ACCESSION NUMBER:264293

FILE ID:EPF110

DATE:01/25/93

TITLE:JFK'S ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR EAST ASIA TO SPEAK FOR USIA (01/25/93)

TEXT:*93012510.EPF

*EPF110   01/25/93 *



JFK'S ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR EAST ASIA TO SPEAK FOR USIA

(Article on U.S. voluntary speaker Roger Hilsman)  (550)

By Robert F. Holden

USIA Staff Writer

Washington -- Roger Hilsman, a foreign and defense policy adviser to every

Democratic candidate since John F. Kennedy, will visit several Asian

countries in February to give his perspective on how the foreign policy

process works in the United States in general, and how it will work in the

Clinton administration in particular.



Hilsman, who began his career as a guerrilla fighter with "Merrill's

Marauders" in Burma during World War Two, said in a January 25 interview

with USIA that he will be visiting Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma and

India on his upcoming tour of the region.  He will speak at USIA programs

in the latter three countries.



Hilsman served in the Kennedy administration as assistant secretary of state

for intelligence and research (INR) before replacing Ambassador Averell

Harriman as assistant secretary of state for the Far East.  (The position

is now called assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific

affairs.  Former U.S. Ambassador to China Winston Lord, a friend of

Hilsman's, has been nominated by President Clinton to fill it.)



Hilsman said he resigned from the State Department following then-President

Lyndon Johnson's decision to commit massive numbers of U.S. ground troops

in Vietnam beginning in July 1965.  Kennedy never intended to turn Vietnam

into an American war, and did not want to go beyond sending a relatively

small contingent of U.S. advisers, he said.



After leaving the government in the mid-1960's, Hilsman began a long and

distinguished career as a professor of government at Columbia University in

New York.  Many of his former students are now sub-cabinet level officials

-- under secretaries and assistant secretaries -- in the Clinton

administration, he said.  "You can describe me as an adviser to all the

Democratic presidential candidates since JFK," Hilsman said.  "As a result,

I know about three-quarters of the foreign policy appointees in the new

administration."



The Clinton administration's foreign policy team is extremely competent but

not likely to take any bold initiatives, Hilsman said.  "There are no

(former Secretary of State) Alexander Haigs on the team," he said.

"Aggressive foreign policy is not their style."  The Clinton

administration's first policy priority is and must be domestic affairs,

Hilsman said.  "The United States cannot be effective in foreign affairs

until we have straightened things out at home," he said.



The Bush administration, Hilsman said, put the United States out in front of

the United Nations on a lot of initiatives -- such as Somalia and Bosnia --

when the United States should be following a U.N. lead and not vice-versa.

Clinton will have a hard time getting such initiatives back on track

without appearing isolationist, he said.



Before speaking for USIA, Hilsman will be guest lecturer for a Columbia

Alumni Association trip to Vietnam aboard a cruise ship that will make

stops in Hanoi, Hue, Danang and Ho Chi Minh City.  The United States should

normalize relations with Vietnam eventually, he said, but Clinton should be

1n no hurry to do so.  The United States has no interests in Vietnam that

are worth risking domestic political capital, he said.



NNNN



.