RE: STATEMENTS BY NUNN AND WARNER DURING MIDEAST VISIT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000401630004-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 30
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: February 21, 1991
• Content Type: LETTER

Sl Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/25: CIA-RDP99-014488000401630004-1
21 February 1991
RE: Statements by Nunn and Warner During Mideast Visit
STAT
STAT
STAT
STAT
As requested, here are news reports citing statements by Senator Nunn and
Senator Warner on the Gulf situation during their recent visit to Saudi Arabia
and Israel. Appropriate passages are highlighted. Wh11e there was fairly
extensive wire service and television reportage on the trip, mayor newspapers
such as THE NEW YORK TIMES and WASHINGTON POST really did not cover it.
Attached opposite is THE NEW REPUBLIC article on Senator Nunn by
Sidney Blumenthal.
Attachments:
As stated
DCI/PAq
Distribution:
Orig - DCI
1 - I>.DC I
1 - ER
1 - D/OCA
1 - PAO Chrono
1 - PAO Ames
1 - ~ J PAQ
1 - ~ ~_S
1 -
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T19730 Wed Feb 20 17:26:41 1991
NYT'ui
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-GULF-PEACE-2nd1d-575&add-CJOX
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filed Feb 20 10:34:31 1991
updates throughout
S(7VIEI'S SAY IRAQ WILL EVENTUALLY REPLY TO PEACE OFFER
By ANDREW MOLLISON
c. 1991 Cox News Service
Soviet officials insisted today that President Mikhail
Gorbachev's secret peace plan for the Persian G1zlf was still alive,
despite the lack of an irrrnediate response from Iraq.
We re expecting a prompt response fran the Iraqis to the peace
plan put forward by the president," Foreign Ministry spokesman
Vitaly Churkin said.
Gorbachev on Monday gave Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz a
Soviet plan for avoiding a land war that could to tens of thousands
of deaths in the Persian Gulf. Aziz arrived Tuesday in Baghdad,
where he could confer with Iraqi President Saddam I~ussein.
Scree Soviet officials predicted that Aziz would return to Moscow
today with Saddam's reply.
Late today, Churkin suggested that Aziz might be delayed by his
awkward itinerary. Because the U.S.-led military coalition has
pranised to shoot down any plane spotted over Iraq, Aziz couldn't
board a plane until he had driven overland to an airport in neutral
Iran.
~~Another visit of an Iraqi representative need not necessarily
take place for Iraq to inform the Soviet Union about its
response, " Churkin said. So far, he indicated, such methods as
telephone, Telex, fax or cannunications through Iraq's diplanatic
corps had not been used.
The Reuter news agency reported from Bonn that German
politicians were told today by Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign minister
of Iran, that he didn't expect his Iraqi counterpart to reach
Moscow until tomorrow.
~~Aziz will probably not go until tomorrow, " said Hans-Jochen
Vogel, opposition Social Democratic leader, after talking to
Velayati.
The Soviet Union has shown an outline of its plan only to Iraq
and to leaders of key allied nations, asking them to keep the
details to themselves.
The Soviet plan reportedly calls for Iraq's immediate withdrawal
fran Kuwait, premises Soviet protection of Iraq's territorial and
government integrity, guarantees Saddam won't be punished, and
pledges that a debate will follow on all, the other issues mentioned
in the peace offer floated last Friday by the council that rules
Iraq.
President Bush sto~~ed just sort of rejecting it outright. He
said T~iesday that it falls well short of what would be required "
to stop the war with Iraq.
Nino Cristofori, an aide to Italian Prime Minister Giulio
Andreotti, said the plan calls for Iraq to begin its withdrawal the
day after a cease-fire takes effect.
I But Senate Awned Services C'ha i rman fiam Ah inn ~~; r~ ; .. r..,..-,.., ~ti...i
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he ormoseG a_ny cease-fire until~..~.x~g_~csr~.].~es. ~.iJ.]~y--.~ai.~h_a11..U.N._
resolutions. The Geo~cr is Democrat added. ~~and that m~s_
unconditional withdrawal. "
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney told a congressional catmittee
yesterday, ~~A cease-fire, a pause of some kind, would in fact be
very dangerous from the standpoint of U.S. and allied forces. "
Cristofori said the Soviet plan also says that the allies won't
attack Iraqi troops wouldn't be attacked as they withdrew from
Kuwait.
That was in accordance with U.S. policy, as spelled out
yesterday by White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, who said that
the United States was willing to consider offering a right of safe
passage to withdrawing Iraqi troops. A withdrawal could take 30 to
45 days, according to Marine Brig. Gen. Richard Neal of the U.S.
Central Ccmnand .
STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL ADD FOLLOWS
A newspaper clash between Kuwait and the Soviet Union raised
another complication today for Bush in his attempt to hold together
a diverse coalition of forces from 29 nations.
Bush has been advocating _ but stopping short of a demand for
the ouster of Saddam. -
Kuwait's exiled government, anticipating a quick return to its
occupied country, took a stand today against any protection for
Saddam.
This region cannot live peacefully with this man in power, "
said Bader Jassim al-Yacoub, information minister of Kuwait's
government in exile, in an interview published today in the Gulf
Daily News.
There is no guarantee he will not try again to attack his
neighbors, " Yacoub said.
The opposite stand was taken in today's editions of Pravda, the
Moscow-based Oarttnznist Party newspaper.
~~One gets the impression saneone has been blinded by the idea
of revenge against Saddam Hussein, that the war machine is in full
swing and the military isn't inclined to stop it, whatever the
success achieved by politicians and diplanats, " the part newspaper
said in an editorial headlined, ~~Give peace a chance. "
China's top official today repeated his support for Bush's
demand that, rather than a cease-fire for negotiations, the first
step toward ending the Persian Gulf war should be the immediate,
unconditional withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait.
~~Chinese Premier Li Peng today urged Iraq to seize the
opportunity and take immediate and concrete measures and actions to
withdraw its troops from Kuwait, " reported China's official Xinhua
news agency, as Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Saadaun Harrmadi flew
harie from a meeting with Li.
Xinhua reported that Li also told Hamnadi that China wants to
keep a bloody air and border war from being transformed into an
even bloodier ground war.
Iraq has already reported the deaths of 20,000 and the injuries
of 60,000 in the first four weeks following the beginning of allied
F3i Y Yairic nn .Tan l G mho nl l ;~~. L,~.,,. ,.......~...a -.. ~L_~
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accidental deaths so far.
In Yacoub's newspaper interview, he said 5,000 Kuwaitis had been
killed and 20,000, including wat~en and children, interned in Iraqi
camps since Iraq invaded its rich, but tiny neighbor on Aug. 2.
Still, he told the (elf Daily News, he expects Saddam to quickly
capitulate.
I hope to see the Kuwaiti flag flying in Safat Square (in
Kuwait City) on (next Monday) February 25, " Yacaub said.
For use by clients of the New York Times News Service.
NYT-02-20-91 1037F5T
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T19550 Wed Feb 20 17:26:36 1991
NYTui
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Wed Feb 20 09:56:23 1991
ASKS ISRAEL TO OOOL IT, SAYS HE'LL UNDERSTAND IF THEY DON'T
By LOUIS J. SAL,OME
c. 1991 Cbx News Service
JERUSALEM _ Four U.S. senators led by Senate Arrned Services Chairman Sam
Nunn urged Israel Wednesday to continue with its policy of ~~restraint " in
the,gulf war.
we hope that restraint and patience will continue, " the Georgia
Democrat told state-supported Israel Radio, ~~because we do believe that the
end of this conflict is in sight. "
Nunn, who told reporters, I think we will prevail " in the attempt to
evict Iraqi troops from Kuwait, was accanpanied by Sen. John Warner of
Virginia, the ranking Republican on his panel, and by Sen. Daniel Inouye,
D-Hawaii and Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.
The 36th Iraqi Scud missile was fired at Israel as they met Tuesday
evening with Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens.
Nunn said that during the attack, ~~we flipped on the television for a
rnanent just to see what the reports were publicly, but the Scud attack did
not interrupt the meeting."
~ Later that night, gurunen using autanatic weapons attacked troops of the
Israeli-controlled South Lebanon Army at the northern edge of the security
zone, reported Israel Radio. No injuries were reported.
And on Wednesday morning, when the senators' whirlwind 15-hour visit was
almost over, two Israeli jets roared over Lebanon, attacking a Palestinian
base in the Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley. Police there said three
guerrillas were wounded in the air raid.
