Word: haig
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Even the present Soviet leaders, says Haig, "are never influenced by Western rhetoric ... They are influenced by Western deeds." So their drive to expand Communist power and influence must be checked by a U.S. policy bearing three prime characteristics: consistency ("Effective policy cannot be created anew daily, informed solely by immediate need"); reliability ("American power and prestige should not be lightly committed but once made, that commitment must be honored"); and balance. Haig defines balance as the ability to "reconcile a variety of pressures, often competing." For example, he believes that balance requires the U.S. both to negotiate for arms...
...rapid expansion of American military might is fundamental to the foreign policy that Reagan and Haig are shaping. Some other fundamental principles: the U.S. must forge closer relations with its allies; in particular, it must persuade the NATO countries to cooperate with it in countering Soviet threats outside Europe. It must support friendly anti-Communist governments throughout the world, instead of publicly nagging them to observe U.S. standards of human rights...
...Reagan Administration's view, overemphasis on human rights only undermines "authoritarian" regimes that have a capacity for change, and increases the chance that they will be succeeded by "totalitarian" governments-specifically, Communist ones-that obliterate human rights altogether. Says Ernest W. Lefever, who has been selected as Haig's top assistant for human rights policy: "There
...Haig shares this view. The Administration's principal human rights objective, he says, will be to combat "terrorism," which very definitely includes Soviet support of guerrilla insurgencies in non-Communist states.* The new policy, however, runs a serious risk of committing the U.S. to the support of regimes that might lose their popular backing...
Carter and his advisers sought to play down American-Soviet rivalry in the Third World, and to adapt to revolutionary change rather than fight it. But to Reagan and Haig there is unmistakable evidence-and so far the evidence has not been disputed outside the Communist world-that Salvadoran guerrillas have been receiving arms smuggled in from Communist countries through Cuba and Nicaragua. Thus El Salvador became the test case of U.S. determination and ability to draw the line against Red subversion...