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Subject: Clinton Backs Early Military Retirement;Strong Defense, Better Health Care for
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 04:42:06 EST
Message-ID: <26.1992Nov12.044207@AmeriCast.com>

Clinton Backs Early Military Retirement;Strong Defense, Better
Health Care for Vets and POW Action Pledged<By Michael
Weisskopf=Washington Post Staff Writer= LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Nov.
11 - In his first public address since the election, President-
elect Clinton today reached out to veterans with a pledge to ease
the transition from a Cold War defense by supporting incentives
for early military retirement and providing better and more ac-
cessible health care.  Speaking in the rotunda of the Arkansas
State Capitol, Clinton used the opportunity of Veterans Day to
combat any lingering concerns raised by President Bush's campaign
attacks on him for avoiding military service during the Vietnam
War.

He promised as commander-in-chief to "keep this country the
strongest in the world" by maintaining the "strongest and most
appropriate defense forces" with the "best possible technology,"
emphasizing air and sea mobility.

Clinton has remained largely out of sight, closeted with
advisers, since the election. But today's appearance signaled the
beginning of an apparently more activist phase, with his first
news conference scheduled for Thursday, and a meeting here Sunday
with Senate Majority Leader George J.  Mitchell (D-Maine), House
Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) and House Majority Leader
Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.).

Most of today's 20-minute speech was devoted to concerns of "the
people who won the Cold War for America," as he put it, pledging
a "real effort" to train and care for homeless veterans and a
"final and full" resolution of the POW-MIA issue. In later re-
marks to reporters, he reiterated his plans to lift the ban on
gays in the military after consulting with military leaders on
the best approach.

Although he avoided the gay issue in his remarks to an audience
of uniformed and retired officers, Clinton strongly reaffirmed
his campaign pledge afterward, saying, "I don't think (sexual)
status alone, in the absence of some destructive behavior, should
disqualify people."

In his speech, he said many of the military scientists, techni-
cians and engineers laid off by recent defense cuts can be shift-
ed to jobs to "rebuild the domestic economic engine, which will
be at the core of our national security apparatus as we move to-
ward the 21st century."

To encourage the conversion, Clinton said, he supports the early
retirement incentives proposed by Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), chairman
of the Senate Armed Services Committee, including partial bene-
fits for leaving the uniform earlier than the 20 years now re-
quired for a military pension equal to half base pay.

The defense authorization act for this fiscal year permits par-
tial benefits after 15 years of service, but gives final discre-
tion to the service secretaries to decide whether to implement
the waiver.

Clinton also repeated his campaign praise of Nunn's recommenda-
tions to credit military personnel for time spent in retraining
for a civilian job or spent after retirement in public service
jobs, such as teachers or law enforcement officers.

Clinton said that health issues would be "the first order of
business" for the next secretary of veterans affairs, and called
for new ways to finance care at a time when military base clo-
sures and decreasing budgets have limited access. He noted among
possible ideas a controversial proposal to allow the under-
financed veterans hospitals to tap Medicare and Medicaid to help
pay for treatment.

A Veterans Administration panel has estimated that the nation's
172 veterans hospitals could claim $3 billion a year from Medi-
care alone for some services to retired military persons who also
qualify for the federal assistance for the elderly.

Fiscal conservatives have opposed the idea because it would de-
plete Medicare and Medicaid funds.

The president-elect received his loudest applause when he prom-
ised to resolve the POW-MIA issue, and said he was "very much en-
couraged" by Vietnam's recent willingness to turn over new photo-
graphic and archival material of downed U.S.  pilots.

Clinton said he will continue the policy of refusing to normalize
diplomatic relations with "any nation that is at all suspected of
withholding information" on those missing in action, and said he
will review U.S. military files on the outstanding cases and will
open those "that can be safely opened" to the families

"I just want you to know that I won't rest until this issue is
resolved," he said. "We must have as full an accounting as is
humanely possible."<Staff writer Bill McAllister in Washington
contributed to this report.<02:22 11-12C9999-----

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.

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poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)