Nunn praised Israel's decision to hold its fire against Iraq despite being
on the receiving end in a one-way missile war.
But, he said Israel, as a sovereign country. must decide for itself
whether to retaliate or continue to sit tight.
~~If, speaking only for myself, if there is a response fran Israel, I'll
understand it, " Nunn said.
The senators visited Israel on their way back fran consulting with top
U.S. commanders in Saudi Arabia. Nunn said carmanders said they are giving
~ top priority to knocking out Scud missile launchers in western Iraq that are
aimed at Israel.
He opposed a cease-fire until Iraq complies fully with all U.N.
resolutions, ~~and that means unconditional withdrawal. "
Nunn also said ~~the best case " caning out of the war is that ~~sane Arab
countries will be willing to negotiate directly with Israel. I'm hoping that
will be the case. If so we'll begin to make progress toward peace. "
He predicted ~~severe " post-war ~~econcmic, population and resource "
problems in the Middle East.
~ ~~We're going to have continuing problems that were here before the war.
LSo we're all going to have to work together once it's over. "
Early Wednesday morning, before leaving Israel, the senators visited a Tel
Aviv suburb that has been struck several times by missiles, and then visited
troops who operate a U.S.-built Patriot antimissile missile battery.
A Patriot missile knocked the incoming Scud out of the air about 8 p.m.
TUeSdaV . aS the cAnatnrc r.~,-o .,,.,"~; ... : iL
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casualties.
Israel's attack on a Palestinian base in eastern Lebanon was its third air
strike into its neighboring country this year.
Military officials said the attack lasted 10 minutes and was aimed at a
Bekaa valley base used in the past to launch attacks against Israel's
self-declared security zone in South Leaaanon. But no recent attacks have
been reported fran the Bekaa area.
C~errillas fired at the planes, without hitting them, and Syrian artillery
remained silent, eyewitnesses reported in Lebanon.
ENDIT
NYT-02-20-91 0959FST
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T18760 Wed Feb 20 17:26:34 1991
RY-ri
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-GULF-ISRAEL,-USA ( PICI2JRE j
Wed Feb 20 05:53:34 1991
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U.S. SE[~TATE LEADER SAYS HE WOULD UNDERSTAND ISRAELI REPRISAL
By Howard Golfer
TEL AVIV, Feb 20, Reuter - U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, who heads
the powerful armed services ccnmittee, said on Wednesday he
would understand if Israel retaliated for Iraqi missile attacks
but he hoped for continued restraint.
Nunn headed a team of four leading U.S. Senators who met
American and Israeli soldiers manning patriot batteries at the
end of a Middle East tour that included visits to U.S. forces in
Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
~~Speaking only for myself, if there is a response from
Israel, I'll understand it. We hope that restraint will continue
however, because we do believe that the end of this conflict is
in sight, " Nunn, a Georgia D~nocrat, told reporters.
But if there is a response, then I'll understand it as the
response of a sovereign country and a people that have been very
patient," he told an airport news conference after visiting the
Patriot base in central Israel.
Nunn said it was important for Israel to stay out of the war
i to preserve a U.S.-led alliance against Iraq which includes Arab
~ states hostile to Israel.
Defence Minister Moshe Arens was briefin
th
t
g
e sena
ors on
Israel's problems at his Tel Aviv office on Tuesday night when
air-raid sirens wailed nationwide to warn Israelis to seek
shelter from a Iraqi Scud missile attack.
Arens's adviser Danny Naveh told reporters: ~~They said it
was better than any explanation and they personally felt what
every Israeli citizen experiences. "
REU'1'ER HSG MLO PFS
Reut05:55 02-20
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V J r"1 r" u --~ ~ i ~r r-c (3 Y
Senators witness
Israeli Scud raid
It didn't take long for four U.S. senators to get a sample of
wartime life in Israel Tuesday. Sens. Sam Nunn, D-Ga.,
John Warner, R-Va., Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii and Ted Ste-
vetrs, R?Alagka, had just arrived at Defense MiNster Moshe
Arens' once in Tel Avlv when alarms sounded to alert resi-
dents to a mi~ile attack. M Iraqi Scud mi~iie struck Israel,
but reportedly caused no casualties. The four, who are to
tour a Patriot missile battery before leaving today, later ar-
rived at the Tel Aviv Hilton carrying gas masks.
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Services of Mead Data Central
LEVEL 1 - ? OF 7 STORIES
The Associated Press
.The. materials in t#:e ,AP file ~e.re ~c~mpiled .~y .The Associated Press. These
materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
February 14, 1991, Tuesday, AM cycle
SECTION: International hews
LENGTH: 549 wards
HEADLINE: Another Iraqi Scud Hits Israel
BYLINE: 8y ARTHtlR MAX, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: TEL AVIV, Israel
KEYWORD: Gulf -Israel
BODY:
A single Iraqi Scud missile struck Israel on. Tuesday night, but caused no
casualties, the army said. It was the 36th Iraqi missile fired at the newish
state during the Persian Gulf War.
Reporters in Tel Aviv heard sounds indicating at least twQ !l.S.-supplied
Patriot air-defense missiles wore fired. They heard a third explo3ion they could
not identif~~.
Israel television showed pictures of what appeared to be a Patriot hitting a
Scud, which exploded in the air.
Chief army spokesman Frig. Gen. Nachman- Sh~ai gave na details os~ where thQ
missile hit. "So tar we have nn reports of injuries.ar damage," he said.
The army command said ?he missile. carried.a.conyentional wa.rhead_, as dial all
the ether Scuds fired at Israel .since the Gulf War began ,lan. 17.
Four U.5. senators - Sam Nunn, D-Ga., Daniel t!. Inouye, D-Hawaii; Ted
Stevens, R-Alaska, and Jehn a. 1~!arner, R-Va. - sere mee*.ing with Lefense
Minis*.er Moshe Arens when alarms alerted residents to the missile attack.
"The sera*.ors could personally feel what the Israeli citizens are
experiencing every night. I assume they will take back this unpleasant
experience. They said this was better than any explanation," said Dan Naveh, a
spokesman for Arens.
The United States has supplied at least six Patriot batteries to help protect
Israel from Iraqi missiles.
In a town in central Israel.,. Israeli-Arab residents pointed to a small hole
in a courtyard and Said debris from the missile fell there and damaged the
concrete. They said they heard a loud boom and' that police took the debris away.
CVI~? ~IC'V~~? I cv~~+? ~~~v~~?
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T16929 Wed Feb 20 17:37:58 1991
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Ground Plans Have Air Component; Logistics Chief Says US Ready
LaserPhoto DHR2
By JC~N KING
Associated Press Writer
DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia (AP) - If a ground war starts, the allies
plan to fill the skies over Iraq with fighters to keep the remnants
of Saddam I-tussein's air force fran joining the battle, military
sources said Tuesday.
The plans also include an unusual joint Marine-Army assault in
which U.S. ground forces plan to punch north into Iraq and Kuwait,
said the sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
As speculation ran rampant over the start of an allied invasion,
the logistics chief for Operation Desert Storm declared U.S. forces
ready despite a few spot supply shortages. Ground maneuvering,
artillery barrages and other action offered even more signs an
allied offensive could cane within days.
With a Soviet peace proposal declared unacceptable by President
Bush, score senior officers believe an assault inevitable - unless
there is a diplanatic breakthrough in the next day or so.
..We don't need any more time, we'll cut right through them on
the ground, " one senior officer said privately. ~~If the Gorbachev
plan doesn't work, you'll see something soon on the ground. "
Still, this officer said he did not expect the "Gday " orders
before the weekend, Several others suggested the assault could cane
as early as Thursday.
But with the allies saying they are destroying more than 100
Iraqi tanks and dozens of lethal Soviet and South African-made
artillery pieces each day, others believe the air assault will go
on at least into next week before Bush sends ground forces into
combat .
A ground battle isn't the only contingency for which allied
forces are planning. They're also getting ready for an Iraqi
withdrawal.
Most allied officers are skeptical any peace agreement will be
struck but they are preparing nonetheless to respond if Saddam
suddenly pulls his troops from the oil-rich emirate he conquered
Aug. 2.
Those plans, according to sources, are in preliminary stages but
include securing vital Kuwaiti installations such as oil fields,
airports and ports. The allies hope Arab forces will do much of the
work, but U.S. rapid-deployment forces and ordnance experts are
also expected to play major roles.
