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| Published in Washington, D.C. January 23, 1998 |
Kissinger flays 'radical right' on bailout for Asia
Says GOP imperils IMF funding
By Richard S. Ehrlich
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
BANGKOK, Thailand
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said yesterday that isolationist tendencies in Congress will make it hard to find funding for the IMF-led bailout of Asia and suggested that "ingenious" methods may have to be found.
At the same time he told Thai businessmen that their country has no choice but to go along with the tough measures prescribed by the International Monetary Fund and dismissed suspicions that the Asian meltdown is an American plot.
Mr. Kissinger, a longtime advocate of better relations with China said in a speech to some 400 businessmen and diplomats that U.S. lawmakers considering the Asia bailout should remember that Thailand was America's "comrade-in-arms" during the Vietnam War and helped fight Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Thailand provided military bases for U.S. warplanes to launch massive bombing runs against Vietnam and Laos during the 1960s and early 1970s.
But, Mr. Kissinger said, "a whole new generation of congressmen and senators have come into office, and a frightening percentage of them don't even have a passport."
"They are also younger than the people that were there when I was in high office. So it is a totally different atmosphere," he said. "They are also younger than the people that were there when I was in high office. So it is a totally different atmosphere."
Mr. Kissinger, who served in the Nixon and Ford administrations, said he was sorry that conservative Republicans seemed unwilling to help Thailand even though the country was in danger of falling under Chinese influence otherwise.
"The radical Republican right, which is very anti-Chinese, would want to strengthen Thailand" to keep it out of Beijing's orbit, he said. "They want to fight the Chinese, but they also don't want to engage in foreign aid."
Nevertheless, a "serious effort" must be made to help Thailand, he said. "It's difficult at the moment to do it in the form of appropriating funds, so we have to be ingenious in finding other ways to do it."
Aids in Mr. Kissinger's Washington office said the former secretary of state had scheduled a resort vacation in Thailand when he was asked to speak to yesterday's gathering, which was organized by the American Chamber of Commerce.
He has previously been an important advocate of most-favored-nation trading status for China. He has also served as an adviser for the Business Coalition for U.S.-China Trade, a group of companies with business interests in China.
Mr. Kissinger, appearing portly and cracking jokes, was equally tough on Thai politicians, telling them the IMF program of economic belt-tightening "is what we could colloquially call 'the only game in town'."
"I read a lot [saying] this is a great American conspiracy to take over the industries" and other assets of Asia, "and that we want to weaken Asia because it is getting too competitive," Mr. Kissinger said of Asia's monetary meltdown.
"We are not that smart. We are not that well-organized. If this were the case, actually it would be easier to deal with it."
Despite his concern about Thailand's economy, Mr. Kissinger said he did not believe the crisis would destabilize the Thai government. "There is no possibility of a significant political crisis," he said.
Mr. Kissinger also announced that he and former Thai Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun had recently become co-chairmen of a new U.S. Corporate Campaign for Thailand, which will be managed by the Kenan Institute.
Funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development and other sources were used to create the Kenan Institute Asia more than a year ago in Bangkok. It is linked to the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust at the University of North Carolina.