Recent Statements By Us Officials Concerning Aid

(Emphasis added throughout)

President George Bush

(Concerning the Gephardt Soviet aid proposal): "If you want to talk about the substance of his ideas, do I think it’s a good idea to loan money to the Soviet Union? No. We have no request for food aid to the Soviet Union; do you just want to put it on a ship and send it over there? No, I don’t think that’s a particularly brilliant idea." (White House Press Conference, 13 March 1990)

"This concept that we ought to go loaning money, or giving money to the Soviet Union now, I don’t accept that…I don’t think that’s in America’s interest, and I don’t think it’s needed to encourage reform and perestroika and glasnost in the Soviet Union….[The Soviet Union] has a long way to go before sound loans can be made there." (Interview with National Public Radio, 17 March 1990)

"There has got to be economic reform [in the Soviet Union], market reform and all kinds of changes that I believe Mr. Gorbachev wants to see take place. But they have to be in place for the United States to go forward….Why put X billions of dollars of money into the Soviet economy when it’s not reformed, when they’re spending 18 percent of their gross national product on the military and when they’re spending an estimated $5 billion in Cuba?" (Press Conference, 29 June 1990)

Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo)

"I think there’s a whole range of things that you demand be done before [they] get the first increment of aid. I think this is a long-term project. You try to get them to change their economy, to change their political system, to give more freedom and to give the republics the right to get out, and third, to downsize their military establishment….The president needs to get Gorbachev…and sit him down with his people and say, look, here are the things we want you to accomplish or would like to see you accomplish in the next three or four, five years; if you will do these things, reward for results, as you accomplish each part of it, we will together, the western nations, give you loans and credits and things to help your economy." (Meet the Press, 2 June 1991)

Sen. Robert Dole (R-KS)

"We have no business even considering aid to Gorbachev’s government while Soviet soldiers trample on the Baltics, while the central government tries to intimidate Armenia, Moldavia, Georgia and the Ukraine, and while hard-liners in the Kremlin continue to suppress the democratic movement inside the country….Until we receive ironclad guarantees that food assistance will reach those who need it and not be used for political blackmail, I will oppose future agricultural credits to Moscow." (Op.ed. in the Washington Post, 18 March 1991)

"Prior to the extension of further credits, we should receive firm assurances from the Soviet Government on two points: (1) that credits be used to meet the food needs of the Soviet population, and will not just be used to support institutions such as the military and the party apparatus; and (2) that our credits not be used to coerce the movements for greater sovereignty and democracy in the Baltics and the constituent republics of the Soviet Union….In addition, of course, as with all credit arrangements, we must be certain of the credit-worthiness of the Soviet Government." (Letter to President Bush, 24 April 1991)