[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 193 (Wednesday, December 6, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H14139]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         APPOINTMENT OF JAVIER SOLANA AS NATO SECRETARY GENERAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Diaz-Balart] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, in the post-cold-war era, security 
considerations that used to be commonly-debated are almost never part 
of our political or civic discourse.
  The threat of the Soviet Union, with its thousands of nuclear 
warheads pointed at American cities and military installations, with 
its dozens of army divisions poised to strike Europe, with its 
surrogate incursions into Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin 
America, and its financial support for terrorist groups throughout much 
of the world--the Soviet Union provided us all with a common enemy that 
kept our attention focused on the most serious security concerns of our 
time.
  But the world has not become a safe place simply because the Soviet 
Union collapsed. The Soviet Union collapsed above all else because 
Mikhail Gorbachev failed to understand that ultimate ruthlessness and 
the obvious willingness to utilize terror in a consistent and 
systematic manner, are necessary for the retention of power by Marxist-
Leninist regimes. Gorbachev believed that he could be a civilized 
communist, at least somewhat respectful of the rights of his citizens, 
and so the Soviet Union rapidly collapsed as people throughout Eastern 
Europe and the former Soviet Union realized that they could attempt to 
be free without the guarantee of fierce and merciless, forceful 
retaliation by their totalitarian states.
  Many of the threats to the security of the United States that existed 
before the Soviet collapse have not gone away, however; what more 
shocking example of this can exist than the story of the spy for the 
KGB, Aldridge Ames, whose activities were directly responsible for the 
deaths of numerous American agents in various places throughout the 
world? Ames continued to spy for Russia even after the collapse of the 
Soviet Union and until the very moment that he was apprehended by U.S. 
counterintelligence personnel.

  So the attitude that I believe can often be perceived from the 
actions of the Clinton Administration, that all is well with regard to 
people who would have been clearly objectionable for delicate positions 
in our security structure during the existence of the Soviet Union--
that attitude that the past acts of former Marxists or anti-American 
agitators should be excused or understood as ``youthful 
indiscretions''--that attitude that I clearly perceive as too-often 
characteristic of the Clinton Administration, is risky at best.
  We need to look at the latest example of that Clinton Administration 
attitude: the appointment of Javier Solana as Secretary General of 
NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
  NATO, of course, is the military wing of the Western Alliance. It was 
greatly responsible for maintaining the security of Europe throughout 
the Cold War, and today we are poised to intervene militarily in an 
armed conflict in Europe for the first time since World War II, in the 
Balkans, under the military shield and utilizing the military structure 
of NATO. Thus, though NATO was always important, it perhaps is even 
more so today.
  So, who is the man who was named yesterday in Brussels as the new 
Secretary General--the Chief--of NATO? Javier Solana is the Foreign 
Minister of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party government. Mr. Solana 
opposed NATO with vehemence throughout the 1970's and 1980's. As late 
as 1986, when the Socialist-sponsored referendum was held in Spain to 
determine whether it would remain in NATO, Mr. Solana, then Culture 
Minister, was one of the most outspoken opponents of Spain remaining in 
NATO. Solana also opposed the presence of U.S. military bases on 
Spanish soil. As late as 1985, he contemptuously stated while 
discussing the issue of U.S. bases, ``if need be, we'll send a copy of 
the Spanish Constitution to Washington so they'll know what a sovereign 
country is.''
  Until September 29, 1979, Mr. Solana was formally a Marxist. That is 
the date that his party, the Socialist Workers Party, erased the word 
``Marxist'' from its political program so as to help it win the next 
Spanish general election.
  Despite the opposition of much of Western Europe, the Clinton 
administration insisted upon Mr. Solana to be the new NATO Secretary 
General. Much of the military and intelligence community of the NATO 
countries simply could not understand why the Clinton administration 
would insist on Solana as the new NATO head with other available 
candidates in contention, such as Mr. Ruud Lubbers, the former Dutch 
Prime Minister, who was endorsed by France, Germany and Great Britain. 
Mr. Lubbers is a lifelong and dedicated supporter of NATO with 
exemplary security credentials.
  The Clinton administration insisted on imposing the Spanish Socialist 
Solana as we prepare to use NATO to intervene militarily in Europe for 
the first time since World War II, despite the fact that the Spanish 
government is being wracked by scandals that involve massive 
governmental corruption that includes even the assassination of 
opponents by government-created death squads, and despite, perhaps most 
importantly, that Spain since the Socialist-proposed referendum in 
Spain on the issue of NATO in 1986, that country is officially not part 
of NATO's military structure. That Foreign Minister, of that country 
that is not part of NATO's military structure, was the Clinton 
administration's imposed choice for NATO Secretary General.

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