Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 8, 1992 TAG: 9203090196
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DONALD NUECHTERLEIN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Patrick Buchanan's challenge to George Bush in the 1992 Republican primaries poses a fundamental isolationist challenge to the internationalist policies followed by every president since World War II, from Truman to Bush.
So long as the Cold War dominated America's foreign policy agenda, Republican internationalists controlled the party's world outlook, from 1952 until 1992. Democrats under Roosevelt and Truman were internationalist since the 1930s.
Buchanan, a well-known newspaper columnist and TV commentator, opposed President Bush's decision in 1990 to send U.S. forces to defend Saudi Arabia because, he said, the threat to U.S. interests in the Persian Gulf was not serious enough to require U.S. troops. Last year he decided to run for president against Bush and attacked the entire basis of his policy.
His speeches have the ring of Republican isolationists in the '40s who argued against both economic aid to rebuild Europe and the North Atlantic pact to defend it against the Soviet Union.
The fundamental issue Buchanan poses to American foreign policy is this: Now that the Cold War is over, should the United States continue to pursue an internationalist foreign policy, or instead adopt a nationalistic view toward the world, one that puts "America first"?
Buchanan's nationalist foreign policy has three components that distinguish it from the internationalist policies pursued by Republican presidents from Dwight Eisenhower to George Bush. These are:
First, the United States should be tough in international trade negotiations with all foreign countries, not only with Japan. The European Community, now committed to form an economic and political union by the end of the decade, is as serious an economic threat as Japan because of its size (340 million people). In the next eight years, the EC will probably include most of Eastern Europe as well.
The nationalists/isolationists are not unhappy at the prospect that the current Uruguay Round international trade negotiations will fail. They think Europe will refuse to negotiate fairly on agricultural subsidies, and they are convinced Japan intends to buy up the United States.
Second, the United States should greatly reduce military and economic aid to other countries. Now that the Cold War is over, they say, Israel and Egypt are no longer strategic allies and aid to them should be sharply curtailed. Further, only modest humanitarian assistance should go to Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics because the United States has huge needs at home that should be funded first. In addition, Buchanan opposes a $10 billion loan guarantee to Israel to help it build housing for Soviet Jews.
Third, Buchanan and his supporters seem willing to withdraw most U.S. forces from Europe and the Pacific, demobilize many of them, and concentrate on building powerful strike forces in the United States that could be used in local crises. U.S. troops in Europe, which constitute the largest and costliest U.S. military operation abroad, would be drastically reduced. European countries, they argue, are rich enough to handle local threats to their security.
The nationalists' challenge to George Bush in 1992 will no doubt fail. But those who support Buchanan's challenge to the president will spend the next four years trying to embarrass him on foreign and domestic policy and then try to select a conservative nationalist as the Republican nominee in 1996. Buchanan sees himself as the Republican choice.
On the Democratic side, neither Bill Clinton nor Paul Tsongas seems disposed to launch a frontal attack on George Bush's internationalist foreign policy. Unlike Paul Harkin and Jerry Brown, they remember that internationalism has been the Democratic Party's philosophy since Woodrow Wilson.
America's international outlook is unlikely to change as a result of the 1992 election. But Buchanan's full-blown challenge to Bush could cause a shift in Republican Party policy by 1996. With the Cold War over, American voters seem willing to listen again to those who argue that there is no need be a world policeman. This has the ring of the '40s.
Donald Nuechterlein, of Charlottesville, is author of "America Recommitted: U.S. National Interests in a Restructured World."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB