GOP SEES COLOMBIA AS ANOTHER VIETNAM

WASHINGTON -- Republican lawmakers said Friday advances in Colombia by
"narco-guerrillas" could lead to a Vietnam-type debacle for the United
States and blamed feeble Clinton administration policies.

Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., chairman of the House Government Reform Committee,
said he has visions of Americans someday fleeing Colombia by helicopter
from the roof of the U.S. Embassy, duplicating the nightmarish U.S.
departure from Saigon in April 1975 as the city fell to communist forces.

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., said Colombia is in some ways more of a headache
for the United States than was Vietnam, because drugs that originate in
Colombia threaten the lives of countless Americans. That, he said, never
was an issue in Vietnam.

He also drew a parallel between assistance to Colombia and U.S. efforts to
defeat communism in Vietnam. "There is just enough to never quite win," he
said.

The lawmakers spoke at a House Government Reform subcommittee hearing that
exposed deep, often partisan divisions over the deteriorating situation in
Colombia. A powerful 25,000-member Colombian leftist guerrilla movement,
largely financed by drug trafficking, has been scoring battlefield gains of
late.

The Clinton administration supports counternarcotics efforts by Colombian
forces but has avoided involvement in counterinsurgency activities.

There were expressions of alarm Friday about the situation, especially by
Republicans. A letter to President Clinton from Senate majority leader
Trent Lott, R-Miss., and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., was
introduced at the hearing. They said recent developments in Colombia
threaten democracy and, if unchecked, "will have severe implications for
the United States of America." They demanded that Clinton develop a
comprehensive plan to deal with the situation.

The subcommittee's chairman, John Mica, R-Fla., said, "Our hemisphere and
the United States are facing one of the greatest challenges to regional and
national security as the situation with Colombia continues to deteriorate."

Some Democrats expressed doubt whether an expansion in U.S.-backed
interdiction efforts would make a difference. They suggested that U.S.
resources focus on education of American youth and an expansion of
treatment centers.

Rep. Janice Schakowsky, D-Ill., said there has been no net reduction in
drug flows from Colombia despite outlays of $625 million in recent years.
"Why should we believe that investing more in this plan will achieve a
different result?" she asked.

Deeper U.S. involvement in Colombia could aggravate the problem, Rep.
Edolphus Townes, R-N.Y. , suggested.

He said U.S. resources should be devoted to prevention programs at home,
and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., agreed. "If you didn't have demand, you
wouldn't have to worry about Colombia," Cummings said.

Tempers flared briefly at the hearing as House International Relations
Committee chairman Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y. disagreed on points of fact with
White House drug control chief Barry McCaffrey.

Gilman charged that only two of 30 Black Hawk helicopters authorized by
Congress for Colombia in 1996 have been delivered. McCaffrey replied that
seven have been delivered to the Army and 13 to the Air Force. Six more
will be sent to the Colombian police, some in October and the rest in
March, he said.

Gilman also charged that ineffective counternarcotics policy in Colombia
has led to a heroin epidemic on the East Coast. McCaffrey said only a tiny
percentage of heroin traffic comes from Colombia, compared with Burma and
Afghanistan.

There also was a difference of opinion as to how much leftist guerrillas in
Colombia derive from the narcotics trade. Burton said the figure could be
as high as $1.2 billion a year. McCaffrey said it could be as low as $215
million.