Word: haig
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Were all those trips necessary? The U.S. obviously had to try to head off a war that could put intense strains on American alliances in Europe, Latin America .or both, and foreign policy experts praised Haig's conduct of negotiations as being, in the admiring word of one Indian diplomat, "professional." Doubtless, too, Haig got a better sense of the British and Argentine positions in face-to-face talks than Washington would have garnered through an exchange of messages. Even so, it is questionable whether Haig should have committed himself to an all-consuming mission that prevented him from...
...Middle East. A deadline long regarded with something close to dread by U.S. policymakers passed by safely at week's end. For months the U.S. has been concerned that something might delay the scheduled Israeli pullout from the Sinai on April 25. As he started his Falklands shuttle, Haig dispatched his No. 2 man, Deputy Secretary of State Walter Stoessel, in the hope that his mere presence would have a calming effect. The Israeli bombing of Lebanon at midweek stirred U.S. officials to private fury, but the State Department contented itself with a mild public statement while getting messages...
...Administration does not seem to have a plan for what to do next. Haig's early hope of persuading Israel and the moderate Arab states to subordinate their enmities to a "strategic consensus" against Soviet penetration of the area died long ago. Since then, says one disgruntled U.S. policymaker, the American attitude has been "Don't face anything until someone rubs our nose in it." It is a posture that has won no friends. A long series of mild and ineffectual rebukes to Israel-about the bombing of both the Iraqi nuclear reactor and Beirut last summer...
...Haig belatedly recognized that there can be no real cooling down of the Middle East without some progress toward settlement of the Palestinian question. With the April 25 deadline past, he hopes to get Israel and Egypt to intensify negotiations about autonomy for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. His lieutenants hardly sound hopeful that much will be accomplished. There are worries in Washington that the Israelis may snuff out the diminishing hopes for progress in any negotiations by continuing the process of "creeping annexation" until it becomes a fait accompli. The situation, said one U.S. official...
...stop fomenting insurrection in neighboring countries (meaning primarily El Salvador), the U.S. would vow not to take actions that could destabilize the regime in Nicaragua, and might even resume economic aid. At the moment, Washington is putting off a Nicaraguan request to open formal negotiations, in part because Haig has been tied up with the Falklands crisis, but also because it is still not convinced that the Sandinistas are really willing to deal...