THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 13, 1994 TAG: 9410130501
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVID M. POOLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
The man who headed the Navy when the Iran-Contra scandal broke in late 1986 argued Wednesday that the arms sales to Iran helped lead to current tensions in the Persian Gulf.
Former Navy Secretary James Webb said that disclosure of the Iranian arms sales - overseen by then-White House aide Oliver L. North, now the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate - caused the United States to tilt its foreign policy toward Iraq.
``The tilt toward Iraq led to the imbalance, which brought about the Persian Gulf War in 1991 and, in many ways, to the situation that we're seeing today,'' Webb said during the first of four airport press conferences with Democratic U.S. Sen. Charles S. Robb.
North ridiculed Webb's remarks, saying that Robb is getting desperate. ``I'll tell you how desperate this guy really is. Yesterday it was George Bush's fault. Today it's mine,'' North said.
North referred to Robb's statement to residents at a Virginia Beach nursing home that the United States would not face sending troops back to Kuwait if Bush had not decided to leave the Persian Gulf with Saddam Hussein still in power.
With less than four weeks before Election Day, the Senate contest remains a dead heat between North and Robb, according to a poll released Wednesday by Virginia Commonwealth University.
The two major party candidates each were the preference of 39 percent of 813 likely voters interviewed Oct. 6-11. Independent candidate J. Marshall Coleman was a distant third with 12 percent, while the remaining 9 percent said they were undecided.
In Norfolk, Coleman claimed that North was afraid to debate because his handlers fear North will continue his recent string of false statements.
``Virginians deserve something better than a candidate who so effortlessly blends fact and fiction,'' he said.
Coleman was joined by Republican U.S. Sen. John W. Warner, who has declared North unfit for office because of his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal.
North's only appearance was a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol with Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole. Both men lambasted Vice President Al Gore Jr. for questioning North's patriotism, but they minced no words in challenging President Clinton's leadership and loyalty.
Asked to comment on North's statement earlier this week that Clinton is not his commander-in-chief, Dole said that he also has had to ``swallow hard'' to accept Clinton. Dole is a decorated World War II veteran who lost the use of his right arm in that war. Clinton avoided military service during the Vietnam War.
Webb, a Republican who attended the Naval Academy with North, campaigned for Robb for the second time in a week with airport press conferences in Norfolk, Richmond, Bristol and Roanoke.
In Richmond, Webb stressed that he was not trying to suggest that the Iran-Contra scandal led directly to the gulf war.
``It relates more to the naivete of Mr. North and others involved in Iran-Contra than it does to the larger issue of the war,'' Webb said.
At the time, Iran and Iraq were locked in a costly war. In order to distance itself from Iran after the disclosure of Iran-Contra, Webb said, the United States moved closer to Iraq and sent a military fleet to the Persian Gulf to protect oil tankers from Iranian attack.
One analyst took exception to Webb's analysis.
Retired Army Col. Daniel M. Smith said U.S. policy began its tilt toward Iraq as a counterweight to Iran following the shah's overthrow in the late 1970s - several years before the U.S. sold arms to Iran.
Smith said that while Webb was in a position to know the thinking within the Pentagon at the time, there was no ``perceptible change'' in U.S. policy toward Iraq after Iran-Contra was disclosed. MEMO: Staff writers Maragrett Edds and Robert Little contributed to this
story.
ILLUSTRATION: WHERE CANDIDATES HAVE BEEN
Wednesday's schedule for Virginia's three U.S. Senate
candidates:
J. Marshall Coleman: 10:30 a.m., Waterside, Norfolk; 1 p.m., Omni
Hotel, with U.S. Sen. John Warner, Norfolk.
Oliver L. North: 1:30 p.m., news conference with Sen. Robert
Dole, R-Kan., Washington, D.C.; afternoon, unannounced campaigning
at Vienna Metro station.
Charles S. Robb: 10 a.m., began fly-around appearances with
former Navy Secretary James Webb, Norfolk; 11:45 a.m., Richmond; 2
p.m., Bristol; 4:45 p.m., Roanoke; 6:15 p.m., reception, Roanoke.
KEYWORDS: U.S. SENATE RACE CAMPAIGN CANDIDATES by CNB