RUMSFELD TELLS SENATORS HIS VIEWS ON DRUG WAR

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of Defense-designate Donald H. Rumsfeld told
Congress on Thursday that the nation's drug problem can best be
attacked by drying up demand rather than targeting foreign
traffickers, as the U.S. military is trying to do in Colombia.

At his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services
Committee, Rumsfeld said that he cannot yet offer a specific opinion
on the U.S. military's $1.6-billion effort in Colombia but believes
that illicit drug use is "overwhelmingly a demand problem."

"If demand persists, it's going to find ways to get what it wants,"
Rumsfeld said. "And if it isn't from Colombia, it's going to be from
someplace else."

Rumsfeld, who served as Defense secretary for 13 months in 1975 and
1976, noted that efforts to halt the drug trade in Colombia may hurt
neighboring countries, as traffickers migrate across borders in
search of safer ground. "If I were the neighboring countries, I'd
worry about the spillover as well," he told members of the Senate
Armed Services Committee.

Rumsfeld emphasized that he has yet to be briefed in detail on the
U.S. effort, which involves equipping and training Colombia's
military to fight narcotics traffickers. But his comments seemed to
suggest philosophical distance between his views and those expressed
by the incoming Bush team.

During the campaign, President-elect George W. Bush indicated his
general support for the Clinton administration's effort in Colombia,
which has bipartisan backing on Capitol Hill. Comments by some
members of the Bush team have been taken to suggest that the new
administration might even step up the Colombia campaign.

Rumsfeld in the past has expressed skepticism about using the
military to counter drug trafficking.

At a 1997 round-table discussion among former Defense secretaries at
the Southern Center for International Studies in Atlanta, Rumsfeld
said that efforts to use the military in this way are "nonsense," a
transcript of the session shows.

If the drug problem is ever solved, he said, it will be the result of
concerted efforts by "families, and by people, and by schools, and by
churches, not by the military."

The contents of the transcript were reported Wednesday by the
Washington Post and confirmed by Hodding Carter III, a former State
Department spokesman who moderated the 1997 session.

Rumsfeld, who is the first member of the administration's national
security team to face a confirmation hearing, was praised by
Democrats and Republicans alike for his skills and public service.
Committee members of both parties, including Sen. Carl Levin
(D-Mich.), the current chairman, said that they support his
nomination.

Rumsfeld is a former Illinois congressman, White House chief of
staff, ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and
corporate chief executive.

National missile defense is likely to be the most prominent defense
issue in coming months, as the Bush administration considers whether
to continue the Clinton administration's plans to build a limited,
land-based system to intercept a small number of enemy missiles.

Rumsfeld told the panel that he is firmly committed to deploying a
missile shield as a means of countering the intercontinental threat
from countries such as North Korea, Iran and Iraq, nations that have
been acquiring missile technology.

He said that the failure of the most recent two flight tests should
pose no obstacle to the project. He recalled that the Corona
satellite program, in the 1950s and 1960s, was marred by a dozen test
failures, yet "they stuck with it and it worked and it ended up
saving billions of dollars."

Critics of the program have argued that it could cost $60 billion to
$120 billion and unravel international arms control treaties, with no
certainty it will ever work as planned.

But Rumsfeld said Americans should consider the risks they will face
if no missile shield is built. Unless the United States finds a way
to protect allies from enemy missiles, those nations are likely to
acquire missile technology and fuel a new arms race.

And despite the presence of the huge U.S. nuclear arsenal, the threat
of a small-scale missile attack could force the White House one day
either to capitulate on national strategic goals or try to "preempt"
an enemy strike, as the Israelis did when they struck an Iraqi
nuclear plant.

"Either we acquiesce and change our behavior . . . or we have to
preempt," he said.

Rumsfeld argued that the United States should reduce its peacekeeping
role around the world and leave such missions to a greater extent to
allies.

"When we're on the ground, we tend to become a bit more attractive .
. . as a target," he said.

Rumsfeld came under sharp questioning from Levin on comments he had
made in a conversation with President Nixon 29 years ago at the White
House, where Rumsfeld was then an aide.

In the comments, which were taped, Nixon used racist language in
criticizing his vice president, Spiro T. Agnew, for remarks Agnew had
made on a trip about Africans and African Americans. Rumsfeld
acknowledged Nixon's words, though it is not clear from the tape
whether he shared Nixon's views or simply didn't want to contradict
his boss.

Rumsfeld told the committee that he "didn't remember the meeting or
the conversation at all." But he insisted that he did not agree with
"offensive and wrong characterizations."

Coincidentally, as Rumsfeld was testifying, the bipartisan space
panel he formerly headed was issuing its final report.

The report called for the United States to step up protection of
satellites and other equipment in space, even though such steps are
likely to provoke widespread objections abroad.