Word: haig
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Anew spirit of detente blossomed last week, not between the U.S. and the Soviet Union but between the White House and Secretary of State Alexander Haig. "He comes home in triumph," President Reagan told reporters, as Haig returned from a NATO foreign ministers' meeting that had endorsed the American hard line blaming Soviet militarism for the breakdown of East-West relations. After two months of squabbling between Haig and the President's top aides, the Secretary had stopped trying to assert his prerogatives and had started pledging to be a team player. Reagan's enthusiastic welcome home...
Reagan called the NATO council "a most successful meeting in a situation that could have been critical for us in regard to our allies." If indeed the European endorsement holds, it was a genuine achievement; it took hard bargaining by Haig in both Washington and Rome. Haig wanted NATO to offer the Soviets both a carrot and a stick-an American pledge to reopen arms control talks, accompanied by a unified Alliance get-tough policy made credible by defense spending. The day before he left Washington, Haig won Reagan's agreement, despite resistance from some hardliners. Soon after...
Although the Dutch pushed for immediate arms talks and the Scandinavian nations wanted more positive mentions of detente, ultimately all accepted a toughly worded document attacking the Soviets for arms buildup and aggression. Haig agreed to a partial endorsement of detente, a policy still popular in most of Europe. The communique describes it as a NATO goal "whenever Soviet behavior makes this possible." The allies in turn agreed to defense spending at "necessary" but unspecified levels and reaffirmed U.S. plans to install 572 new land-based cruise and Pershing II missiles in Western Europe while bargaining with Moscow is under...
...Haig, NATO Commander in Chief from 1974 to 1979, seemed much more confident than he was on his swing through the Middle East last month. He was on familiar ground. And his job was more secure. He was back to seeing Reagan about three times a week and often talking to him by telephone several times a day. The NATO ministers were apparently reassured by Haig's own confidence. They see him as an accessible pragmatist among Reagan's cold warriors...
After the NATO meeting ended, the Administration took the initiative on two other foreign policy fronts, both involving the Reagan-Haig principle of rewarding friendly governments, whatever their human rights policies, and of punishing hostile, leftist ones. The Administration is planning to reinstall an ambassador and offer new military aid to Guatemala, whose repressive military regime was recently accused by Amnesty International of complicity in 3,000 political murders since 1979. The State Department announced that it was closing Libya's embassy in Washington and expelling its diplomatic personnel because of well-substantiated charges that Libyan Strongman Muammar Gaddafi...