From ignorance, to incoherence, to collapse
Hehir, J. Bryan
WHEN THE new Congress arrives Church/world watch to shuffle back from the policy implica- in January, it will encounter...
...However, Reykjavik dis- Wars stood to the right of the conven- any merits than on the word of the presplayed the ad-hoc character that caught tjQsa'1 'wisdom on arms control...
...case in point...
...The rare tail, the negotiations read like a poker been evident since...
...To sum up, the results of to inco erence, the status of operating principles col- Reykjavik are less a breakthrough in lapsed...
...The "mini-summit" at edge of the arms-control consensus...
...and the Reagan administration The epitome of the administration's dential veto left administration policy found itself bidding for stakes it had not penchant for solving substantive issues on South Africa shattered...
...it was less a planned fort that followed Reykjavik, the presi- for what it has always been: ill-consummit than a preemptive strike staged dent's gambit failed...
...with ad-agency tactics is clearly the the effort to recast policy began with an For much of his presidency, Mr...
...just prior to the mid-term elections...
...nal...
...Between the Soviets reiterated their view that Labor Day and Thanksgiving a SDI remained an obstacle to any deal, foreign-policy apparatus that had raised From i norance, whether on strategic or Europeanignorance and ad-hoc improvisation to theater forces...
...The challenge should be would have forced the president's hand listic missiles went to the left of the accepted...
...Nicaraguan contras has exposed the Of course, the far-reaching proposals administration's policy as incompetent, for displacing nuclear weapons from incoherent, out of control, and lacking center stage in the superpower relationcongressional consent...
...Iranian-contra connection...
...Rea- The call is to debate the policy "on its contained several amendments that gan's willingness to trade away all bal- own merits...
...nor the Joint Chiefs of Staff, nor the It is time for a full-scale policy reUndoubtedly, Mr...
...Although carefully considered...
...WHEN THE new Congress arrives Church/world watch to shuffle back from the policy implicain January, it will encounter an tions of Reykjavik toward cutting administration in nearly total strategic weapons in half...
...Meanwhile disarray on foreign affairs...
...ship were a dramatic new contribution The Iranian-contra connection has, J. Bryan Hehir to the chronically cautious style of of course, focused public attention on arms-control negotiations...
...policy to sustain them...
...The begrudging congressional apReykjavik short-circuited this second But Reagan's fascination with Star proval of contra aid was based less on face-off...
...The House how to limit their numbers and (aid to the contras) from the tactics...
...proposals to abolish all intercontinental fore Reykjavik, the administration had The disintegration began when the ballistic missiles and/or nuclear clearly not begun the political and president fought to the end congres- weapons...
...Gorbachev needed Congress-was ready for a nuclear- view of the questionable goals and conthe summit for domestic purposes at free world, or even for the more modest flicting means that have brought us to least as badly as Mr...
...They may who-knew-what-when, but it is the Reykjavik-an agreement on bear fruit someday, and Reykjavik larger framework of policy disarray that intermediate-range missiles in the would then be recognized as a needs to be addressed as we approach European theater-was superseded by watershed in the nuclear age...
...nation's attention during the summer...
...What George Will called the to collapse negotiations than a break-up of the pol"lunatic parley" of arms sales to Iran icy consensus needed to negotiate a and the diversion of the profits to the signficant reduction in arms...
...Reykjavik is a congressional restraints and produced a U.S...
...sight of Congress overriding a presi- game...
...This ident...
...strategic hard work needed to support sional passage of new economic sanc- Gorbachev planned this scenario in de- such a master stroke, nor has the work tions against South Africa...
...on issues from SALT II limits to nu- Freeze Movement, itself on the outer The merits of the policy are margiclear testing...
...Here tactics address by Secretary Shultz in early Reagan has confounded his critics with ran wild...
...Congress was as a fact of life and then struggled with quickly tried to separate the objective again in the driver's seat...
...Reagan and Secretary Shultz had J. BRYAN HEHIR 26 December /986: 679...
...The president now stands policy fiasco that is now a presidential South Africa absorbed much of the both to the left and to the right of the crisis...
...The current shambles of our up with the administration in the final time, in spite of the public-relations ef- foreign policy allows us to judge the aid months of 1986...
...While it is not clear that Mr...
...Reagan...
...The expected outcome of siles...
...clandestine choices, devoid of December, the New Year will open sweeping proposals that cut across a a policy framework, circumvented with sanctions in place but no coherent prevailing consensus...
...goal of a world without ballistic mis- the disarray of December 1986...
...version of the defense authorization bill safeguard against their use...
...arms-control community, which has Knowing these tactics are indefensiAutumn brought nuclear questions traditionally accepted nuclear weapons ble, defenders of aid to the contras have back to center stage...
...Neither the allies, ceived and irresponsibly managed...
...But be1987...
Vol. 113 • December 1986 • No. 22
