From: lazarus@wixer.cactus.org (Michael Lax)
Subject: 1992 REPUBLICAN PLATFORM (5/5)
Organization: Real/Time Communications
Distribution: usa
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 92 04:23:08 GMT



                       *UNITING OUR WORLD*

     The world is now our neighborhood.  Its triumphs and
tragedies affect our communities, our jobs, and the security of
our families.  That is why Republicans want America to shape the
international future:  Because we put America first.

     Not everyone does.  Just twelve years ago, the forces of
freedom were in tattered retreat.  A failed foreign policy by a
Democrat White House and Democrat-controlled Congress had left
our allies uncertain, our friends betrayed, our foes emboldened. 
It was a frightening era, in some ways the worst of times.  We
all remember the flickering television images of blindfolded
Americans being degraded by thugs.  When voters make their choice
in this year's elections, they should ask themselves:  Are we
safer and stronger today, in 1992, than we were in 1980, when
Jimmy Carter was the Democrat President?

     Republicans are proud to answer those questions.  The
Nation's international position has not just improved since the
Democrats left office.  It has been transformed.  Never in this
century has the United States enjoyed such security from foreign
enemies.  With President Bush leading the free world, the Soviet
empire has collapsed, as Ronald Reagan predicted, into the
dustbin of history.  Eastern Europe is liberated.  Germany is
peacefully united.  The former Soviet armies are returning home. 
Nuclear arsenals are being cut to fractions of their former size.

     A democratically elected Russian president sits in the
Kremlin.  Ukraine, Armenia, and the Baltic states take their
rightful place among the family of nations.  Israel and all of
its Arab neighbors talk face to face for the first time. 
Nicaragua and Panama celebrate democracy.

     It might very well not have turned out this way.  Only the
naive believe that history is an inevitable tide or a series of
accidents.  Our crusade of a half-century, to champion freedom
and civilization against the dark night of totalitarianism, is
now victorious.  An American President led the free world to this
great triumph.  George Bush was that man.

     Freedom's victory begins a new chapter in the epic of
America, full of both promise and peril.  This different and
unpredictable world demands visionary, experienced leadership,
tested and strengthened, careful and cool.  At stake is nothing
less than our security, our prosperity, and our children's
future.  Americans can trust President Bush with that awesome
responsibility.

                    *The Triumph of Freedom*

     No other President in the long history of our country has
achieved so many of the enduring objectives of American foreign
policy in so short a time as has George Bush.  He made it look
easy, even destined.  It was neither.

     Building on the legacy of Ronald Reagan, George Bush saw the
chance to sweep away decadent Communism.  He was the first
Western leader to declare his determination to fashion "a Europe
whole and free."  He took the free world beyond containment, led
the way in aiding democracy in Eastern Europe, and punched holes
through the rusting Iron Curtain.  We all remember the joy we
felt when we saw the people of Berlin dancing on top of the
crumbling Wall that had symbolized four decades of Communist
oppression.

     He championed Germany's right to become again one nation and
orchestrated the diplomacy to make it happen, on Western terms,
in one astounding year.  Foreseeing revolutionary change in the
Soviet Union itself, he carefully pushed its rulers to open the
way to the democratic future.  When crisis came, in August 1991,
George Bush, in the words of Boris Yeltsin, "was the first to
understand the true meaning of the victory of the Russian people"
and gave his decisive backing to the cause of democracy.

     The world had never before faced the disintegration of a
nuclear superpower.  Today, thanks in large part to President
Bush's initiatives, nuclear weapons are found in only four
countries of the former Soviet Union -- not fourteen.  Because of
his efforts all but Russia are giving up any claim to these
weapons, and Russia has agreed to destroy the most dangerous
missiles ever built.  The balance of terror is fading away.  The
ideals of liberty, both political and economic, are the dominant
moral and intellectual force around the globe.

     George Bush made it happen.

