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Dick Cheney on Foreign Policy
Need leadership and trust to make progress in middle east
Q: Do you agree with US Middle East policy?LIEBERMAN: America has a national strategic and a principled interest in peace in the Middle East. Al Gore has played a critical role in advancing that process. These peoples have come centuries forward in the last seven years. I pray that the unrest in the last week will not make it hard for them to go back to the peace table. We’ve been on a very constructive course in the Middle East, played a unique role, and Al Gore and I will continue to do that.
CHENEY: We made significant breakthroughs at the end of the Bush administration because of the Gulf War. By virtue of the end of the Cold War, the Soviets were no longer a factor. My guess is that the next administration is going to have to come to grips with the current state of affairs. I think it’s very important that we have a president with firm leadership who has the kind of track record of dealing straight with people, so that friends respect us and adversaries fear us.
Serbs deserve credit - Russia and US should support them
Q: If Milosevic prevails, would you support his overthrow? CHENEY: I hope it marks the end of Milosevic. It’s a victory for the Serbian people. This is a continuation of a process that began 10 years ago all across Eastern Europe, and it’s only now arrived in Serbia. We saw it in Germany, we saw it in Romania, we saw it in Czechoslovakia, as the people of Eastern Europe rose up and made their claim for freedom. We want to do everything we can to support Milosevic’s departure. Certainly, though, that would not involve committing U.S. troops. Governor Bush suggested that we ought to try to get the Russians involved to exercise some leverage over the Serbians and Al Gore pooh-poohed it. But now it’s clear from the press that in fact that’s exactly what they were doing. This is an opportunity for the U.S. to test President Putin of Russia, whether or not he’s willing to support the forces of freedom in the area of Eastern Europe.
US too soft on Iraq
Dick Cheney said yesterday that the Clinton administration had let the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, “slip off the hook” on UN weapons inspections. Cheney said the US had a “very robust” inspection capability under President Bush and after the Gulf War.
Iran: against sanctions; makes oil deals there
Cheney’s oil company has conducted business in Iran and Libya by carefully maneuvering around US sanctions, using foreign-based subsidiaries and workers. Cheney has frequently fought to lift US sanctions against Iran despite concerns about terrorist
activity. Just last month, Cheney said that the US should lift sanctions against Iran and allow US oil companies to invest there. “There’s been a decision not to allow US firms to invest significantly in Iran, and I think that’s a mistake,” Cheney said.
Cuba: replace sanctions with free trade enclave
Cheney has raised the notion, heretical in GOP circles, of revisiting the wisdom of American sanctions against Cuba. Cheney also has said that unilateral sanctions against other countries are “unwise.” Speaking at the libertarian
Cato Institute in 1988, Cheney broached a possible loosening of the trade embargo against Cuba, suggesting a free trade enclave could be established. Cheney also declared that unilateral economic sanctions “almost never work.”
Voted to support foreign aid programs
Cheney did break occasionally with the Reagan administration, disagreeing with the way the White House was compromising with Democrats on tax reform.
In his rare breaks with the American Conservative Union, Cheney supported multibillion-dollar foreign aid programs.
South Africa: Voted against apartheid sanctions in 1980s
As Wyoming’s representative-at-large in the House of Representatives, Cheney was a vigorous supporter of U.S. aid to anti-communist contra rebels in Nicaragua
in the mid-1980s and voted against imposing economic sanctions on South Africa’s apartheid government in 1986.
Congress intereferes too much in designing foreign policy
[As secretary of defense in the 1908s], Cheney believed that Congress interfered too much with what he considered the president’s prerogative in designing U.S. foreign policy.
Include former Soviet states in NATO for stability
At the last NATO meeting he attended, in Brussels in December 1992, Cheney said that the alliance needed to lend more assistance to the new democracies in Eastern Europe and eventually offer them membership in NATO. Central and Eastern Europe, he told
his NATO colleagues, presented the most threatening potential security problems in the years ahead. The current problem, rather than East versus West, was East and West versus instability. Cheney’s views on NATO reflected his skepticism about prospects for peaceful evolution in the former Soviet areas. He saw high potential for uncertainty and instability, and he felt that the Bush administration was too optimistic in supporting Mikhail Gorbachev and his successor, Boris Yeltsin. Cheney believed that as the United States downsized its military forces, reduced its troops in Europe, and moved forward with arms control, it needed to keep a watchful eye on Russia and other successor states of the Soviet Union.
Gulf War results: stable Arabs; secure Israel; confident US
The situation from the standpoint of our allies in the region, especially Saudi Arabia, is that they have been saved and Kuwait has been liberated, not just by US forces but by coalition forces as well. And an international coalition that involved the
governments that represent a majority of the Arab world, fighting alongside US forces, was a very significant development. Saddam Hussein’s offensive military capability, his capacity to threaten his neighbors, has been virtually eliminated. This is a very significant development.
Israel, I think, from a military standpoint is more secure today than she’s been at any time in the recent past because of the elimination of Iraq’s offensive military threat. A very significant development.
