Our next U.N. Ambassador
Will President Bush
Betray Conservatives?
Washington, D.C. - Leaks to the press suggest that John Dimitri Negroponte is expected to be named as the next U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. A retired foreign service officer, Negroponte is affiliated with the Council on Foreign Relations, has no discernible conservative or pro-life credentials, and has been loudly endorsed by his former roommate, Clinton's last U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Richard Holbrooke. Negroponte's selection, if confirmed, would be a major disappointment to conservatives
"It looks like New World Order Jr.," said Cliff Kincaid, president of America's Survival, a public policy group.
With the exception of his service in Honduras during the Cold War, Negroponte's record on major foreign policy issues has been questionable and disappointing.
Unless he surrounds himself with solid conservatives who have an understanding of the U.N.'s impact in social, economic and military affairs, the U.S. mission to the U.N. under Negroponte could become nothing more than another channel for approving spending endless billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars on the world body's failed and corrupt policies and personnel. However, the reinstatement to the U.S. mission to the U.N. of budget analyst Linda Shenwick, who was fired by Madeleine Albright, could help arrest this trend.
A former aide to Colin Powell at the National Security Council (1987-89), Negroponte has been associated with a string of foreign policy disasters, including Vietnam (from 1968-69, he was a member of the delegation to the Paris "peace" talks); Mexico (as Ambassador, 1989-93, he gave flawed and misleading advice on Mexican cooperation in the war on drugs); the Philippines (as Ambassador from 1993-96, he was involved in the failed effort to maintain a U.S. military presence there); and Panama (as a special envoy in 1996-97, he was involved in the failed effort to maintain a U.S. military presence there).
As Ambassador to Mexico, when he laid the groundwork for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the New York Times revealed that officials at the U.S. embassy were told to play down the growing drug activity "so as not to threaten growing investment and trade."
As Ambassador to Honduras (1981-85), when Soviet- and Cuban-inspired revolution had captured Nicaragua and was threatening other countries in Central America, Negroponte played a role in the ultimately successful effort by President Ronald Reagan to keep the region free from communism. His reputation as a "Cold Warrior" will make him into a target of the far-left at his confirmation hearings, if his nomination goes forward, and could make him seem palatable to some conservatives. "But we will not be fooled," said Kincaid. (30)
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