     Yet now that we have won the Cold War, we must also win the
peace.  We must not repeat the mistake of the past by throwing
away victory through complacency.  A new world beckons, unlike
any we have ever known, filled with uncertainties.  Old passions
have reemerged.  New democracies struggle to decide their
destiny.  Nations are torn asunder.  Migrants and refugees strain
the social fabric of continents.  Tyrants work to build nuclear,
chemical, and even biological weapons to threaten us and our
neighbors.  Drug trafficking and terrorism, often linked, menace
Americans at home and abroad.

     Great transitions in world affair are rarely tidy.  They
challenge statesmanship, require steadiness and wisdom.  History
teaches that when the United States shrinks from the world, we
hasten the emergence of new dangers.  Republicans remember the
lesson taught by our Founders:  that eternal vigilance is the
price of liberty.

*Meeting the Challenge.*  The Gulf War showed the world how much
is at stake when voters choose their President.  George Bush had
known war first hand.  So he tried the way of peace -- months of
negotiations and economic sanctions -- then did what a President
must do.  He led from powerful convictions based on American
values.  The United States, in a preeminent position of world
leadership, forged a new strategy of collective engagement which
invigorated the United Nations.

     This was not the same United States held hostage in 1980,
when the Democrats controlled both the White House and the
Congress.  No helpless giant here.  The President charted a path
that wrecked Saddam Hussein's dreams of conquest and nuclear
aggression while keeping America from the quagmire of indefinite
military occupation of Iraq.

     President Bush, trusting the military commanders he had
chosen, was Commander-in-Chief of one of the finest achievements
in the distinguished history of our armed forces.  Americans will
never forget that, of the 323 Congressional Democrats, only 96
voted to support Operation Desert Storm and 227 voted to oppose
it.  If the Democrats had prevailed, Saddam Hussein would still
be in Kuwait, armed with nuclear weapons.  Everyone discovered
what difference a vote for President can make.

*Leadership through Partnership.*  A new era demands a new
agenda.  Our post-Cold War strategy both reflects our country's
ideals and guards its interests.

     Building a commonwealth of freedom differs greatly from the
old concept of containment.  It rests on a stable balance of
power but goes beyond it to emphasize above all, the supremacy of
an idea:  a common conception of how to make freedom work for all
the nations moving with us into a radically changing future.

     Republicans understand that objective cannot be pursued by
the United States alone.  We therefore have harnessed the free
world's strength to American leadership.  But such a strategy
requires a President whose lead others will trust and follow.  By
forging consensus whenever possible, we multiply the impact of
our Nation's power and principles.  But if necessary we will act
alone to protect American interests.  Consistent with our policy
and traditions, we oppose any actions that would undermine
America's sovereignty, either in political or economic matters. 
Leadership through partnership allows us to project American
ideals and protect American interests abroad, at less cost to our
taxpayers.

     That is how we will secure the victory of democracy as the
best guarantee of a world without war.  It is how we will open
the world for American business to ensure prosperity in an open
international economy.  And it is how we will banish the nuclear
nightmare, limit the danger from weapons of mass destruction, and
safely manage a critical transition in our Nation's defenses.

*Securing the Victory of Democracy.*  The spread of democracy and
economic liberty is the best guarantee of peace.  It can mean
speaking out or applying economic pressure to encourage peaceful
change; aiding democratic forces; or being ready, as a last
resort, to take military action where vital American interests
are at stake, as when President Bush restored the rule of law to
Panama.  Republican Presidents have used all these tools in a
comprehensive, consistent campaign to promote democracy
worldwide.

     New tests lie ahead.  On past occasions, the tide of liberty
has ebbed as dictators recaptured much of what they had lost.  We
want freedom's wave to roll on to reach countries like China,
Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, and others.  We want to keep drawing
attention to serious human rights violations around the world,
spurring other governments to make and fulfill the promise of
liberty to their people.  We want to prevent any new ideology of
authoritarianism from drawing any of the world's people to a grim
and vengeful vision of our future.

