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Show Weekly Specnail lyoX"rcrso" Reagan chose 'moderate' sanctions to soften his image Washington There is an untold story behind President Reagan's decision not to take tough action against the Soviets for shooting down the South Korean airliner with 269 persons per-sons aboard. The president indulged in some tough-sounding rhetoric, but the sanctions he announced amounted to a slap on the wrist for the Kremlin. Reagan's decision not to punish the Soviets, either economically or symbolically, sym-bolically, drew cries of outrage from his right-wing supporters. They felt betrayed by the man they had worked so diligently to put in the White House. Opinion polls showed that the public also expected tougher action by the administration. So President Reagan has asked, rather plaintively, what his critics would have him do? The fact is there were some tough proposals made to the president by his top advisers. The Defense Department, in particular, argued forcefully for sanctions that would punish the Soviets for their savage attack. The matter was thrashed out at a meeting of the National Security Council. Our sources say the meeting turned into a real donnybrook. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger Wein-berger came to the meeting armed with arguments in favor of a tough response to the Soviets, and he pleaded his case in no uncertain terms. The National Security Council staff supported suppor-ted Weinberger. But Secretary of State George Shultz argued just as forcefully for a more restrained response. The State Department Depart-ment had prepared its own list of possible sanctions, and they were far milder than the Pentagon's proposals. In the end, the president took Shultz's advice. Our sources say Reagan personally favored the more moderate course anyway. He felt it would help him politically by moderating his image as a trigger-happy trigger-happy cowboy. We have learned, meanwhile, that the coldblooded Soviet attack was just the latest episode in a' continuing drama in the skies. Other planes have strayed into Soviet airspace and been fired upon. In fact, the Russians have tried to lure planes into their airspace by scrambling navigational signals along their borders. The practice is called "meaconning." The unsuspecting pilot is "meaconned" into forbidden Soviet skies. Then he may suddenly find himself him-self the object of target practice by Soviet fighters. There have been several incidents: most have involved military reconnaissance recon-naissance planes. The practice has become so common that pilots who fly near Soviet ' borders are given navigational maps with a special warning. war-ning. They are told that radio signals cannot be trusted and that they might be fired on if they stray off course. Foul Food?: Congress will soon be investigating a health threat that the American public is largely unaware of imported food contaminated by pesticides. As odd as it may seem, the strict safety standards the government applies ap-plies to food produced in this country are not enforced against imported products. Only about 1 percent of food from abroad is actually tested for poisonous residues. Yet it's precisely the imported foodstuffs food-stuffs that should be most strictly checked. Pesticides that American farmers are not allowed to use are sold overseas with no restrictions. And many foreign farmers don't use the poisons correctly. The result is dangerously high levels of chemicals in the food foreign nations sell to American consumers. Hearings on the problem will be held in the House of Representatives later this month. Senate action is also planned. plan-ned. Political potpourri: The Republican National Committee quietly arranged for a private poll to find out who is ahead in the Democratic presidential race. When the results were in, former Vice President Walter Mondale led Ohio Sen. John Glenn by just two percentage per-centage points. California Sen. Alan Cranston was third and Colorado Sen. Gary Hart was fourth. Republican leaders believe Mondale would be the easiest contender for President Reagan to beat. The Republicans are looking for a person to run Reagan's re-election campaign. One of the names that has been tossed around is Max Hugel, the former deputy CIA director for covert activities. He was forced out of the agency in 1981 for questionable financial finan-cial dealings. Future File: Sen. William Roth, R-Del, R-Del, will hold hearings on Pentagon extravagance ex-travagance next month. The areas his Government Affairs Committee will be looking into include excessive labor costs, sky-high profit margins for contractors, con-tractors, advance payments for employee em-ployee vacation time and expensive government property that is left unused. The United States is about to lose another friend in the Middle East. Lebanese President Amin Gemayel's days in power are numbered. His authority has already crumbled drastically. In a matter of weeks, he'll be without any power at all. Our intelligence in-telligence sources predict he'll be replaced by a government that is friendly to Syria, and that means a government that is not friendly to the United States. (c) 1983 United Feature Syndicate, Inc. |