They've got the whole place mined and booby trapped, so that's
not likely to be pleasant work, " a Marine officer said. ~~We have
the experts, so we're going to have to be involved in a big way."
But the focus remained on preparing for a ground offensive.
The U.S.-led coalition established air supremacy over Iraq and
Ki~waii- in fhc nw.,;.,.. ,a.,,,.. ..F iL_ ~__~,_
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the United States to rest and repair its F-15 air-to-air fighters
during the past week.
A senior Air Force officer in Riyadh said those fighters would
be called on early in a ground offensive, charged with patrolling
Iraqi and Kuwait airspace to keep Saddam from using his warplanes
to provide close-air support for his army. Although sane 140 Iraqi
planes have fled to Iran, the bulk of those left in Iraq are
equipped for air-to-ground canbat, including delivery of chemical
bombs on ground troops.
We'll get the fighters up there in numbers to keep him from
getting any planes up," the officer said, speaking privately.
The Marine-Army operation, according to another military source,
involves Marines punching a hole across the northern Saudi border
and clearing a path for Army tanks. The source discussed the plan
on condition the location not be disclosed.
For the past week, the allied carmand has said the U.S. and
allied forces are ready for a ground offensive, but there have been
periodic reports fran the field of shortages ranging fran
ammunition to chemical protective gear.
But Lt. Gen. Cis Pagonis, the logistics chief for Desert Storm,
said Tuesday the shortages did not involve those or any other vital
supplies.
We're ready to go, " Pagonis said. ~~We're totally prepared to
do whatever is necessary. " Pagonis said his supply system was not
a factor in deciding when to order a ground offensive.
~~Logistically, it's irrelevant to me whether we go today,
tanorrow or next month, " he said.
The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Da~tmittee, visiting
Saudi Arabia, said he found U.S. troops well prepared but hinted he
would prefer giving the unrelenting air war more time.
Sen. Sam Nunn said a ground offensive should be ordered-only if
the air war lost its effectiveness in destroying Iraqi armor and
artillery, the main targets as pilots prepare the desert
battlefield.
When asked if the air assault was still working, the Georgia
Democrat replied: ~~My impression is that it is. "
AP-NY-02-19-91 1536F~T+
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4TH STORY of Level 2 printed in FULL format.
Copyright (c) 1991 Reuters
_February 19, 1991, Tuesday, AM cycle
LENGTH: 3DZ words
HEADLINE: SENATOR NUNN 5AY5 BUSH HAS FREE HAND OVER WAR
DATELINE: DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia
KEYWORD:
GULF-SAUDI -SENATORS
-- BODY
A senior U.S. senator who tried to stop the United States from going to war
in the Persian Gulf said Tuesday that President $ush now had a free hand to
launch a ground war,
Referring to reports of a deadline contained. in peace. proposals made by
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Sam
Nunn, D-Ga., said:
"Thirty-six hours is not a deadline on the Elnited States in terms of doing
anything after that 35 hours. The question of whether and when to start aground
war is a decision the president will have to make."
Nunn, head of the Senate Ar~ped Services Committee, has been touring Saudi
Arabia with three other senators.
He resisted sending troops to the Persian Gulf after Iraq invaded Kuwait
Aug. 2, arguing that economic sanctions should be given pore time to bite.
Nunn said that before caking his mind up on the ground assault to drive
Iraq out of Kuwait, .Bush would have to talk to fii.s commanders and his allies,
assess the readiness of allied troops, review the politicial situation in the
region and check the weather.
Sen. John Warner of Virginia, the leading Republican on the Armed Services
Committee, told the same news conference: "5addam Hussein i.s hurt, he is
injured, he is down but he is not out..
"And now the Soviets come in maybe to pick at his bones for their nwn
self-interest. But let's give them the benefit of the doubt."
Warner, who Tuesday celebrated his 66th birthday aboard the battleship
Wisconsin, said the senators would visit Israel after their Saudi tour.
He said he agreed with Flush in refusing to link a settlement of the Gulf
War with the. Palestinian issue,
"But subsequent to the resolution of this conflict, one way or another, the
world has to .address the issues of the region and that includes the Palestinian
issue," he said.
C Y/~? w/ C Y/~?/ C YI ~? ~^C VI
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PAGE A6 / WEDNESDAY,.FEBRUARY 20,1991
II~IaE "LHE ;.r
~~~~.
will be a"(Gov William Donald)
Schaefer for President" rally at the
Maryland State House in Annapolis
at noon tomorrow. It's an effort on
the part of those who take Mr.
Schaefer's words, "I'm serious
about this," seriously. Some con-
cern must be expressed, however,
regarding the sentiments of the
group. Why, one might ask, would
they have recently acquired a
clown suit?
On his 64th birthday, aboard ship,
John Warner recalled his youth.
Have a happy
Virginia Sen. John Warner, the
ranking Republican on the Senate
Armed Services Committee, cele-
as~jatgtott Vanes
brated his 64th birthday aboard the
battleship Wisconsin, wearing the
same bomber jacket he had on 40
years ago while flying over the
Wisconsin as it conducted a firing
mission during the Korean War.
During his visit to the battleship,
Mr. Warner stood inside the turret
on one of the ship's big guns
while it fired a shell weighing
nearly 2,000 pounds during prac-
tice. He later came outside and
watched as the ship fired all of its
big guns. Before he left the ship, a
group of seamen sang Happy
Birthday to the senator.
Aver the shin's public address
system. Mr Warner told the grew
that the firin? of the big ?uns was
"a hell of a ndlelight" o .elm
brate his birthday He c?id the_..YYi_si~
"brotlght back memox7es9f9Q
nears a?o when I was airborne as a_
.communications officer in an air-
craft during the Korean War and
had the onoortunity t~ ~b r t~
shin in a live fi*+ng mission on Nov
10 1951. She hit the tar eg t that day_
.~ttd you're hittin? the tar~et_on this
da . A well done to ou entlemen
y~9~beha oft the
United States"
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l: APIri
2: 0506
3: -(half-Readiness,0499
4:
5: Tue Feb 19 08:09:01 1991
6:
7: Desert Storm Supply Chief He's Ready For Ground War
8: By JOHN KING
9: Associated Press Writer
10: DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia (AP) - American forces are experiencing
11: spot shortages of sane non-essential supplies but are ready to
12: launch a ground offensive, the supply chief for Operation Desert
13: Storm said today.
14: ~~We're totally prepared to do whatever is necessary, " Lt. Gen.
15: Gus Pagonis said of the ground offensive sane officials hint may be
16: days or hours away. ~~We're ready to go. "
17: Sen. Sam Nunn, chairman of the Senate ~irtned Services Ccmnittee,
18: agreed with Pagonis. But while ending a visit to U.S. forces, the
19: Georgia Democrat hinted that he favored continuing the air war for
20: awhile.
21: Nunn, a leading Senate voice on defense matters, said the air
22: war should continue as long as it remains effective in debilitating
23: Saddam Hussein's army.
24: ~~My impression is that it is, " Nunn said. Asked if he would
25: advise Bush to hold off a ground attack, Nunn refused to ccmnent.
26: Speaking to reporters before he flew back to the United States,
27: Nunn .said the readiness of U.S. forces was just one of several
28: factors Bush would have to consider when pondering ordering a
29: ground attack.
30: He specifically mentioned anti-American sentiment in the region,
31: other political concerns, weather and approaching Muslim religious
32: holidays.
33: Nunn said he was not familiar with the Soviet peace proposal but
34: would support it if it fell in line with United Nations
35: resolutions, including the Resolution 660 that demands an
36: unconditional Iraqi withdrawal fran Kuwait.
37: But he said that in briefings with allied carmanders, ~~I've
38: seen nothing here that indicates they are pulling back, "
39: Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev offered a new peace plan
40: on Monday.
41: Details have not been released, but a German newspaper reported
42: today that in exchange for an unconditional withdrawal, Iraq would
43: be promised that Saddam will not be punished, that his government
44: and borders will not be tampered with, and that talks on the
45: Palestinian problem will be held.
46: The senior Republican on Nunn's crnmittee, Sen. John Warner of
47: Virginia, said he also found U.S. forces ready for a ground attack,
48: but said he would not join speculation about when such an order
49: might cane.
50: We've got too many armchair strategists right now,' Warner
51: said.