I think would-be aggressors, not only in the Middle East but elsewhere around the world, have to pause and reflect before they contemplate the possibility that aggression is a course that holds rewards for them. A significant development.
Critical of Israeli policy which opposes US interests
Throughout his decade-long congressional career. Cheney has been unafraid to criticize Israeli policies he deemed detrimental to US interests. Cheney noted that he has tried to listen to all sides involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict. During one month, he met with [leaders of Israel, Jordan, & Egypt]. Cheney vows to “argue as persuasively as I know how” with his former colleagues on Capitol Hill to adopt a “more balanced policy” in terms of improving relations with Arab nations.
Supports balance in supplying arms to both Israel & Arabs
Cheney vows to “argue as persuasively as I know how” with his former colleagues on Capitol Hill to adopt a “more balanced policy” in terms of improving relations with Arab nations. Cheney agreed that congressional opposition to US arms sales to friendly
Arab states has hurt American interests in the region. “I think the United States does have a role to play in the area that does involve providing our Arab friends as well as our Israeli friends with the equipment they need in order to provide for
Aiding Contras good; using money from Iran bad
As vice chairman of the House committee investigating the Iran-contra scandal, Cheney fervently defended the Reagan administration, saying it made a mistake but broke no laws in selling arms to Iran
and using proceeds from the sale to equip the contras. Cheney candidly admits that his main concern in the hearings was that the scandal not derail efforts to aid the contras.
Supported 1986 Libya bombing
Cheney supported the Reagan administration’s bombing of Libya in 1986, saying at the time that he hoped Colonel Qaddafi “has learned his lesson” about the danger of sponsoring terrorist acts.
But Cheney has also been willing to criticize Reagan administration foreign policy initiatives-or the lack of them-in the region.
Israel: Displeased with 1982 invasion of Lebanon
Following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, Cheney said he was “disappointed that the administration has not been somewhat tougher on Israel. I think we should have expressed our displeasure in no uncertain terms. ”
He argued then that Israel had faced no security danger that would have provoked such an attack. “Literally thousands of innocent people have been killed or injured. I find that difficult to accept,” he said then.
Outraged that Israel spied on US in 1980s
Cheney expressed outrage at the Jonathan Pollard spy case, saying it demonstrated that Israel had waged a deliberate and successful spy campaign against the US. “I consider it an unfriendly act,” Cheney said in 1987, adding that Israel had betrayed
its unique bond with the US. “They, on the one hand, plead for a special relationship with the US-a special relationship that has existed for nearly 40 years now. On the other hand, [they] run a major intelligence operation against us,” Cheney said.
Mideast peace process must include Palestinian statehood
On the question of an independent Palestinian state, Cheney had supported leaving that question to be negotiated between the major parties involved. In July 1982, however, Cheney said, “Any resolution in this conflict which has lasted for more than
30 years must include the formation of a Palestinian state. But I am frankly not optimistic about any resolution in the near future. ” Cheney, whose prognosis then has proven to be correct, is scarcely less pessimistic about the Middle East seven years later. “You’re talking about animosities that go back centuries,” Cheney said recently in Wyoming. “It’s not an area where you can anticipate that overnight there’s going to be some solution and everybody’s going to say, ‘Great, peace has arrived.’ This requires tough, hard, day-to-day efforts to maintain momentum for peaceful resolution of the conflicts in that part of the world. You cannot expect, given the track record, any quick and easy results.”
Against Boland Amend.& Panama Treaty; for Campd David accord
- Cheney co-sponsored the following bills in Congress:
- H.RES.423 (1988):A resolution expressing the concern of the House of Representatives regarding the future security of the Panama Canal.
- H.CON.RES.72 (1986):A concurrent resolution urging Egypt to return its Ambassador to Israel and take other steps to honor the Camp David Accords.
- H.R.3694 (1984):A bill to repeal the “Boland Amendment”, relating to the use of Central Intelligence Agency funds in Central America.
Voted against South Africa sanctions; for AWACs to Arabia
- Cheney’s votes on key foreign affairs bills in Congress:
- Voted YES to aid Nicaraguan contras (1986)
- Voted NO to impose South Afican sanctions over Reagan veto (1986)
- Voted IN FAVOR of sale of AWACs planes to Saudi Arabia (1981)
- Voted NO to implement Panama Canal Treaties (1979)
Supported foreign aid to Latin America & Africa
- Cheney co-sponsored the following bills in Congress:
- H.J.RES.249 (1986):A joint resolution to express Congressional commitment to aid all nations & peoples in Latin America in their efforts to halt the spread of communism.
- H.CON.RES.237 (1988) A resolution to commend the President and AID on relief efforts that have been undertaken for the people of Ethiopia and other drought-stricken nations in sub-Saharan Africa, and to encourage extending all efforts to preclude the onset of famine.
Hard-liner towards Soviet Union in 1980s
Cheney gave a well-publicized speech to a governor’s conference backing the administration’s hard line toward the new Andropov regime in the Soviet Union. “He speaks English and he likes Scotch,”
Cheney said of Andropov, “but he is not a card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union.”
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