The Continuing Saga of Ronnie Wonderful

(Source: The Modesto Bee, 1/10/81)

Haig says peace not top priority
The Los Angeles Times

Washington- Alexander M. Haig Jr. seized the initiative Friday as hearings began on his confirmation as secretary of state, and he made the foreign policy of the incoming Reagan administration - not the domestic record of former President Richard M. Nixon- the dominant theme of the day-long session before the senate foreign relations committee.

In implicit criticism of President Carter’s policies, Haig told the committee that avoidance of conflict should not supercede the national interest as top priority in U.S. policy.

“There are things we Americans should be willing to fight for.” Haig said, pledging to maintain “consistency reliability and balance,” as the watchwords of his conduct of foreign affairs.

Committee democrats, in their unaccustomed role as the minority party, served notice that they will press for documents from the Nixon era that they believe bear on Haig’s conduct of the White House business during the Watergate scandal.

With hearings scheduled to run through Saturday and resume for most or all of next week, Watergate no doubt will be thoroughly rehashed before Haig is confirmed.

But Haig clearly anticipated this in the opening session Friday. He attacked that issue head-on by asking to be sworn under oath before testifying- a rarity in confirmation hearings. He asserted his innocence in any wrongdoing in the Nixon era in his prepared statement to the committee and at greater length in a detailed appendix to the statement.

Haig reminded the committee that he had testified previously on Watergate, and on his role in Nixon-era wiretaps of officials and reporters, and on his role in Southeast Asia policy and covert operations aimed against the election of Salvadore Allende as president of Chile.

“I have testified at length under oath at many times concerning my role in many of these incidents. “ Haig said in his statement. “none of hose investigations have found any culpability on my part.”

Except for a series of questions on Watergate by Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes, D-Md., and Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and on Chile by Sen. Paul Tsongas, D-Mass., the day-long session was dominated by foreign policy questions, and the implied target of criticism was Jimmy Carter, not Richard Nixon.

Haig spoke in his prepared statements of the recent upsurge in worldwide Soviet military and political influence as “perhaps the most complete reversal of global power relationship ever seen in a period of relative peace,” and pledged a foreign policy that would in many respects reverse the priorities of the Carter years.

Asked by Senate Majority Leader Howard H. Baker, Jr., R-Tenn., whether avoidance of nuclear war should be the top priority in Reagan administration foreign polic, Haig replied in effect that the national interest is even more important. *

“We should focus our interest ,” he said, explaining that a policy that made avoidance of conflict the main objective would result in undermining that objective.

* C.W.B: Peace is not in the National interest?