     This is the challenge we face in the next four years.  It is
why President Bush led the way in promoting assistance to the
fledgling democracies of Eastern Europe.  It is why he has
persuaded the Congress to invest in the democratic future of
nations reborn from Communism.  To the peoples of those nations,
and to the Russian people in particular, we declare:  If you stay
on the path to freedom, we stand ready to help.

     We rejoice especially with the people of Latvia, Lithuania,
and Estonia, whose nationhood we have always upheld in law and in
our hearts.

     In Western Europe, we reaffirm the NATO alliance.  While we
reduce our troop commitments on the continent -- a thousand
soldiers are coming home every week -- we must keep a powerful
force deployed there.  The United States must remain a European
power in the broadest sense, able to influence the policies and
events that affect the livelihood and security of future
generations of Americans.

     The violence in what used to be Yugoslavia is an affront to
humanity.  We condemn those responsible for the carnage there and
call for an immediate international investigation of atrocities. 
We support the United Nations peacekeeping effort and urge an
immediate cease-fire by all parties.  The United States should
continue to demand respect for international law and fundamental
human rights in this agonizing conflict.

     We encourage a peaceful settlement for Cyprus and respect by
all parties for the wishes of the Cypriot people.

     We urge peace and justice for Northern Ireland.  We welcome
the newly begun process of constitutional dialogue that holds so
much promise.  We encourage investment and reconstruction to
create opportunity for all.

     In the Middle East, prospects for peace have been
transformed by the determined statesmanship of George Bush. 
Without the leadership of President Bush, Iraq would today
threaten world peace, the peace and security of the Middle East,
and the very survival of Israel with a huge conventional army and
nuclear weapons.  Direct peace talks, on terms Israel rightly had
sought for more than four decades, would not be a reality. 
Soviet Jewish emigration likely would have been interrupted.  The
rescue of Ethiopian Jewry might not have happened.  And the
equation of Zionism to racism still would be a grotesque stain on
the United Nations.

     Although much has changed for the better, the Middle East
remains an area of high tensions -- many unrelated to the Arab-
Israeli conflict -- where regional conflicts can escalate to
threaten the vital interests of the United States.  As Saddam
Hussein's aggression against Kuwait demonstrated, heavily armed
radical regimes are capable of independent aggressive action.  In
this environment, Israel's demonstrated strategic importance to
the United States, as our most reliable and capable ally in this
part of the world, is more important than ever.  This strategic
relationship, with its unique moral dimension, explains the
understandable support Israel receives from millions of Americans
who participate in our political process.  The strong ties
between the U.S. and Israel were demonstrated during the Gulf War
when Israel chose not to retaliate against repeated missile
attacks, even though they caused severe damage and loss of life. 
We will continue to broaden and deepen the strategic relationship
with our ally Israel -- the only true democracy in the Middle
East -- by taking additional concrete steps to further
institutionalize the partnership.  This will include maintaining
adequate levels of security and economic assistance; continuing
our meetings on military, political and economic cooperation and
coordination; prepositioning military equipment; developing joint
contingency plans; and increasing joint naval and air exercises.

     Consistent with our strategic relationship, the United
States should continue to provide large-scale security assistance
to Israel, maintaining Israel's qualitative military advantage
over any adversary or coalition of adversaries.  We also will
continue to negotiate with the major arms supply nations to reach
an agreement on limiting arm sales to the Middle East and prevent
the proliferation of non-conventional weapons.

     We applaud the President's leadership in fostering
unprecedented direct talks between Israel and its Arab neighbors. 
The United States is prepared to use its good offices to mediate
disputes at their request.  We do not believe the U.S. should
attempt to impose a solution on the parties.

     The basis for negotiations must be the U.N. Security Council
Resolutions 242 and 338.  Peace must come from direct
negotiations.  It will be up to the negotiators to determine
exactly what is required to satisfy these resolutions, but we
firmly believe Israel has a right to exist in secure and
recognized borders.  As President Bush stated in Madrid, our
objective is not simply to end the state war; rather, it is to
establish real peace, one with treaties, security, diplomatic
relations, trade, investment, cultural exchange, even tourism. 
We want the Middle East to become a place where people lead
normal lives.

