BUSH, FERRARO SPAR ON TAXES, FOREIGN POLICY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302160012-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: October 12, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

-. Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/11/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302160012-0
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PACE
:a 9
By Ernest B. Furgurson
Chief of The Sun's Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Vice President
Bush and Representative Geraldine
A. Ferraro flared at each other last
night as they defended their running
mates in an 85-minute debate that
covered issues across the range of
foreign and domestic policy.
Their historic confrontation was
the first national election debate in
which a woman has taken part , and
Ms. Ferraro exchanged charges: and
countercharges with the more ex-
perienced vice president on ques-
tic;ns ranging from Lebanon, El Sal-
vador and arms control to abortion,
religion and the two candidates' own
tax problems.
Repeatedly, Mr. Bush mentioned
his experience as CIA director, am-
bassador to China and in other posi-
tions to draw a contrast with Ms.
Ferraro's briefer public career.
As the debate turned to foreign
policy, the questioning focused
quickly on the loss of American lives
in three terrorist bombings in Beirut
within 17 months. Who was responsi-
ble?
Mr. Bush said he didn't think "you
can go assigning blame." Citing the
difficulty of combatting internation-
al terrorism, he said a steady cam-
paign for improved security must
continue. The solution, he declared,
rests ultimately in solving deeper
problems, such as the fate of Pales-
tinians, that inspire terrorism.
Without directly accusing the
president of responsibility for the
losses to terrorism, Ms. Ferraro
nonetheless recalled each of the
three fatal episodes, citing security
.failures in each case. "Are we going
t~ take proper precautions?" she de-
manded. "... Is this president going
BALTIMORE SUN
12 October 1981+
to take some action?"
The two candidates differed over
the proper use of covert activity to.
support friendly forces abroad,
specifically in Central America. Ms.
Ferraro said she supported with an
intelligence-gathering role for the
Central Intelligence Agency. But she
did not endorse, she declared, sup-
port for "a covert war" in Central
America or "trying to overthrow
governments."
Mr. Bush went on the attack. Ms.
Ferraro, he claimed, proposed to do
away with covert action, and that "is
serious business." He offered to
"help" her by explaining the differ-
ence between the situation of the
American hostages in Iran and the
bombing in Beirut and ended by ac-
cusing her of suggesting that the U.S.
marines who were killed in Lebanon
"died in shame."
Ms. Ferraro responded with one
Mr. Bush briskly defended Ameri-
can policy in the region, including
U.S. support for anti-government
guerrillas in Nicaragua. The differ-
ence between leftist controls in Nic-
aragua and democratic reforms in
El Salvador, he said, "is the differ-
ence between night and day." He
personally had told Salvadoran lead-
ers that they had to make reforms,
he said, "and they did."
Ms. Ferraro and Mr. Bush argued
at length over responsibility for the
absence of arms control agreements
and Soviet-American exchanges dur-
ing the Reagan administration. Mr.
Bush said the Soviets had walked out
in the face of many reasonable U.S.
proposals.
Citing the recent visit of Soviet
Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromy-
ko to Washington, he said Moscow
would negotiate seriously if it knew
a firm President - Mr. Reagan -
would be in the White House. One
impediment to serious discussions,
he argued, was that the Soviets had
changed. leaders three times during
Mr. Reagan's term.
But Ms. Ferraro argued that ad-
ministration proposals had not been
forthcoming. Mr. Mondale, she re-
minded the audience, has endorsed
regular U.S.-Soviet exchanges and
early initiatives for a "mutual, veri-
fiable" freeze on nuclear weaponry.
At one point she appeared unsure to
what precisely a freeze would apply.
But while she advocated negotia-
tions, she said she would deal firmly
of the few flashes of anger shown with the Soviets as necessary. If they
during the debate. "I almost resent ~ should attack, she declared, they
your patronizing attitude," she re- - would be met with "swift, concise
torted, "... that you have to teach and certain retaliation."
me about foreign policy." She had The administration's central
seen what happened in Lebanon, she claim in foreign policy, Mr. Bush
said, and no one had suggested the said, was that it had restored Ameri-
marines died in shame. "No parent can strength. He passed up a chance
would ever say that." to ask a summary question to Ms.
Her opposition to covert action, Ferraro, explaining that differences
she said, applied to the one circum- between the two presidential tickets
stance under debate, the situation in were so great that "the American
Nicaragua. Otherwise, she left the people will have a clear choice. "
door open to covert action - and to
the use of force generally - if nec- ! * ~t
essary to the national defense or to
fulfill commitments to friends and
allies.
The administration appears
"befuddled," she said, now that the
leftist government of Nicaragua and
the U.S.-supported government of El
Salvador are both making concilia-
tory gestures. The United States
should "work with" Nicaragua to
"achieve a pluralistic society," she
argued, but she was "not willing to
live with a force that could be a dan-
ger to our country."
EXCERPTM
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/11/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302160012-0