##### updated format CLINTON/GORE ON NATIONAL SECURITY We cannot go four more years without a plan to lead the world. With the end of the Cold War, we need a team in the White House whose goal is not to resist change, but to shape it. The defense of freedom and the promotion of democracy around the world not only reflect our deepest values; they serve our national interest. We must define a new national security policy to build on the victory of freedom in the Cold War. It must express rights and responsibilities that challenge our people, our leaders, and our allies to work together to build a safer, more prosperous, and more democratic world. The Clinton/Gore Plan A security strategy Our vision for U.S. foreign policy which is based on a simple premise: At a time of fundamental change, America must lead the world we have done so much to make through foreign policies that address the challenges and opportunities of the next decade. And to provide that leadership we must: * Rebuild America's economic strength. We cannot lead abroad if we are weak at home. * Remain engaged in the international arena and ready to counter threats to stability from former communist countries and from continuing regional conflicts. The end of the Cold War does no mean the end of threats to our interests. If our challenge is no longer to bear every burden, it is still to tip the balance. * Use the power of American values in shaping the post Cold War era. Guided by these principles, we will pursue three clear objectives: to re-establish America's economic leadership at home and abroad, to encourage the spread and consolidation of democracy abroad, and to prepare our military forces for a new era. Restoring economic growth Our plan to revive America's economic growth will put America back on track and restore America's economic leadership abroad. The job of regaining America's competitive edge begins at home. Economic strength is a central element of our national security policy. Growth Lead the world into a new era of global growth - because without growth abroad, our own economy cannot thrive. Trade Open and expanding global markets benefit all Americans. Bill Clinton and Al Gore strongly support free, fair, open and expanding trade, including the GATT negotiations. * Avoid protectionism but respond to other nations' unfair trading practices and protect America's interests. Support a strong "Super 301" to achieve that goal. * Favor freetrade agreements, so long as they are fair to American workers and farmers, protect the environment, and promote decent labor standards at home and abroad. A technological edge The private sector must maintain the initiative, but government has an indispensable role. * Maintain our ability to compete with Europe and Japan in emerging technologies like biotechnology, superconductors and computer- integrated manufacturing. * Utilize the extraordinary talent at our national laboratories to keep the U.S. at the forefront of civilian and military technology. * Work with private companies and universities to advance technologies that will improve our lives and create jobs. * Help develop a commitment between business and labor to make world-class products. * Create an Economic Security Council, similar to the National Security Council, to coordinate our international economic policy. Restructuring our military forces We will not shrink form using military force responsibly, and a Clinton/Gore Administration will maintain the forces needed to win, and win decisively, should that necessity arise. We supported Operation Desert Storm and the use of force, if necessary, to enforce U.N. resolutions on Iraq and to ensure delivery of humanitarian aid in the former Yugoslavia. Today's defense debate centers too narrowly on the size of the military budget. The real questions are: What threats do we face? What forces do we need to counter them? How must we change? A five year plan * Maintain military forces - including a survivable and stable nuclear deterrent - strong enough to deter and defeat any threat to our essential interests. * Set the level of our defense spending based not on old habits but on what we need to protect our interests. We can reduce substantially our military forces and still protect U.S. interests. * Shift the focus of our conventional forces from defending against Soviet invasion of Western Europe to projecting power whenever and wherever our national interests are threatened. * Preserve the two attributes that have made the American military the best in the world - the outstanding quality of our personnel and the overwhelming superiority of our technology. * Improve our intelligence capabilities to achieve a more sophisticated and accurate understanding of political, economic and cultural conditions. Conventional forces * Maintain our commitment to NATO as further European security arrangements evolve. * Meet our NATO responsibilities in Europe with 75,000 to 100,000 U.S. troops, rather than the 150,000 troops now proposed by George Bush. * Keep U.S. forces in Northeast Asia as long as North Korea presents a threat to our South Korean ally. * Defend the sea lanes and project force with 10 carriers rather than 12. * Develop greater air and sea lift capacity; among other efforts, produce the C-17 transport aircraft. * Enhance the rapid deployment capability of our Marines. Defense Savings Our defense plan will save more that $100 billion through 1997. The funds we save will be spent on rebuilding America and reducing our deficit. Our cut is $60 billion more over five years than the Cold War budget the Bush Administration still advocates. * Force Structure. We can save tens of billions of dollars by developing a smaller force structure, with fewer forces in Europe and a greater orientation to the mobile projection forces needed in the post-Cold War world. * SDI. We should focus our research and development on goal of a limited missile defense system within the strict framework of the ABM treaty. Deployment of a massive space-based defense, such as Brilliant Pebbles, is not necessary. * Nuclear Weapons Development. With smaller nuclear arsenals and no need to develop new nuclear weapons designs, we will curtail spending on nuclear production and testing. This moderate reduction will enable us to retain our superior technology, high quality personnel and strong industrial base, and to meet threats that could either increase or decrease in the future. Defense conversion We must not forget the dedicated men and women whose hard work helped win the Cold War. * Reinvest our military resources in the future of the people who won the Cold War. We need to transfer these immeasurable human resources into our workforce and into our schools. * Train military personnel for critical civilian professions by expanding the Montgomery G.I. Bill. * Create an education fund to provide grants for professionals formerly engaged in defense work. * Insist on advance notification and help communities plan for a transition from a defense to a domestic economy. * Preserve the core elements of our defense industrial base to ensure that we can meet the challenges of the future. For example, wind down Seawolf production in a manner that will preserve our crucial submarine construction capability. * Establish a new advanced research agency - a civilian agency modelled on the Department of Defense's research and development arm, the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA) - that could help provide commercial work for America's scientists and engineers. Burden sharing While Desert Storm set a useful precedent for