     A meaningful peace must assure Israel's security while
recognizing the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.  We
oppose the creation of an independent Palestinian state.  Nor
will we support the creation of any political entity that would
jeopardize Israel's security.  As Israelis and Palestinians
negotiate interim self-government, no party will be required to
commit itself to any specific final outcome of direct
negotiations.  Israel should not be forced to negotiate with any
party.  In this regard, the United States will have no dialogue
with the PLO until it satisfies in full the conditions laid out
by President Bush in 1990.  We believe Jerusalem should remain an
undivided city, with free and unimpeded access to all holy places
by people of all faiths.  No genuine peace would deny Jews the
right to live anywhere in the special city of Jerusalem.

     Peace in the Middle East entails cooperation between all the
parties in the region.  To this end, we have worked to bring all
of the states of the area together with Israel to hold
multilateral negotiation on issue of common concern such as
regional development, water, refugees, arms control and the
environment.  We support these forums as a means of encouraging
Arab acceptance of Israel and solving common regional problems.

     We continue to back legislation mandating that if the U.N.
and its agencies were to deny Israel's right to participate, the
United States would withhold financial support and withdraw from
those bodies until their action was rectified.

     Republicans believe freedom of emigration is a fundamental
human right and that Jews from any nation should be free to
travel to Israel.  Republicans are proud we have maintained our
historic and moral commitment to the resettlement in Israel of
persecuted Jews.  We congratulate President Bush and Secretary
Baker on the agreement with Israel for a generous package of loan
guarantees that will provide new immigrants with needed
humanitarian assistance.

     We also should maintain our close ties with and generous aid
for Egypt, which properly reaps the benefits of its courageous
peace with Israel.  We continue to support Egypt and other pro-
Western states in the region against subversion and aggression
and call for an end to the Arab boycott of Israel.  We also
support establishment of a strong central government in Lebanon,
democratically elected and representative of its citizens.

     We salute all the countries in the Middle East who
contributed to the success of Desert Storm and share our goal of
stability in the region.  With them, we hope to build upon that
triumph a new future for the Middle East, founded on mutual
respect and a common longing for peace.  To promote this goal, we
should settle for nothing less than full, unconditional,
immediate and verified Iraqi compliance with all aspects of the
cease-fire laid out in U.N. resolutions.

     In the Western Hemisphere, as elsewhere, we must promote
democratic values.  We will continue to seek cooperation in the
common battle against the drug lords.  We will also lower
barriers to trade and investment, knowing that our exports to
Latin America are helping to lead our economic recovery at home. 
The President's Enterprise for the Americas initiative and the
North American Free Trade Agreement mean, for the United States,
billions in new trade, hundreds of thousands of new jobs, and a
long-term solution to the economic pressures behind illegal
immigration.

     We welcome positive changes, economic and political, in
Mexico, and salute the people of Panama on their recovery of free
institutions after Operation Just Cause.  We commend President
Bush for the decisive military action that led to the end of the
corrupt Noriega regime and freedom for democratically-minded
Panamanians.  We will uphold free and unencumbered U.S. access to
the Canal.  We hail the patriots of El Salvador and Nicaragua,
whose bravery and blood thwarted Communism and Castro despite the
inconstancy of Congressional Democrats.  Together with other
members of the Organization of American States, we will work to
restore democracy to Haiti.

     The Monroe Doctrine remains a cardinal principle of our
foreign policy, and we continue to strive toward the day when the
alien ideology of Communism and Fidel Castro's regime will be
purged from Cuba, and Americans can welcome the Cuban people back
into the family of free nations.  Toward that end, we support
Radio and TV Mart and the spirit of Cuba Libre.

     In Asia, we remain committed to the spread of political and
economic liberty.  We will work with Japan for common progress
and maintain our military presence in Japan and in Asia.  We also
will promote greater Japanese responsibility for self-defense and
worldwide prosperity.