52: In response to a reporter's questin, Pagonis said supply
53: shortages did not include essential items such as ammunition, food,
54: or chemical protective gear.
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Page 1
1: DJUML
2: 0251
3: BUSH TO SEEK 50 BLN DLRS TO FUND GULF WAR, SEH. NUNN SAYS
4:
5: Mon Feb 18 03:39:55 1991
6:
7:
8 : RIYADH - (DJ) --SE[QP,TE ARMED SERVICES OCt~TTEE
9 : CHAIl~MAN SAM NUNN, (DIIdOC~2P,T-(~2GIA) , SAID THE BUSH
10: ADMINISTRATION WILL REQiJEST A SUPPLFI~~N'PAL APPROPRIATION OF
11: 50 BILLION DLRS TO FUND THE PERSIAN GULF WAR.
12 : ' I~PEEtJLL,Y WE'LL BE REINNlBURSID BY OUR ALLIES , ' THE
13: SE[~TATOR TOLD PRESS POOL REPORTERS DURING A WEEECFND VISIT TO
14: SAUDI ARABIA. 'THE UNECNOWN IS HOW QUIC~{LY THAT WILL OCt~ IN
15 : AND HC1W MUC~i WILL BE IN-KIND . '
16: -0-
17:
18: -(DJ-02-18-91 0841GMT)
19:
20: #
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9TH STORY of .Level ?. printed in FULL format.
Proprietary to the United Press International. 1991
,February 17, 1991, Sunday, BC cycle
SECTION: International
LENGTH: 523 words
HEADLINE: Members of Congress visit gulf
DATELINE: IN CENTRAL SAUDI ARABIA
KEYWORD: GULF -SENATORS
BODY:
Four U.S. senators emerged from a +aeeting Sunday with Gen. H. Norman
Schwartkopf, commander of U.S. forces in the gulf, satisfied with the war`s
progress but uncertain about its future.
The senators insisted that no decision has been made on when to launch a
ground offensive, and said President Bush would decide after consulting. further
with advisers and allies.
" There are many of us who still hope the air war can wind this up, " said
Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Coma~ittee. " Bu t
we have no assurances of that, and we have to be prepared for every
contingency."
Nunn said he and. the other senators -- .inhn garner, R-Va., Daniel Inouye, D-
Haiwaii and Ted Stevens, R-Alas#ca, didn't specifically ask Schwartkopf if U.S.
forces were ready for a ground offensive.
" But my impression is that we are mnvir~g toward readiness, " the senator
said. " I think they (the Iraqis) need to anticipate that our military forces
are ready. "
Also Sunday, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of a Mouse appropriations
defense subcommittee, made a whirlwind tour of the gulf that included a visit
to the aircraft carrier USS Midway.
Murtha predicted that U.S. technical superiority will 6e even mare evident
in a ground offensive than it has been in the air campaign, but said tine war
could last up to six months.
" We have to flush them out, " Murtha said Qf Iraqi. troops dug into Kuwait.
" At the same time, they have to come out of their hole or they are of no
value."
The congressional visits coincided with tens of thousands of U.S. troops
positioning themselves in Saudi Arabia, near the Kuwaiti border, and amid
mounting speculation that a ground war could begin as earlier as this week.
It also followed Baghdad's conditional offer to withdraw f roa Kuwait and on
the eve of Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Atiz's trip to the Soviet Union to
discuss the war with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
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PAGE 9
~-- Proprietary to the United Press International, February 17, 1991
Nunn said, "All. of us want stability (in the gulf region) when this is
over and I think the way to do it is 'to continue to prosecute the soar as we are
doing now until he ESaddam Hussein) decides to comply with the U.t~, mandate." to
unconditionally withdraw from Kuwait.
Inouye, asked about the civilian casualities in Baghdad last week, said,
" We are concerned about every life .... but I am satisfied that our military has
taken every precautionary step to avoid casualities. "
"But this is war, " he said. "Even under the best of ci roumstances we do
have accidents, even in training missions."
Stevens said t-he delegation came to the gulf to better understand the U.~.
military's needs and " to tell them we think that they have the support of the
people at home. "
"They certainly have the support of the. Congress," Stevens said.
Besides speaking with Schwarzkopf, the four also visited an American Patriot
firing battery, where the spoke with same of the service personnel who have
successfully used the rocket to shoot down Iraqi Scuds.
Warner told-the troops, "The ho~aecoming you guys are going to get will be
hard to survive. "
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LSVfL 1 - ? OF 7 STORIES
copyright cci !?gI Reuters
~Febra~ary 17, 1991 , Swr~s#air, ?AM cycle
~ ENGT~l: 542 words
NEAIILINE: SENATIIRS IN S4t1DI ARABIA KICl4 SCliISS ANB PA.AISE PATRIOTS
BYLIla?: By Arthur Spiegelman
IIATI~l.It~lE: AT A. PATRIOT BATTEpY, Saudi Arabia .
KEYWOfID:
tilLF-SAlJDI -SENATORS
BODY':
Kicking a downed scud missile and. praising the Patriots that destroy them,
four influential L.S. .senators said Sunday there should be no cease-fire in t he
Gulf War.
Visiting the Fox?rot Patriot antimissile missile station, which boasts the
world record- 1 L~- for downing Scads, the sera*.nrs rejected any cease-f z re based
an Saddam Nussein's strings-attached peace proposal announced Friday.
Georgia Democrat Sam t+lunn, chairman of 'the Senate's armeri service
committee, told reporters: "I think we will be able. to tell when Saddam Hussein.
decides to get out. I don't think there will be any mistake about it ... and
until them I feel real strongly there should. be nn cease-Fire.
"A cease-fire, in the long run, unless it is under the cnnditiQns of
certainty about his intentions could end up costing lives rather than saving
lives."
Speaking far the group, he added: "All of us waflt stability when this is
over. I think the way to do it is to continue as we are doing nor."
tJhile Iraqi Foreign Minister Tareq ~lziz ?lew t? M~seow fe* talks nn Iraq's
conditional offer to withdraw from ~~wait, tens of thousands of !l. S. and allied
troops are at the frs~nt in preparation for a ground war that could come at anyt
time.
Nunn, Hawaii Democrat Daniel Inouye and Republicans Jahn l~4arner and Ted
Stevens, of Virginia and Alaska respectively, spent a3.mnst three hours being
briefed on the war by allied cam~ander ten. Norman Schwarzkopf after they
arrived Sunday morning.
They declined to say what Schwarzkopf told them on the passible start of a
ground war, but n.ated that the decision wa.s one for President Bush to make.
Schwarzkopf told another group of congressional visitors an Saturday that
allied farces were now ready for a ground war. He has always said that he would
not give the ga-ahead until he believed the troops were ready.
Although top level French officials are claiming that a date has t7een grade
for the ground invasion, Sen. darner insisted it had not.
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(c) 1991 Reuters, February 17, 1991
"It is clear that the decision to go or nat. go has nat been made. It 15 to be
made by our president in consultation with the other forces in this military
operation."
Nunn, who voted against the congressional authorization for the Gulf fear,
suggested that the air war could continue because it was "degrading the Iraqi
military forces on the ground."
He added: "There are many of us r-ho still hope that the air war can wind. this
up. But we have na assurances of that."
The senators made their ca~-ments after touring the Foxtrot batter~,~ where the
belly of a downed Scud lay in the sand for their inspection, nflt far from a
faattery of rectangular Patriot launchers.
Warner, clad in the leather jacket he wore as a Marine airman in the fe been f i red s~r~re than 5Il t i mes by I rag at Saud i and T s rael i
cities, but at Foxtrot Battery, the Scud gets no respect.
Warner told one of his constituents, Sgt. Richard Williams of Fort Reyal,
Ya.;. ?You really ought to be proud of yourselves. Yau are going to get one nice
homecoming."
Williams replied= "Yes Sir, I am really looking forward to the homecoming."
LEaEL 1 - 4 OF 7 STORIES
Copyright (c) 1991 Toronto Star Newspapers, Ltd.
The Toronto Star
February 16, 1991, Saturday, SATURDAY EDITION
SECTIQN: NEWS; Pg. A1/ FRONT
LENGTH: 1239 words
HEADLINE; Allied bombing continues as Bush calls peace bid a 'hoax' But some- in
U.S. see optimism in Iraqi proposal
BYLINE: By Linda Diebel Toronto Star
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
KEYWORD: GULF WAR HOAX
BODY:
While U.S. President George Bush flatly condemned Iraqi President Saddanr
Hussein for his conditional offer t:o withdraw from Kuwait, others saw it
yesterda3~ as Iraq's opening bid for peace.
