CLINTON - "DRUG WAR" WON'T ESCALATE

CARTAGENA, Colombia - Declaring that "this is not Vietnam,"
President Clinton used a one-day visit Wednesday to assure Americans
and Colombians that U.S. counternarcotics support for the Colombian
government will not lead the United States into a combat role against
the country's leftist guerrillas.

Clinton's trip to this seaside resort was designed as a symbol of U.S.
backing for President Andres Pastrana rather than a detailed
discussion of the $1.3 billion U.S. aid package for Colombia that has
been the subject of almost continuous conversations between the two
governments for nearly a year.

But sensitive to reservations at home and in Colombia, Clinton went
out of his way to underline that the heavy economic and political
commitment will not expand into military intervention.

"There won't be American involvement in a shooting war because they
don't want it and we don't want it," Clinton said at a joint news
conference with Pastrana. "This is not Vietnam. Neither is it Yankee
imperialism."

Instead, he said in a show of personal and political support for
Pastrana, "We are proud to stand with our friend and our neighbor"
in backing Colombia's social and economic development programs along
with the nearly $1 billion in military equipment and counter-drug
training that makes up the bulk of the aid.

"Many times over the past decades, Colombians have felt alone in
bearing the burden of the international drug war," Pastrana
responded. "Your presence here today, Mr. President, as a
representative of the American people, is a commitment that leads us
to know that we're no longer isolated in this struggle."

Clinton's brief time in Cartagena was marked by tight security,
including more than 4,500 Colombian police, soldiers and sailors.

Heavily armed boats sat in Cartagena's waterways, sharpshooters were
stationed atop the 16th century city's ancient walls, and police lined
the streets.

Police said they discovered a 4.4-pound bomb several blocks from where
Clinton was due to pass, but added that it was stuffed with
"propaganda'' rather than destructive material. Three men were
reported arrested.

In tours around Cartagena's port facilities and a U.S.-funded
neighborhood legal and social aid center, Clinton shook hands with a
drug-sniffing dog, wiped the tears from the faces of widows of law
enforcement officers killed in the line of duty, touched the chins of
toddlers and waded through hundreds of Cartagena citizens jostling
with police, soldiers and secret service agents.