Posted on 03/19/2004 3:30:43 PM PST by faithincowboys
Democrats and Foreign Leaders
Is Kerry pulling a Carter? From Peter Schweizer's great book Reagan's War:
In September 1976, Carter sent a secret emissary to Moscow. Averell Harriman was one of the grand old wise men of American Cold War policy. He had been secretary of defense and ambassador to the Soviet Union. What he said, particularly in private, was weighed heavily by Soviet leaders.
According to Georgii Kornieko, first deputy foreign minister at the time, Harriman, "gave assurances that if elected president he [Carter] would take steps toward the rapid conclusion and signing of the SALT II Treaty, and then would be ready to continue negotiations on an agreement on substantial reductions in strategic weapons." Harriman was there to tell Moscow that Carter would be easy to deal with. In short, don't do or say anything that might help Ford win.
Soviet leaders listened politely and liked what they heard from Harriman. They had been watching the election closely. And while they welcomed Ford's embrace of detente, they believed that Carter might be willing to go further. "Many of his statements influenced the mood of the Soviet leadership," Kornieko later recalled.
The Kremlin sat on its hands in the fall of 1976, waiting to see the outcome. A Ford victory meant continued detente. A Carter win offered the promise of more. As Kornieko put it, "There was no regrets in Moscow over Ford's defeat and Carter's victory."
At KGB headquarters, Yuri Andopov watched the election with particular interest. As the election campaign heated up, the KGB had managed to recruit a Democratic Party activist with direct access to senior levels of the Carter camp The new agent, who passed political intelligence along to the Second Chief Directorate of the KGB, had a wide circle of influential contacts, including Senator Alan Cranston, Eugene McCarthy, Edward Kennedy, Abraham Ribicoff, and J. William Fullbright.
** Mr. Kerry should tell us which leaders he has spoken to and what he has promised to do for them if he is elected. One wonders if Senator Kennedy, Kerry's big cool friend, still has contact with agents of hostile powers. This is serious. Kerry and the Democrat party as a whole need to be asked what foreign leaders they are meeting with and what foreign interests they intend to advance.
It is laughable that some on the Left think the terrorists are Bush partisans. The terrorists think Kerry is a dreamy candidate and hope he wins. It's a different war, but it's the same Democrat party.
That's been going on for years. One of FDR's vice presidents was a communist.
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