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10TH STORY of Level 2 printed in FULL format.
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These
materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
February 16, 1991, Saturday, PM cycle
SECTION: international News
LENGTH: 574 words
HEADLINE: Offer May Signal Start of Bargaining to Ensure Saddam's Survival
BYLINE: .By DAVID CRARY, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: NICOSIA, Cyprus
KEYWORD: Gulf -Survivor Saddam
BODY:
Saddam Hussein has proved willing to do almost anything to retain power, from
ordering poison gas used nn his own people to granting huge concessions to
former enemy Iran.
His offer to withdraw from Kuwait, linked tfwugh it is to conditions the
allies will not accept, -may be the first phase of hi.s latest survival strategy,
analysts said Friday.
"He now knows that continuing the war is meanint~~ess," said Tasheen Beshir,
an Egyptian political expert and former ambassador. "He needs to stop the war,
but he will try to cover up any sense of defeat - he`s a good poker player."
Not long ago, Saddam was vowing that Kuwait would remain part of Iraq fo r
eternity. As of Friday, that vow was no longer operable.
Andrew Duncan, an analyst with the International Ins titute of Strategic
Studies in London, said he had na doubt that Saddam could. complete this
about-face and withdraw from Kuwait without jeopardizing his hold on power in
Iraq. '
"He's quite capable of making major concessions, and there`s no reason this
shouldn't be the start of one," Duncan said in a telephone interview.
"He will have enhanced his position with over half the Arab world, and he's
not going to lose support because he naves the llves of thousands of his
soldiers," Duncan added.
A Jordanian political science professor, Kamel Abu Jaber, said Saddam "showed
he cares about the Iraqi people, by trying to alleviate their suffering.
"The lives of his people are worth more to him than to those bombing Iraq, "
he said.
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The Associated Press, February 1b, 1991
In Washington, President Bush bluntly voiced his preference for an outcome
that ousted Saddam. He urged Iraq's military and its people "to take matters
into their own hands, to force Saddam Hussein, the dfctator, to step aside."
But Sen. Sam Nunn, an influential Georgia Democrat, :suggested Saddam was
.hinting at further concessions.
"This could be the opening bid in Saddam`s wave toward diplomacy," Munn
said. "In the Arab world you always have to be prepared for bargaining and this
may be the opening gambit."
Saddam has been Iraq's effective ruler since 1968 and its president since
1979. In that period, he has survived at least a half-dozen assassination
attempts, and kept his hold over the public with a mix of harsh repression and
social reforms.
When Kurdish rebels posed a severe challenge to his regime in 1.988, he
ordered a counteroffensive in which an estimated 4,000 villagers were killed by
the army's chemical weapons.
He launched a war with Iran that lasted from 1980 to 1488, yet last year -
~following the invasion of Kuwait -granted to Iran many of the demands it had
made for a final peace.
"Saddam is a lousy strategist," said Besfiir, speaking by telephone from.
Cairo. "He miscalculated with Iran and he miscalculated with Kuwait. .but T wou ld
leave it up to the Iraqi people to decide how to deal with a defeated Saddam
Hussein."
If Iraq did withdraw span, it would still. possess one of the world's
largest military forces, even after the severe pounding inflicted by the allies'
month-long air offensive. Thousands of tanks and hundreds of thousands of troops
would remain.
Saddam's attempts to link the Gulf War to the Palestinian cause might keep
his new-found popularity alive among the Arab masses and make him a regional
political power even with an economy in disarray,
"Unless we deal with the frustrations of the Arab people, we will be winnin g
the war without saving the peace," Beshir said.
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tc) 199a The Mew York Times, February 7, 1591
poorly prepared the public for war and was ill prepared for its aftermath.
"It is a mistake to pretend you can have a new wfl rld order witlwut having
first a new American order," Mr. Cuomo said. Mr, Bush was "being too cute by
half" by acknawledg~ing certain domestic needs and then .by largQly ignoring them,
he said, adding, "You made a choice -- bankers before babies."
Why had the President intervened in the Persian half? the GQVerno r .asked,
fielding the rhetorical question himself: was it to curb aggression? Then why
no*. intervene in Afghanistan or in Ti-bet? You mean aggression where our vital
interests are concerned? That's ail. No, jabs. Then, what about Iraq's nuclear
arsenal?
"And now the reason far the war," Mr. Cuoraa said, "is, there is a war."
4lauZd sanctarms have succeeded? "How would you ever know?? he said. "How
would you ever prove it? Now the question is haw do you end this thing? It`s
like my budget -- you have to came with alternatives. I don't think at this
point the President can throw down our ar~-s and say, 'I surrender to SaddaM
Hussein.' It would destroy the coalition. It would destroy Israel.
"Ne must win because Saddam Hussein must lose. The President must be
constantly mindful of disengagement with honor.~But the armed forces have the
full support of all Qf us'-- every Democrat and good American. There is no
choice for decent people. And see .have to avoid the mistake see made in Vietnam,
of blaming the armed forces for a wretched political judgment."
lJherQ had the bovernor stflQd on the Vietnam scar? "I don't even remem.ber," he
replied. "Nobody ever asked ace. I.was not relevant. Now, after aII these years,
I'm barely relevant." The outcome of this war may determine .whether the Governor
grows more relevant as a national political figure ar less,
SUB,}ECT: ELECTIONS; fiOVERNORS tllS3; ELECTION ISSUES; MILITARY ACTION; !lNITED
STATES ARMAMENT AND DEFENSE
rlAME: CUQMO, MARIO M tL-OV?; ROBbRTS, SAM
GEOGRAPHIC: NEbI YOP.K STALE; PEP.SIAN GULF; MIDDLE. EAST; IRAB; SAUDI ARABIA
LEVEL 1 -- 5 OF 7 STOP.I ES
Copyright cc' 1991 Newsweek
L February 4, 1991 , UNIT~D STATES .EDITION
j SECTION: PERISCOPE; Exclusive; Pg. 1D
LENGTH: 255 words
I HEADLINE: Shutting, Out Sam Nunn
BODY:
NEWSWEEK has learned that Sam Nunn, the Senate's "Mr. Defense," is being
frozen out by the Pentagon because he led the fight to delay the use of force in
the Persian gulf. Senate Democrats say there's been a "major battle"
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(c) 1991 Newsweek, February 4, 1991
between Nunn and tap Defense Department afficials aver access to gulf war
plans. "He feels.baxed cut," says a Senate defense specialist. Asides say
Nunn is having difficulty getting. information an the~war and some of his
requests have been denied outright. Such cavalier treatrt~ent of the Ara~ed
Services Committee chairman is unprecedented, and Hill sources say Nunn is
"furious" at the freeze-out.
Senate Democrats speculate that the White House sees Nunn as a likely
presidential candidate in '92 who's not to be trusted because of his vote en the
gulf. But it's not the first time the administration has snubbed the Georgia
se?ator. Last November Nunn wasn't told about the U.S. troop build-up in the
gulf until an hour before it was made public.
+~ In Other gulf developme?ts, NEI~SWEEK has learned tfiat Saddam Hussein's
terrorist traini?g camps were. ?ot targets of the Air force`s first bambi?g raids
agai?st Iraq. The reasD?: 4l. S. intelligence monitoring showed that the camps,
where Sadda~r riad been trai?i?g more tha? 1UQ guerrillas, sere mostl9 deserted..
"They graduated a lot of studs?ts before the war," says a U.S. intelligence
source. LI.S. counterterrorism afficials have alerted.Il.S. and allied .interests
around the world to prepare far terrorist attacks by Saddans's camp graduates.
GRAPHIC: Picture, Paying the price far his vote to delay the war: The senator,
TIMOTHY A. T411RPHY
Copyright (c) 1991 Levitt Commu?icati'ons, Inc.
Roll Call
ebruary !~, 1991
SECTION: Political Briefing
LENGTH: 9Gb wards
HEADLINE: Two Republicans Ready to. Challenge Moderate Specter
BYLINE: By Tim Curran
BODY:
Although Sen. Arley. Specter (R-Pa) lacks Strang sitting. atop his X1.5 s~illion
war chest right now, at least one .Democrat and two P,epublicans appear ready ate
challenge hint.