cost- sharing, our forces still did most of the fighting and dying. * Work to shift that burden to a wider coalition of nations of which America will be a part. * Support the recent more active role of the United Nations in troubled spots around the world. * Pursue the establishment of a voluntary U.N. Rapid Deployment Force to deter aggression, provide humanitarian relief and combat terrorism and drug trafficking. Weapons Proliferation We can do more to stop weapons of mass destruction from spreading. * Strengthen the International Atomic Energy Agency and lead efforts to enable it to conduct surprise inspections. * Pursue stricter standards and better verification of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. * Work harder to get more countries to join the Missile Technology Control Regime. * Get tough with countries and companies that sell these technologies and work with all countries for tough, enforceable, international nonproliferation agreements. * Take the lead in negotiating a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty through a phased approach. Democracy U.S. foreign policy cannot be divorced from the moral principles most American share. We cannot disregard how other governments treat their won people, whether their domestic institutions are democratic or repressive, whether they help encourage or check illegal conduct beyond their borders. It should matter to us how others govern themselves. Democracy is our interest. The end od the Cold War presents America with extraordinary opportunities for economic renewal at home. But that success is directly related to the success of those still struggling for democracy, human rights and free market economies around the world. The need for new leadership * President Bush has too often clung to the status quo and hesitated to support democratic forces. His failure to articulate clear goals or a rationale for an engaged foreign policy has fueled a dangerous new isolationism. * We need new leadership that will stand with the forces of democratic change. We need a President who can set clear goals and explain to the American people the importance if international engagement - a President who will utilize our economic, political cultural resources to assist the new forces of freedom emerging around the world. Failed Policies * The Administration waited too long to recognize and assist the new nations of the former Soviet Union. * The Administration sat on the sidelines for too long while the former Yugoslavia slipped into chaos and civil war. * The Administration pressured democratic Israel to make one-sided concessions in the Middle East peace talks, damaging our ability to act as an honest broker. * The Administration appeased Saddam Hussein when it shared intelligence with him, awarded him credits, and opposed sanctions against him to the eve of his invasion of Kuwait. * The Administration is poised to repeat that mistake as it casta blind eye on Syria's human rights abuses and on its support for terrorism. * The Administration lost an opportunity to promote democracy in Kuwait. Engagement for democracy * A Clinton/Gore Administration will never forge strategic relationships with dangerous, despotic regimes. It will understand that our foreign policy must promote democracy as well as stability. We cannot - as this administration has too often done - ignore the link between the two. A Clinton/Gore Administration will pursue a foreign policy of Engagement for Democracy: * Reform our foreign assistance programs in Africa, the Caribbean, Latin American and elsewhere to make our aid promote democracy, not tyranny. * Respond more energetically to help the people of the former Soviet empire demilitarize their societies and build free political and economic institutions. * Firmly support Israel and other democracies which face threats to their security. * Use our extensive economic and diplomatic leverage to increase material incentives to democratize and to raise the costs for those who don't. ! Maintain state and local sanctions against South Africa until there is an irreversible, full and fair accommodation with the black majority to create a democratic government. ! Toughen sanctions against Haiti's de facto government until democracy returns. ! Condition favorable trade terms with repressive regimes - such as China's communist regime - on respect for human rights, political liberalization and responsible international conduct. * Promote democratic development. Support organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy and encourage the U.S. Information Agency to channel more of its resources to promoting democracy. * Establish a Radio Free Asia. Just as Radio Free Europe and Voice of America helped bring the truth to the communist bloc nations, we should create a Radio Free Asia to carry news and hope to China, Vietnam and elsewhere. * Launch a Democracy Corps to send thousands of talented American professionals to countries that need their legal, financial and political expertise. * Support multilateral structures to assist countries struggling with the transition to democracy and the market economy. * Encourage private investment in the former Soviet Union, not only to help promote reforms but also to ensure that the U.S. is not shut out of future lucrative markets. The Record * Senator Gore is a nationally recognized leader on defense and national security issues. He has eloquently defended a foreign policy that both protects American interests and reflects American values. * As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gore has an intimate knowledge of national security issues. His diverse knowledge reflected by his service on three subcommittees: strategic forces and nuclear deterrence, projection forces and regional defense, and defense industry and technology. In the House, Gore served on the Intelligence Committee. * Even with the decline of communism, Gore has seen the continued need to defense American interests abroad. He supported Operation Desert Storm to evict Saddam Hussein's forces from Kuwait, and has continued to support the efforts of the Iraqi people to overthrow the Ba'athist regime. * Gore voted for the Freedom Support Act to grant American financial aid to the fledgling democracies of the Commonwealth of Independent States. * Supported independence for the Baltic States and timely removal Russian troops. * Opposed George Bush's appeasement of the Chinese Communists, and voted to condition continuation of China's Most Favored Nation Status on improvement in its records on human rights, trade, and weapons proliferation. * Strongly supports Israel. Gore opposed the Bush Administration's bullying of Israel over the issue of loan guarantees for Soviet refugees. Gore believes that for both moral and strategic reasons, Israel is by far America's strongest ally in the Middle East. * Gore has earned a national reputation as an expert on arms control, advocating sharp reductions in weapons and a shift from destabilizing land-based multiple-warhead missiles - now core principles of America arms negotiating. * Wrote legislation to stop nuclear proliferation. * Resisted the weakening of the ABM treaty and worked to keep SDI from violating U.S. obligations. * Fought efforts to scrap SALT II limits and preserved them as the foundation for START. * Favored a ban on short-time of flight or depressed trajectory missiles - a year before U.S. negotiators adopted the position. * Advocates special treatment for sea-launched cruise missiles because of their unusual nature. * Monitored Geneva arms control talks as one of ten Senate observers.