     We reaffirm our commitment to the security of Taiwan and
regard any attempt to alter its status by force as a threat to
the entire region.  We adhere to the Taiwan Relations Act, the
basis for continuing cooperation with those who have stood
loyally with us for half a century.

     Our policy toward China is based on support for democratic
reform.  We need to maintain the relationship with China so that
we can effectively encourage such reform.  We will continue to
work toward the day when Chinese people will finally complete
their journey to an open society, free of the deplorable
restrictions on personal liberties that still exist.

     We will maintain our close relationship with the Republic of
Korea, helping to deter aggression from the north.  North Korea
remains an outlaw state and must not be permitted to acquire
nuclear weapons.

     With the people of Philippines, we will maintain our special
ties of history and affection.

     We support the movement in Cambodia toward peace and
democracy.

     We demand the fullest possible accounting of America's POWs
and MIAs in Southeast Asia.  The grief of their families touches
all of us.  We will seek complete information in all forums and
from all sources.  Our President has put the government of
Vietnam on notice:  improved relations depend upon this goal.

     In Africa, despite opposition from Congressional Democrats,
we armed freedom fighters and helped force the withdrawal of
Cuban troops.  Now we enter the long season of building, trying
to revive faith in democracy on a continent ravaged by Marxist
wars, looted by local dictators, and misled by socialist
ideology.  Political and economic liberty are the keys.

     We will support responsible efforts by the international
community to help end the anarchy in Somalia and to address the
plight of the people of that country suffering from drought and
starvation.  We condemn those who are using armed force to impede
food distribution.

     In South Africa, the Republican policy of constructive
engagement -- opposing apartheid while fostering peaceful change
-- has been successful.  That nation's prospects have been
transformed for the better, though many difficulties lie ahead. 
We condemn all violence against the innocent and applaud those
who seek reconciliation to create a new, democratic South Africa. 
We encourage economic reform as crucial to both security and
prosperity in the new South Africa.

     We recognize that foreign aid must have a reasonable
relationship to our national interests.  We therefore support an
ongoing review of such programs so that they can be both
effectual and justified.  We promote financial contribution from
other democracies of the world to share the cost of the American
burden for peacekeeping and foreign aid.

     We support efforts by private voluntary agencies to help
meet the needs of countries newly liberated from communism, and
of the developing world, in such areas medical, agricultural,
educational, and entrepreneurial assistance.


*Opening the World to American Business.*  The triumph of
democracy is also a victory for economic freedom.  All the world
over, people in search of a better life are rejecting
politicians' control of their future.  This will mean a broader
horizon for American opportunity.  The whole world has become our
marketplace.

     The election of 1992 will determine whether our country
seizes this tremendous opportunity or retreats from it. 
Republicans trust individuals and families to make their own
economic decisions; Democrat politicians do not.  We reject their
program of strangled trade, industrial policy, high taxes, and
regulation.  We reject punitive taxes on foreign businesses in
this country that only invite retaliatory taxes against U.S.
businesses abroad.  Trade war is the road to international
depression - and for keeping American workers dependent on
government handouts.  We do not want to replace the arms race
with a subsidies race.

     Putting Americans first means keeping the national interest
ahead of the special interests.  It means opening the world to
American goods within a system of free and expanding trade.  Just
as Ronald Reagan declared in Berlin, "Tear down this wall," so
George Bush is dismantling the walls of protectionism in order to
continue expanding our exports.

     Our strong commitment to free trade also encompasses
vigorous enforcement of U.S. trade laws.  We expect a fair and
level playing field in our trade with other nations and will work
to ensure that foreign markets are just as open to our goods as
U.S. markets are to theirs.  In all negotiations concerning
trade, we will put the interests of America first.

     Throughout the world, as here at home, the Republican Party
stands for growth.  America's families have nothing to fear --
and everything to gain -- from the new era of free enterprise and
prosperity that will emerge as free people compete, excel, and
progress.

