wednesday
statement. The issue is a key one for neo-conservative Democrats
such as Richard Schifter, who served in the Reagan and Bush ad-
ministrations as assistant secretary of state for human rights.
Schifter said the Arkansas governor telephoned him the day after
he left the State Department last spring, soliciting his support
and voicing strong support for promoting democracy abroad.

It is yet uncertain how these and other objectives will be pur-
sued as the Clinton administration deals with a vast domestic
agenda. Clinton foreign policy advisers said that until Wednes-
day, there was an almost superstitious reluctance on Clinton's
part even to discuss personnel choices for his administration.

Several of the advisers said they expect Warren M. Christopher,
deputy secretary of state in the Carter administration, to be of-
fered a key post. Christopher, a Los Angeles lawyer, headed
Clinton's vice presidential selection committee and is one of the
six senior advisers on the transition team that Clinton has con-
vened in Little Rock this week. Beyond a likely job for Christo-
pher, all the talk of who will do what job has been speculation,
according to members of the Clinton team.<02:20 11-06C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor-
poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)