McCain, citing Kosovo, cancels announcement

By Jill Zuckman, Globe Staff, April 2, 1999

Senator John McCain yesterday scrapped plans to announce his campaign for president in New Hampshire Tuesday, citing the tense situation in Kosovo.

"His resolve hasn't changed," said Howard Opinsky, a spokesman for the Arizona Republican's presidential exploratory committee. "We will continue to have the exploratory committee, to fund-raise, and to do the political work that we're doing."

McCain had planned to kick off his presidential campaign with a breakfast among the midshipmen at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., talking about duty, honor and country. He was then to have flown to New Hampshire to formally announce at the Bedford Town Hall that he would run for president. He planned to make campaign stops over four days in South Carolina, Arizona, California and Boston.

McCain, a former naval aviator, was a POW in Hanoi for 5 1/2 years after being shot down. He did not feel it was appropriate to launch a political campaign when the situation in Kosovo required his full attention, Opinsky said.

On a visit Wednesday to Manchester and Concord, McCain repeatedly was asked his opinion about the Balkans and the nation's military intervention.

"We have serious, serious problems with this engagement," McCain told a caller on WGIR radio in Manchester. "Wars don't always go according to plan, you have to adjust."

McCain said President Clinton and the Pentagon did not anticipate that Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic would step up his campaign against Kosovar Albanians after NATO forces began bombing. And he said the military did not anticipate the unfriendly terrain and the bad weather would hamper air attacks. Ground forces, he said, should not be ruled out because "now we have to win."

McCain said he would prefer for American troops to be under American control and command, rather than NATO command.