Crisis in Kosovo

On troops, McCain often a tough sell

By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff, April 29, 1999

WASHINGTON -- Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate from Arizona, for weeks has generated positive publicity by outlining a clear policy on the Kosovo crisis, calling for immediate preparation for a possible ground war. Yesterday, McCain urged fellow Republicans to pass his resolution approving "all necessary force" to win the war.

While McCain is described as a defense hawk, a review of his record since the former prisoner of war in Vietnam was first elected to Congress in 1982 shows he frequently opposed military interventions by both Democratic and Republican administrations.

For example, McCain objected to the use of US forces in Lebanon, Somalia, and Haiti. Most significantly, McCain originally opposed US intervention in the 1994 crisis in Bosnia. But he changed his mind the following year and co-authored a resolution that backed US peacekeeping troops on the ground. McCain did support the use of force in Grenada and the Gulf War.

McCain's stances on military intervention show a complex and contradictory record, much of it based on a world view developed when he was a POW for five years, that is sometimes at odds with his own party.

McCain's view is that if US interests compel intervention, adequate military force must be deployed to ensure a swift victory, something that many say did not happen during the Vietnam War.

"McCain has been a thorn in the side of both Democratic and Republican administrations," said Chris Hellman, senior analyst for the independent Center for Defense Information. "Because of his personal history, he has a lot of credibility on national security issues, and as an individual he is not afraid to take on the powers that be when he believes that our national security is being done in an improper way, be it deployment or misallocation of funds. That makes him both a loved and a hated man."

McCain denies he has taken a hawkish position on Kosovo for political gain and is unsure whether it will help or hurt his presidential campaign.

"I don't know and I don't care," McCain said. "If I were to somehow be guided by my political ambitions, then I would be guilty of all the things I really did dislike in previous leaders." He said he was referring to the way President Lyndon Johnson initially played down US involvement in Vietnam.

Shortly after McCain was elected to the US House in 1982, he was pressured to support a request from President Reagan to deploy US Marines to Beirut. But the freshman Republican bucked his party, saying he saw nothing for the Marines to do there except hunker down.

"I did not see a convergence of US interest and values," McCain said, citing his two conditions for military involvement.

McCain's view seemed prescient when 241 people were killed at the Marine barracks in Beirut by a suicide bomber in October 1983, prompting a US pullout.

But two days after the bombing, when Reagan authorized the invasion of Grenada, McCain backed the intervention because of concerns that the tiny Caribbean island had become a Soviet satellite.

McCain did not, however, approve of Clinton's decision to send troops to Haiti in 1994.

"The situation in Haiti, as deplorable as it is, as distasteful and odious as those people who are running that country are, is not worth the sacrifice of any American lives," McCain said before Clinton ordered troops there.

McCain said he still believes it was not worth going into Haiti, saying that "arguably Haiti now is as bad or worse off."

When a US mission to relieve starvation in Somalia in 1993 turned into a military effort to track down a warlord, McCain wanted US troops out of the African nation as quickly as possible.

McCain did support the Gulf War in 1991. But three years later, when Clinton was trying to get backing for military involvement in Bosnia, McCain at first was against it.

On Aug. 5, 1994, when McCain learned that NATO planes were getting ready to conduct airstrikes in Bosnia, he went to the Senate floor and said: "I have long opposed this action. I am very concerned about the ultimate outcome of the use of air power without a full commitment of the US forces because I do not believe it is a viable military option."

But McCain said he changed his mind when the Serb leaders in Bosnia laid siege to Srebrenica, feeling that only US military pressure would bring peace.

By December 1995, McCain was in a quandary. He was helping run the presidential campaign of Senator Phil Gramm, the Texas Republican who adamantly opposed putting US forces in Bosnia. But McCain decided he agreed with Gramm's opponent, Senate majority leader Bob Dole, who supported the Clinton administration's proposal for peacekeeping forces in the region. Much to Gramm's dismay, McCain co-sponsored a resolution with Dole that called for US ground forces to keep the peace in Bosnia.

McCain emphasized that he warned in December 1995 that Clinton's promise to bring the troops home within a year would never be fulfilled. Today, 6,400 US troops remain in Bosnia, down from the original contingent of 20,000. A Pentagon spokesman said there is no timetable for reducing the remaining force.

McCain said "it was disingenuous" for Clinton to say in 1995 that the troops would come home in a year, just as it is for Clinton to now say no ground troops are necessary in Kosovo. That prompted McCain to introduce his resolution allowing all necessary force, he said.

The senator did not originally call for military intervention in Kosovo. But when he examined the initial airstrikes against Yugoslavia, he concluded there was no way NATO could oust Serbian forces in Kosovo without a credible threat of ground troops.

McCain stated that he fully supports the NATO effort in Kosovo. Even if Clinton had not ordered the airstrikes, public reaction to the refugee crisis eventually would have prompted such action, he said.

"I really believe that if there had been several hundred thousand refugees in Kosovo and we had declared we would do nothing, I'm not sure you hold to that position," McCain said. "It does destabilize the region."