*Banishing the Nuclear Nightmare.*  The world has moved from the
brink of disaster to the threshold of historic opportunity.  For
almost half a century, we lived under the shadow of nuclear
destruction.  Today, that specter is fading.  We will not stop
here.  We will banish the threat of nuclear annihilation from the
face of the earth -- not by savaging our military, as some
Democrats might insist, but by building on the historic
diplomatic achievements of Presidents Bush and Reagan.

     This means assuring stable command and control of the former
Soviet arsenal, complete acceptance and verified implementation
of all treaty obligations by the successor states to the USSR,
and achieving the additional 50 percent reduction in strategic
forces now agreed upon.  We must assist in dismantling weapons,
transforming the massive Soviet war machine into an engine of
peace and civilian revival.  We will cooperate with our former
adversaries both to curtail proliferation and to move beyond the
ABM Treaty toward effective ballistic missile defenses.

     We will not permit the Soviet nuclear nightmare to be
replaced by another one.  Outlaw nations -- North Korea, Iran,
Iraq, Libya, and others -- lust for weapons of mass destruction. 
This is the nightmare of proliferation:  nuclear, chemical, and
biological weapons that, together with ballistic missiles, can
deliver death across whole continents, including our own.

     We will renew and strengthen the Nuclear Nonproliferation
Treaty.  We will design security policies to counter
proliferation dangers.  We will reinforce multilateral accords
like the Missile Technology Control Regime.  And most important,
we will develop and deploy global defenses against ballistic
missiles.  Despite the opposition of the Democrat Party and
congressional Democrats, we will deploy an effective strategic
defense system for the American people.


                      *America's Security*

     Because America won the Cold War, our homes and
neighborhoods are more secure than they have been for have a
century.  Our children are safer.  The greatest peace dividend is
peace itself.  For it, we thank God.

     Victory we never inevitable.  It was won in blood and
treasure, over five decades, by the American people -- from the
military on the front lines to the taxpayers sustaining the
forces of freedom.  It was also secured, and the course of
mankind profoundly changed for the better, because two successive
Republican Presidents, Ronald Reagan and George Bush, were
dedicated to peace through strength.

     "Peace through strength" was more than a slogan.  It was the
calculated Republican plan for, first, the survival and, then,
the triumph, of America.  But freedom did not come cheaply, and
the new world we celebrate today required great sacrifice.

     In 1981 we inherited from Jimmy Carter and anti-defense
Democrats a crippled military:  demoralized, underfunded, ill-
equipped.  Republicans told the truth to the American people;
they heeded our call to arms.  We restored our Armed Forces to
their proper place in both the budget and the pride of the
Nation.  Our men and women in uniform today are the equals of the
finest soldiers, sailors, and airmen who ever wore the uniform of
our country.

     Like earlier generations in 1918 and 1945, they won a great
victory.  Now, as in the aftermath of those earlier conflicts,
comes the difficult task of reducing both the size and cost of
defense without letting down America's guard.  In the past,
terrible mistakes were made, and we paid dearly for them when war
came to Korea.  We will not allow that to happen again.

*America Challenged.*  The greatest danger to America's security
is here at home, among those who would leave the Nation
unprepared for the new realities of the post-Cold War world.  The
ruthless demagogues in rogue regimes are real; and so are the
nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons they seek.  The danger
of nuclear proliferation is real, especially with the dispersal
of nuclear know-how after the collapse of the U.S.S.R.  That is
why the Republican Party, whose leaders like Dan Quayle insisted
upon fielding a new Patriot missile in the 1980s, now calls for a
new generation of defense against the Scuds of tomorrow.

     Rather than admit their mistakes of the past, the same
liberal Democrats who sought to disarm America against the Soviet
threat now compound their errors with a new campaign -- half
audacity, half mendacity -- to leave the Nation unprotected in a
still dangerous world.