Stephen P. freind, a conservative GOP state Representative, recently told the
Philadelphia Inquirer, "A lot of people have contacted me over the last few
aeon the asking me to consider it, and at this paint, that's what. I'm doing."
The Inquirer called freind "one Qf the few conservatives with high name
recagnitian, the ability to instantly mobilize a mass grassroots effort and to
draw an a national base of contributors."
Conservatives have long quarreled with Specter for his moderate position an
abortion rights and his vote against Robert Bark's confirmation to the Supreme
Court.
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(C1 1991 Rall Call, February 4, 1991
Another Republican, Joseph Breslin, said he too. will. seek. the 60P nod,
Breslin ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Democrat in 19lsB and 1970.
The only high-profile Democrat who'll say publics}f that he's looking at the
race is newly re-elected Lt. Gov. Mark Singel. 4f ter his re-election on .a ticket
with Gov. Sob Casey (D), Singel told the Philadelphia Daily Mews that Specter's
was "a seat a moderate Dem4~cr.~at ~coaald win, whetfier it's Singel or someone else."
Me estimated that a bid to unseat well-funded, hard-charging campaigner Specter
would require $b million.
Singel is also considering a race to succeed Casey in 1994, but the fact. that
the last three Pennsylvania lieutenan? governors to run~fnr governor have los t
may give him pause. Before becoming a state Senator, Singel served as the chief
of staff to Reps. Peter Peyser it?-NY) and Helen Meyner (D-NJ).
Specter is running for a third term.. In 498J, he won with just 5(] percent of
the vote, but he raised his margin to Sb to 43 in defeating former Rep.. Bob
Edgar (D' in 1986.
Nunn, Fowler Feeling The. Heat in Georgia.
Democratic Sens. Sam Nunn and ~Jyche Fowler are feeling the heat at home in
6eargia, a state with a strong military tradition, for failing to vote. with the
President on *.he use of force in the Persian Sulf.
According to the Atlanta Constitution, even before war broke out, a sign haQ
been erected along !iS b1 in Cobb County reading, "Senator Sam Nu~zn -You're
becoming SADDAl1'S Sest Friend!" The sign was put up by 8ubby Crowder, owner of
Crowder Outdoor Advertising, Inc., wt~o claia~ed that Nunn was using the Gulf
issue to position himself for a presidential run.
"I've heard a lot of negative grumbling," the paper quoted one state Deawcrat
as saying. "You know, calling him Baghdad Sam, and all that."
Another Constitution article quoted Sam briffin, a newspaper publisher and
the son of former Democratic Gov. Marvin Griffin as saying, that he was "very,
very disappointed in Sen. Munn, and, of cDUrse, in Sen. Fowler, too.,'
Nunn won re-election in November without opposition, and political fallout
from his Gulf vote will be measured in terms of his much-discussed
presidential ambitions.
Fowler, hoseever, is up for re-election in 1492 after wresting the seat frogs
lincumbent Sen. Mack Mattingly (R) by just 22,OaII vntes in 148b.
Pilot Bryan dill Take 4n Rep. Studds Again
Conservative airline pilot and educator Jon Bryan, who has run in the last
two elections against Rep. Gerry Studds (D-Class) and held him to 52 percent of
the vote in Navesgber, is challenging the ten-term Congressman again ~in 1492, and
he's already got at least one theme.
A report in the conservative newspaper Human Events quotes a Bryan press
release that calls Studds's support of tfie Congressional pay raise ?~an arrogant
and incredible rip-off of the taxpayers!"
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cc) 1991 Ball Call, February ~, 1991
In 1988, Studds defeated Bryan by a booming 57 to 33 percent margin, but the
challenger :aanaged to shave !5 points off of the incu;nbent's ~sargin in two
years,
It looks like he'll spend the next 20 months trying to shave Off the next two
points. Studds, an acknowledged hamasexual who was censured by the Hawse is 1983
for having. sex with a male page, should be high an the NRCC target list far the
next cycle.
Democrats offered Studds a a~easure of protection Iasi ~unth by naming him to
the powerful Energy and Caa~merce Committee. Studds ranks.secar~d an Merchant
tlarine and Fisheries, a panel that is important to his district, which includes
Cape Cod and tJew :Bedford.
The chairman of that committee, Rep. Walter Janes tD-MC?, 77, is a potential
retiree in 1992.
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THE DEAD-END ARAB STREET, BY THE Ell1TURS
THE _ MARCH 4, 19y l ? S2.y5
The Kremlin's man on horseback, by Kurt M. Campbell ? Alex Heard on nuke weenies
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The `defense Democrat' on the defense.
THE MYSTIQUE OF SAM NUNN
By Sidney Blumenthal
or two days of suspended time in January, as Con-
gress debated the ultimate question of war, Sena-
tor Sam Nunn of Georgia became the center of
national gravity. Without his ever seeking the
presidential nomination, the leadership of the Demo-
cratic Party had suddenly fallen to him. Before this mo-
ment, his immense reputation had been protected by his
distance from the national party and its quadrennial de-
feats. Ahost ofadmirers in the capital, from his Southern
colleagues to The Washington Post's editorial board to the
Democratic Leadership Council, had long clamored for
the party to make this archetypal "defense Democrat"-
thechairman of the Armed Services Committee-its stan-
dard-bearer. Yet most of the Democrats in Congress had
steadfastly refused to follow him down the line on the
defense issues most important to him. Moreover, he had
compiled a record on social issues that was highly conser-
vative, far less liberal than his state would have been will-
ing to tolerate. This had further lengthened the odds
against his emergence as a national Democratic figure.
But now, with Nunn as the author of the resolution
calling for the extension of sanctions and against the
resolution that would approve war, the Democratic lead-
ership, in closed strategy meetings, treated him with an
abject deference they had never shown him before. But
then, he was giving them political cover he had never
given before. He was willing to extend himself at last-as
camouflage netting.
His mystique has made him seem invincible. But the
Nunn cult of personality is curious because Nunn him-
self has tried not to be a personality. In small groups he
can exhibit a wry sense of humor, and on the stump in
rural Georgia he has revealed a folksy side, including
barnyard jokes about cow manure never aired in the
drawing rooms of Washington. But mainly he appears
dry and shy, withdrawn behind the armor of inexpres-
siveness, an Olympian pose that is quite conscious.
' `I can't think of any major problem that can be solved
with partisanship," Nunn has said. He prefers the role of
disinterested expert. He waits for a situation to develop,
for the lines of debate to form, before he enters. When
he believes he holds the balance, the others are forced to
demand: What does Sam Nunn think? His owlish,
opaque gaze projects calm rumination, inner security,
unruffled authority. He has his own sense of how the
process ought to operate; when it doesn't meet his speci-
fications, he thinks it's improper. He has mastered every
corner of his arcane subject and chastises those who
impute to him any political motive. He has the mental
habits of a grindingly methodical lawyer, which he is.
Inevitably his argument is organized around the techni-
cal, the tactical, the procedural. Usually his solution is a
carefully hedged middle ground, covered with the pati-
na of analysis. Nunn's ideal of politics is cool and pas-
sionless: politics as policy. But he has been building
more than a case; he has built power.
Nunn's history and temperament would seem to have
placed him anywhere but across a line in the sand drawn
by the president. "He did not," says one of his friends in
the Senate, "set out to do it." But Nunn's position on
the war-the most important position in his career-was
not quite the dramatic reversal it appeared. The tradi-
tions ofGeorgia and the Senate, which Nunn wears like a
mantle to lend him his aura of mastery, were not enough
toward off defeat in the Senate vote. But those traditions
and what he has made of them may suggest what pointed
him to the Senate floor to take command of a lost
cause-and what it might mean for the Democrats that
he has done so.
am Nunn Sr., known as "Mr. Sam," was awell-to-
do landowner and lawyer in the central Georgia
town of Perry. He was Southern gentry rather than
Southern populist, and a player of consequence in
local politics. He was sent to the state legislature, became
mayor of Perry, and ran the campaigns in Houston
County of Governor Eugene Talmadge and his senator
son Herman. Mr. Sam's wife, Elizabeth, a former school-
teacher, maintained in their home the largest library in
town. Mr. Sam was an avid reader of books on the War
between the States, reading and rereading Douglas Sou-
thall Freeman's three-volume Lee's Lieutenants.
Every Thanksgiving Elizabeth Nunn's Uncle Carl
came down from Washington for the holiday dinner.
