Clark undecided on Cuba embargo: Leaning toward "engagement"


The Miami Herald
Posted on Fri, Sep. 19, 2003  (excerpt)


CAMPAIGN 2004


Clark's first stop is in Broward deli
The retired general says he wants to 'listen to people' before taking stands
on issues such as the Cuba trade embargo.


BY PETER WALLSTEN AND ERIKA BOLSTAD
pwallsten@herald.com


On his first full day as a candidate for president, retired Gen. Wesley K.
Clark was greeted like a hero in one of the most Democratic settings in the
nation: a Broward County deli crammed full of activists yearning for a viable
challenger to President Bush next year.


But the political newcomer who only recently decided he was a Democrat and
who enters the race with a blank ideological slate made it clear he wants to
keep that slate blank, at least for a while.


He offered a stump speech devoid of detail, and then in an interview late
Thursday with The Herald -- one of his first since entering the race --
studiously tried to avoid being pinned down on any specifics.


He explained that he just wants to ''listen to people'' before saying where
he stands on topics such as the trade embargo with Cuba, the economy and
immigration policies.


''It's not like the election's tomorrow,'' he said.


But his positions began to emerge anyway -- painting a portrait of a
Southerner who, despite the military record, holds some views that are decidedly
liberal. And his comments exposed a tension between the general accustomed to
speaking his mind and the rookie on the campaign trail uneasy with the idea that
his words will be studied and, inevitably, used against him.


At one point in the interview, Clark endorsed a moratorium on the death
penalty, saying there has been ''a lot of discrimination and a lot of injustice''
and saying cases should be reviewed with DNA evidence. Asked if he would back a
halt to executions, Clark sat up straight.


''Stop. Stop,'' he said. ``I promised I wasn't going to take a strong
position.''


ON TRADE EMBARGO


On the trade embargo with Cuba, an issue critical to hundreds of thousands of
Cuban-American voters who could play a decisive role in the election next
year, Clark said he understood both positions and said ``there are a lot of
complexities there.''


But the former chief of the U.S. Southern Command, who oversaw military
operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, said he is inclined to favor
engagement as a means to democratization.


''If you look at the way we operated in Eastern Europe, we were effective in
taking down communism because there was no embargo,'' he said. ``The Iron
Curtain was something they built, not something we imposed.


''The best way to remove those regimes was the way that we did it,''
continued Clark, who led NATO forces as supreme Allied commander during the liberation
of Kosovo. ``We brought Western companies in, we worked with their
governments. Bit by bit those people realized they didn't have a system that worked and
that they wanted a democracy like everyone else in Europe.''


Clark's comments contrast sharply with those in recent weeks from two of his
most formidable rivals for the nomination, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who have shifted their previous support for
easing sanctions and now back the embargo.


Informed that his position may anger Cuban-American exile leaders, who have
been courting Democratic candidates out of anger at the Bush administration for
a perceived lack of attention on Cuba, Clark said, ``I respect the
Cuban-American community.''




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