     Republicans call for a controlled defense drawdown, not a
freefall.  That is why President Bush proposed to carefully
reduce defense spending over the next four years by an additional
$34 billion, including $18 billion in outlays, with a 25 percent
reduction in personnel.  He has already eliminated over 100
weapon systems.  Around the world, American forces are coming
home from the frontiers of the Cold War.  More than 550 overseas
bases are being closed or realigned.  Yet U.S. forces retain the
ability to meet the challenge of another Desert Storm with equal
success.

     U.S. defense spending already has been reduced
significantly.  Five years ago, it was more than a quarter of the
federal budget.  By 1997 it will be less than a sixth.  Spending
on defense and intelligence, as a proportion of the Gross
Domestic Product, will be the lowest it has been since before
World War II.

     Yet any defense budget, however lean, is still too much for
the Democrats.  They want to start by cutting defense outlays
over the next four years by nearly $60 billion beyond the
President's cuts, throwing as many as one million additional
Americans out of work.  And this may be just the beginning, as
the Democrats use the defense budget as a bottomless piggybank to
try to bear swords into pork barrels.  This is folly.  It would
take us back to the "hollow military" of the Carter era.  Once
American defenses are allowed to decay, they cannot be rebuilt
overnight.  Effective arsenals, like effective leaders, require
years of patient development.  And our greatest asset of all, the
people on whom our security depends, deserve a constant long-term
investment in their quality, morale, and safety.  Republicans
pledge to provide it.


*America Secure.*  Because the U.S. will rely on a smaller force
of offensive nuclear weapons to deter aggression in the post-Cold
War era, we will maintain the triad of land, sea, and air-based
strategic forces.  We will continue to test the safety,
reliability, and effectiveness of our nuclear weapons.

     With a smaller military, modernization of conventional
forces is more important than ever.  Desert Storm showed the
importance of "force multipliers" like smart munitions, stealth
technology, and night-fighting capabilities.  We will upgrade
existing weapons and selectively procure those that hold the
promise of dramatic forward leaps in capability.  Under no
circumstances will we yield our technological superiority.

     We must remain ready to defend American citizens and
interest wherever they may be threatened.  Essential to that
readiness is maintenance of a strong, global navy and
modernization of vital airlift and sealift capacity.  We remain
committed to combating terrorism in all its forms wherever it
threatens U.S. citizens or interests.

     Republicans will preserve the Nation's access to space for
defense, as well as for other purposes, and ensure that space
technology does not fall into dangerous hands.

     Transformed by the collapse of Communism, our Strategic
Defense Initiative is now designed to provide the U.S. and our
allies with global defenses against limited ballistic missile
attacks.  SDI is the greatest investment in peace we could ever
make.  This system will be our shield against technoterrorism. 
Russia has agreed to be our partner in it, sharing early warning
information and jointly moving forward to stop those who would
rain death upon the innocent.

     We will use missile defenses to assure threatened nations
that they do not need to acquire ballistic missiles of their own. 
We will move beyond the ABM Treaty to deploy effective defenses
with the goal of someday eliminating, not merely reducing, the
threat of nuclear holocaust.

     We support efforts to reduce armaments, both conventional
and otherwise, but the most effective arms control of all over
the long run is democracy.  Free nations do not attack one
another.  That is why the promotion of democracy on every
continent is an essential part of the Republican defense agenda.


*Managing the Peace.*  A new era in defense requires new
approaches to management, to get more out of every dollar in a
shrinking budget.  That calls for dramatically different ways of
doing business.  For example, President Bush's reforms in defense
management and acquisition already mean massive savings -- $70
billion through 1997 -- without sacrificing combat capability.

     Our Armed Forces will still depend on our superb industrial
base for everything from belt buckles to submarines.  We cannot
lose that engineering and manufacturing capability.  This is
especially true of the high technology, demonstrated in Desert
Storm, that made our enemies realize they had been left behind in
the race for the future.  We therefore pledge to maintain
America's technological lead, preserve its defense industrial
base, and maintain robust levels of investment in research and
development.