Carl Vinson had been elected to the House of Represen-
tatives in 1914, and in 1932 seniority made him chair-
man of the House Naval Affairs Committee. On the eve
of World War II he oversaw the instant explosion of the
military budget, funneling billions into the construction
of bases and factories in Georgia, especially middle
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Georgia. Military Keynesianism pulled the region out of
the Depression and laid the basis for a modern
economy.
Since before the Civil War Southerners in control of
key congressional committees had wielded influence out
of proportion to their weight in the country. Vinson,
who ruled over his committee with an imperious hand,
had two sobriquets: "the Swamp Fox," for his shrewd-
ness at legislative guerrilla maneuver, and "the Admi-
ral," for his command of what he called "my Navy."
After 1947, when the semce committees were merged
and he became the first chairman of the House Armed
Services Committee, he could also refer to "my Army."
Sam Nunn Jr. saw Vinson as a model, and when he
graduated from Emory Law School in 1962, he joined
his uncle's committee staff for a year. "He was at the
zenith of his power," Nunn told me in an interview.
"That had a big effect on me."
At the end of his stint with Uncle Carl, unsure whether
to set up his legal practice in Perry or Atlanta, Nunn
sought the advice of Senator Herman Talmadge, the old
family friend. Talmadge counseled him to return to his
roots, where he had a better chance of winning a seat in
the state legislature. Back in Perry, Nunn joined a group
of responsible moderates devoted to racial comity dur-
ingthe civil rights revolution. Soon he was elected to the
legislature. After four years there he lobbied the mem-
bers hard to create a new congressional district in mid-
dle Georgia that might be his. But his ambition to follow
in the footsteps of his great uncle was rebuffed, not least
because of the opposition of the new governor, Jimmy
Carter. Inside the Statehouse, a detractor hung a sign:
"Bye, bye, Nunn." Then, with the 1972 election ap-
proaching, Richard Russell died. Given the lifetime ten-
ures of Southern senators, the razest of opportunities
had presented itself.
or Georgians, filling the vacancy meant filling a
myth. As the chairman of the Senate Armed Ser-
vices Committee, Russell had formed with Vin-
son apowerful legislative alliance. Russell was a
monastic man, a lonely drinker and voracious reader,
married to the institution as only a Southerner could be.
In 1952 he had deluded himself into believing that the
deference paid him within the Senate represented a
national will. His presidential candidacy served only to
demonstrate his very limited regional support and to
expose his vanity. His defeat showed him as decidedly
mortal, and he would never rise beyond the Senate.
Still, his institutional power remained intact. He sup-
ported a lazge Pentagon budget, but wazned against the
United States becoming the "world policeman." At the
start he opposed American involvement in Vietnam.
Once massive forces were committed, he seemed to have
become a hawk, though when the crunch came in Mazch
1968 he strongly opposed the Pentagon's urgent request
for acall-up of the reserves. For him, the constitutional
tension between Congress and the executive over for-
eign policy was a central dilemma. But he was willing to
give in to the president in the period of the cold waz
because of its extreme danger. Lyndon Johnson, like
Harry Truman, respected Russell more than any other
member of the Senate; both relied on him in every crisis. '
"His struggle," writes the historian Caroline F. Ziemke,
"often led to apparent inconsistencies between what he
believed was right and the public position he actually
took, inconsistencies which, in turn, compromised his
ability to exploit his influence and leave an indelible
mark on U.S. policy in Southeast Asia."
"I met him two or three times," says Nunn of Russell.
"I came over to the Senate side with Uncle Carl when
they had a conference. I was a junior lawyer. It was
shaking hands, that's about it." Russell was remote, but
his image loomed. Nunn asked Uncle Carl whether he
should seek Russell's seat. "He told me not to run," says
Nunn, "that I was Crary to run, that I didn't have a
chance-mission impossible." But Nunn felt that if he
did not take the risk he would be finished in politics.
Vinson seemed to be testing his nephew's mettle. "After
the first two weeks to see if I'd stay in, he pitched in and
helped," says Nunn. The Swamp Fox notified his many
supporters that he was backing Young Sam, and that
financial contributions would not be inappropriate.
Nunn faced an Atlanta lawyer named David Gambrell,
who had been appointed by Governor Carter to serve
the remainder of Russell's term and was Carter's cam-
paign finance chairman. "When you have an appointed
senator," says Nunn, "there are at least fi~ur or five
factions who didn't get the job." Eventually, all those
who felt rejected mobilized on behalf of Nun n. I t was, he
remazks, "a strange coalition"-an anti-Garter coali-
tion, in fact ranging from segregationist Lester Mad-
dox to civil rights activist Julian Bond. Nunn accused
Gambrell of being a "false conservative," supporting the
Democratic nominee, George McGovern, for president,
and buying his seat with' contributions to Garter. The
candidate also made a pilgrimage to the man who was
then the Confederate flag. "George Wallace," said
Nunn, "represents the real views of Georgians."
But perhaps the crucial stroke in his campaign-and
cazeer-was made by Uncle Cazl. Before the runoff,
Vinson took Young Sam up to Washington to see Sena-
tor John Stennis of Mississippi, Russell's successor as
chairman of the Armed Services Committee. Nunn left
Stennis's office with a pledge that, if elected, he would
be named to the committee. This rite made Nunn the
presumptive heir of both Vinson and Russell. Flourish-
ing this promise, he won a narrow victory.
The new senator took his direction partly from the
courtly Stennis, who conducted the committee's busi-
ness with an air of civility and the tap of a pencil on a
water glass. But simply becoming a Southern grandee in
the old style was no longer possible in the defense field.
A new class had intruded to set the terms of the discus-
sion: the defense intellectuals. Nunn soon began to take
his lead partly from Rand, the Air Force-sponsored think
tank, using their studies to enhance his reputation as
one who knew what he was talking about. He appeazed
more intellectual, more expert than his older col-
leagues. But he also partly followed the lead of another
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committee member, Senator Henry Jackson, a scathing
critic of detente with the Soviet Union and the chief
proponent of the more-is-better school of defense
spending. Jackson was a strident cold warrior whose
ideas on defense were adduced from ideological points.
Nunn always presented his case based on clinical evi-
dence, carefiil to position himself as an expert beyond
ideology and followership.
In 1976 Nunn endorsed Jackson for president, but
Jackson was handily dispatched in the primaries by the
former governor of Georgia, Nunn's earlier nemesis. His
quiet criticisms of Carter as impulsive, weak, and lacking
in judgment were accepted as special insights coming
from a Georgian and enhanced Nunn's own reputation
as the opposite. In 1978 the senator and the president
attempted to make peace by uniting around the neutron
bomb. Carter commissioned him to drum up support
for the weapon in Congress, but then withdrew his own
support, embarrassing Nunn, who felt this was a final
betrayal.
unn had tried to steer a middle course in favor
of both arms control and an arms buildup-a
course between Carter and Jackson. But at the
crucial moments he swerved toward the latter.
In 1979, as the ratification hearings on s.~t.T tt were be-
ginning, Nunn urged a 5 percent increase in the defense
budget. In 1980 Jackson demanded that the committee
issue a negative report on the treaty, even though it did
not fall within its jurisdiction. Stennis, whose energy and
grip on the committee were waning, cited the tradition
of the Senate-the proper respect for other commit-
tees-which to him was paramount. But Nunn, backing
Jackson, broke down Stennis's resistance. Though Nunn
claims he would have voted for the treaty, he had helped
undermine its passage. After the Soviets invaded Afghan-
istan, Carter never even submitted it to the Senate for
approval; now he too was advocating a buildup.
Ronald Reagan swept into the capital with long coat-
tails and a Republican Senate. John Tower of Texas
became the chairman of Armed Services. He was ex-
tremely partisan, knowledgeable, and disagreeable.
In the early 1980s Nunn positioned himself as the
pivotal man in a number of compromises involving the
funding of weapons systems, invariably crafting a mid-
dle ground. He spent a good deal of his time in the
imbroglio over -how many Ntx missiles-in hardened
silos or on racetracks-would close the metaphoric win-
dow of vulnerability. In 1983, when Reagan sent Ma-
rines to Lebanon, as if their mere presence would
straighten out its convoluted civil strife, and the Demo-
cratic leadership endorsed a War Powers resolution in
support, Nunn went into the opposition. "It is an abso-
lutely absurd military mission," he said. Russell's cau-
tions about Vietnam were not far in the back of his
mind. When a [ruck bomber blew up the Marines,
Nunn's prophecy was fully borne out. Defense Secre-
tary Caspar Weinberger's credibility with Congress was
virtually nil, his frequent testimony dismissed as worth-
less. He was presiding over a "Department of Procure-
ment, not a Department of Defense," Nunn cracked.
