Word: haig
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...Soviets seem to accept what many Reagan and Haig aides privately admit: the new Administration's means and goals for managing the relationship are still taking shape and, in some cases, are still under debate. As a foreign ministry official points out, "Even the one initiative in recent months that we have welcomed here-the lifting of the grain embargo-was motivated solely by domestic political considerations. It was potentially important for your relations with us, yet the decision was made in a foreign policy vacuum. We're waiting to see how that vacuum is finally filled...
...Ambassador Kirkpatrick did a superb job, which has been characteristic of her performance at the United Nations from the outset." So said Secretary of State Alexander Haig last week about Jeane Kirkpatrick, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. That gracious praise was not exactly spontaneous: Haig was scrambling to patch up the damage done by leaks from his own aides, who had criticized Kirkpatrick's handling of a U.N. resolution condemning Israel for its bombing of Iraq's nuclear reactor. The sniping infuriated not only Kirkpatrick but the White House as well. It deeply embarrassed Haig and provided more...
...flap began at a hotel bar in Wellington, New Zealand. State Department Spokesman Dean Fischer and Politico-Military Affairs Director Richard Burt, who were accompanying Haig on his two-week swing through the Pacific, asked Bernard Gwertzman of the New York Times and Karen Elliot House of the Wall Street Journal to join them for drinks. With Fischer glancing at notes, the two aides blamed Kirkpatrick for fouling up negotiations on the U.N. resolution. They claimed she ignored instructions from the National Security Council and initially supported a resolution that called for economic sanctions against Israel, urged nations to review...
...after Haig telephoned Iraqi Foreign Minister Saadoun Hammadi from Manila, claimed his aides, the Iraqis also consented to drop the arms policies provision and soften the call for damages, thereby allowing the U.S. to vote for the resolution...
Both the Times and the Journal carried accounts of the criticisms implying that the aides had been speaking with Haig's knowledge and approval. Vacationing in Saint-Rémy, France, Kirkpatrick declared she was "surprised and hurt" about the attack on her performance. She insisted that in her negotiations with the Iraqis she had followed a National Security Council directive approved by Haig and Reagan. She contended that she never supported a resolution calling for sanctions or a review of arms policies toward Israel; she acknowledged that Haig had called Hammadi, but only after the negotiations had ended...