     We will attack the problem of waste in the military,
especially at its root in the pork barrel politics of Capitol
Hill.  A Republican Congress will end the costly micromanagement
of defense programs and reduce the number and scope of oversight
committees.  We will urge the Department of Defense to encourage
a broader constituency for saving and to continue genuine
procurement reforms based on performance rather than unreasonable
regulations imposed by the Democrat Congress.  We will continue
the successful effort to eliminate redundancy and streamline all
facets of defense management.

     We applaud the President's efforts to assist all individuals
and communities adversely affected by the ongoing defense
builddown, with more than 30 defense adjustment programs already
in place and over $7 billion committed to the effort in just the
next two years.


*The Men and Women of Defense.*  Republicans created the all-
volunteer Army and we hail its success.  We pledge to keep faith
with the men and women volunteers and with their families, for
they are the backbone of the Nation's defense.  We oppose
Democrat efforts to bring back the draft, whether directly or
through the subterfuge of compulsory domestic service.

     The Armed Forces are a color-blind meritocracy, a model for
the rest of our society.  Its enlistees should receive preference
in federal education and retraining programs.  We applaud the
advancement of women in the military and single out for special
recognition the outstanding contribution of women in Operations
Desert Shield/Desert Storm.  However, we oppose liberal Democrat
attempts to place women in combat positions just to make an
ideological point.  Unlike the Democrat Party and its candidate,
we support the continued exclusion of homosexuals from the
military as a matter of good order and discipline.

     The Department of Defense will not be an exception to our
assertion of family values.  Republicans will not tolerate sexual
harassment or misconduct toward any individual in the ranks.  We
demand both its prevention and its punishment.  To drive home
that point, we urge a halt to the sale, in military facilities,
of sexually explicit materials.  We call for greater
consideration of the needs of families when parents are called to
duty.

     We must ensure that all of the various benefits, including
medical, that were promised to the men and women who chose to
make the military and the defense of their Nation a career are
fulfilled even upon retirement.

     In the Republican tradition of support for America's
veterans, we proposed and created a Department of Veterans
Affairs so their concerns would be represented at the Cabinet
table.  We affirm our support for veterans preference in federal
employment and for sufficient funding to maintain the integrity
of the veterans hospital and medical care system.  We strongly
endorse programs to meet the needs of unemployed veterans.


*Intelligence.*  Desert Storm reminded us that our intelligence
community is a national asset of critical importance to our
security.

     Assuring the availability of timely and reliable information
on regional threats and unrest, drug trafficking, terrorism,
technology transfer, proliferation, and a host of other issues --
this is one of our highest national priorities in the post-Cold
War world.  U.S. policymakers also must have the best possible
understanding of international trade, investment, industrial,
financial, and other developments that affect our economic
security.

     We must and will maintain the full range of our traditional
intelligence capabilities, including covert action, to ensure our
security in a dangerous and unpredictable world.  We reject the
Democrat candidate's proposal to cripple U.S. intelligence and
decry the deep spending cuts to the intelligence budget sponsored
by Democrats in Congress.


*Proven Leadership.*  George Bush has been the most important
architect of Western aspirations and designs for the challenging
world we are now entering.  His record is clear.  President Bush
has shown he understands how to lead in this new era, where the
preeminent position of the United States offers new opportunities
to build an international consensus on key issues.  President
Bush, with experienced Republican leadership, has proven he knows
how to place our Nation at the center of effective coalitions
where our power is multiplied.

     The test of international leadership is on the field, not in
a playbook.  The Oval Office is no place for on-the-job training
-- not in carrying out the Presidential duty to protect and
defend our Nation, not in managing the arsenal of the supreme
nuclear power.  There are those who talk and those who perform. 
George Bush has clearly performed for America, making the right
calls in a series of tough decisions that helped transform the
world.

     Now that we have won he Cold War, we must secure the peace
that follows.  History has shown that the years following
conflict are often critical -- where the choices made can either
lay the foundation for lasting peace or sow the seeds of future
war.  In this period of high hopes and great challenges ahead,
the Nation needs the tested and experienced leadership of
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