Back in Georgia he had become an institution, an
untouchable political figure. During his effortless re-
election campaign in 1984, he was endorsed by dozens
of craven Republican leaders. Nunn's victorious return
to Washington was especially sweet because Tower had
resigned and the new chairman of Armed Services was
the conservative icon Barry Goldwater, the weakest
chairman in the committee's history. Nunn often adroit-
ly operated as the de facto chairman without Goldwater
ever aware of his figurehead status. "We better come up
with somebody," said Goldwater, "or I'm going to sup-
port this guy for president."
In 1986 the Democrats regained the Senate. At last
Sam Nunn Fvas in the chairman's seat of Richard Russell.
Meanwhile, conservatives within the redoubt of Wein-
berger's Pentagon were making a heroic, devious effort
to create an enormous obstacle to~prevent Reagan from
ever signing an arms control agreement with the Soviets.
They argued that the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty could
be reinterpreted to permit that which it clearly prohibit-
ed-the full development of Star Wars, the president's
"dream." Informed that he could make the treaty mean
what he wanted it to mean, Reagan was happy. But by
doing so, he would demean the Senate's treaty-making
power to the vanishing point. In March 1987 Nunn held
forth on the Senate floor for days in defense of the treaty
and the Senate's constitutional prerogatives. His speech-
eswere athunderbolt. For all intents and purposes, they
settled the debate and helped clear the way for the
Intermediate Nuclear Force Treaty.
Republicans who had come to view Nunn as an ally
were becoming wary, and soon their apprehension
turned to rage. Upon taking office, George Bush nomi-
nated Tower to be his defense secretary. It was assumed
that he would be routinely confirmed by the committee
he had chaired. Nunn, who had never liked Tower, now
came to see him as a debauched, untrustworthy charac-
ter. "Tower didn't have many close friends around
here," Nunn says laconically. "But I didn't have any
major problems. I had fully intended to support him. It
was an accumulation of facts. What people don't realize
is that most of that stuff [stories of Tower's drinking and
womanizing] came out before we got the ~t file. The
press was chasing it all over the place. The other thing
people don't realize-the most unpleasant, disagree-
able task in my life-is that so many people would come
up and tell me firsthand experiences who wouldn't testi-
fy. What do you do with that? As chairman of the com-
mittee, Ididn't use the arguments on the floor. In my
own mind-people giving me accounts, at least fifteen
accounts-I can't ignore that. It's not a court of law, but
it went into my personal thinking."
Single-handedly, Nunn brought down the Tower
nomination. The Republicans were in a fury. Senator
Robert Dole, their sulfurous minority leader, mocked
his stance of nonpartisanship as "Nunn-partisanship."
But on issue after issue of defense and foreign policy,
Bush relied upon Nunn. In 1989 his voting record
showed that he backed Bush 72 percent of the time, the
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fourth-highest rating among Democratic senators. _
Nunn was pleased to be working closely with a presi-
dent, though by 1990 he had begun to criticize him for
failing to respond to the end of the cold war. Bush's
military strategy, he charged, was a series of "blanks"-
not the necessary "fundamental rethinking," though
Nunn had only begun that task himself.
y now he was commonly spoken of as a presiden-
tialcontender. In 1987 he had said he would give
the possibility "serious thinking," but then
veered away. In 1990, however, he seemed to be
trying to make himself more acceptable to the party. He
quit the Burning Tree Country Club in Bethesda, which
discriminates against women. Overnight, he tossed over-
boardhis position against abortion, making his new case
in terms of practicality, not morality, revealing how per-
functory his belief in his previous position had been.
He treated the self-consciously "centrist" Democratic
Leadership Council, which featured his portrait on the
cover of the first issue of its publication, The Mainstream
Democrat, as a congressional staff to provide him with
what he was missing in domestic policy. "He relies a lot
on us," says AI From, the DLC's director. "The first big
initiative he did was on national service. Will [Marshall, a
uLC o4licial] wrote the book on that." But there was still
no domestic Nunn canon as there was on defense.
Then Saddam Hussein struck. Even after the initial
U.S. mobilization in the Persian Gulf, Nunn did not
anticipate that he would become the leader of the oppo-
sition. But when the president doubled the troops in
Saudi Arabia on November 8, Nunn was notified after
the fact. "I thought the die was cast then," he says. This
huge army could not be sustained on the ground, except
with rotation of the troops or war-and Bush had ruled
out rotation. "I never objected to having an offensive
force. By October 1 I felt we had a very viable offensive
force there with air.... But after the November decision
they had given up on economic sanctions.... The fact
that they didn't consult me didn't bother me. The fact
they did it bothered me."
Nunn's instincts about the proper way things ought to
be done and the respect the executive should pay the
Senate impelled him to hold hearings. He saw himself as
representing the general sentiment of the military estab-
lishment, which had qualms about Bush's haste. His
witnesses-including two former chairmen of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, David Jones and William Crowe, former
Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, and former na-
tional security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski-were
among his closest advisers. Their very presence was an
appeal to authority.
There was another authoritative figure in the hearing
room, though he was a ghost. "I see the Middle East in
some of the same ways that Russell probably saw Viet-
nam," says Nunn, "a place we would get into and not be
able to get out of.... In Vietnam there was no clear
military mission. Here there was a clear military mission.
Here I did not think liberating Kuwait in the next four
weeks was vital. I saw it as over the next six to twelve
months. It had become vital to get the Iraqis out of there
because of the huge commitment of the president's
prestige."
By the time Nunn delivered his floor speech, it was
clear that his cause was lost. He had been unable to carry
with him any of the Southern Democrats who regularly
followed his lead, with the exception of David Boren of
Oklahoma. Nunn's speech, a desperate effort to estab-
lish abalance between means and ends, ultimately re-
flected his ambivalence. He challenged the notion that
Kuwait was a vital interest: "We throw around the word
`vital' very carelessly." He acknowledged that sanctions
guaranteed nothing. He demanded that Saddam leave
Kuwait, and admitted that "military power" might be
necessary. Nunn's intellectual position, and therefore
the Democrats', lacked clarity and depth. Having con-
ceded the principle of using military force to protect an
interest he doubted was vital, he found himself ensnared
in Russell's quandary. He had proposed not an idea but
a hope.
What the Democrats were left with was a tactical hy-
pothesis-an instrumental point-that cannot be re-
vived. With Saddam unbending after being subjected to
the greatest air bombardment in history, it now seems
absurd to believe that sanctions alone would have made
him relent. Nunn himself recognizes that the position
he had laid out is no longer there. "That debate is over,"
he says. "Nobody will ever be able to demonstrate with
finality whether it would have ever worked."
When the bombs started falling, Nunn scrambled to
restore his luster by proposing a resolution supporting
the troops. In closed sessions with the Democratic lead-
ership, he was described as confused about and obsessed
with the sources of Bush's actions. Nunn was thinking
out loud; the silent command was absent. His political
friends were suddenly unsure about his prospects.
"Where he's going politically, the best thing I could tell
you is you better talk to him,"..says From of the nLC. "I
don't know, and I know him pretty well."
The idea of a presidential campaign has no appeal for
Nunn now. "I don't plan to be a candidate in 1992 and
I'm not inclined that way," he says. "In all sincerity, I
believe I'll finish my political career in the Senate." His
Republican critics suggest that a political miscalculation
on the war has blasted his ambition. But it was never
obvious that Nunn would have (or will) ever run for
president-just that he let others say he should. He has
not had a real campaign since he was first elected to the
Senate. He recalls that when he used a negative commer-
cial, his mother, offended, chided him-and he pulled it
off the air. The political process, he says, is not what it
ought to be: "It's very bad."
But he is paying the price of having staged a candidacy
in another form. He has reached a place in his career for
which neither -Uncle Carl nor Admiral Crowe, neither
the experts at Rand nor at the nLC, prepared him. In
spite of himself, he has become what he had damned: a
national Democrat. Exposed in the crisis as decidedly
mortal, Sam Nunn can no longer lay claim to mystic
political wisdom. ?
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