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Page Turners: Interview With Clyde Prestowitz
Aired July 15, 2003 - 15:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: In his new book, former Reagan administration official Clyde Prestowitz argues, the U.S. has backed away from a multilateral approach to world affairs in recent years in favor of a go-it-alone strategy, with often harmful results.
Clyde Prestowitz is here with me in Washington. His book is titled "Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions."
Clyde Prestowitz, first of all, as somebody who is described in your own book as someone of superb, impeccable conservative credentials, how could you be critical of the Bush administration policies?
CLYDE PRESTOWITZ, AUTHOR, "ROGUE NATION": Well, I think that, in fact what's happened is -- I'm a lifelong Republican -- I think a small group of so-called neoconservatives have hijacked U.S. foreign policy and set us on an imperialistic path which actually runs counter to the values and the ideas of real conservatism.
WOODRUFF: How did it get off track?
PRESTOWITZ: Well, I think, throughout the Cold War, Ronald Reagan embraced NATO. We built a global system of institutions, rule- of-law alliances.
And then, after the end of the Cold War, our power has become so great relative to the rest of the world. And, at the same time, we have adopted a policy of coalition of the willing, which negates alliances. We have turned away from multilateral institutions, like the U.N. And we've adopted a policy of preventive and preemptive war. For all of the latter half of the 20th century, the whole 20th century, our policy has been deterrence, no first strike.
But now we've turned that on its head and we've adopted a policy of preemptive war, preventive war. And if you do that, one, your intelligence has to be really good. And, two, you have to be sure that you're willing to accept that other countries may do it as well.
WOODRUFF: And I saw that one of the people writing a review of the book said, hey, this sounds like something that would have come out of the Carter administration. The Bush administration isn't going to like anything in here.
PRESTOWITZ: But think about it. Conservatism is in favor of fiscal responsibility, small government, civil liberties, no foreign adventures. It was John Adams, one of our founding fathers, who talked about, America does not go abroad to slay dragons. And what we're pursuing now is a course that results in enormous government, enormous military establishment, oceans of red ink, which are crushing state and local governments, where conservatives live.
WOODRUFF: But you know the Bush administration is saying, we are living in a different world. After 9/11, we are subject to terror attacks at any time and any place. We have to be aggressive. We have to look out for American interests. That's their argument.
PRESTOWITZ: Well, but the issue is, how do you define American interests?
We have gone into Iraq. And we went in on the basis of a preemptive and preventive strike. But now we're in Iraq. And we don't have any real support. We're going around the world begging countries like Honduras to send 200 soldiers. We go to the Indians and we ask the Indians to send a division of troops. And the Indians, say: Sorry, but we'll only do that under a U.N. mandate.
So we're in a situation which is expensive and risky. And we find that we don't have any support. So it is not clear that it's really in our interests to pursue this kind of a policy.
WOODRUFF: There is much more to talk about. Our time is limited. The book, again, is "Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions," the author, Clyde Prestowitz.
We thank you very much for coming in.
PRESTOWITZ: My pleasure. Thank you.
WOODRUFF: Very provocative.
PRESTOWITZ: Thank you.
WOODRUFF: We appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 15, 2003 - 15:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: In his new book, former Reagan administration official Clyde Prestowitz argues, the U.S. has backed away from a multilateral approach to world affairs in recent years in favor of a go-it-alone strategy, with often harmful results.
Clyde Prestowitz is here with me in Washington. His book is titled "Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions."
Clyde Prestowitz, first of all, as somebody who is described in your own book as someone of superb, impeccable conservative credentials, how could you be critical of the Bush administration policies?
CLYDE PRESTOWITZ, AUTHOR, "ROGUE NATION": Well, I think that, in fact what's happened is -- I'm a lifelong Republican -- I think a small group of so-called neoconservatives have hijacked U.S. foreign policy and set us on an imperialistic path which actually runs counter to the values and the ideas of real conservatism.
WOODRUFF: How did it get off track?
PRESTOWITZ: Well, I think, throughout the Cold War, Ronald Reagan embraced NATO. We built a global system of institutions, rule- of-law alliances.
And then, after the end of the Cold War, our power has become so great relative to the rest of the world. And, at the same time, we have adopted a policy of coalition of the willing, which negates alliances. We have turned away from multilateral institutions, like the U.N. And we've adopted a policy of preventive and preemptive war. For all of the latter half of the 20th century, the whole 20th century, our policy has been deterrence, no first strike.
But now we've turned that on its head and we've adopted a policy of preemptive war, preventive war. And if you do that, one, your intelligence has to be really good. And, two, you have to be sure that you're willing to accept that other countries may do it as well.
WOODRUFF: And I saw that one of the people writing a review of the book said, hey, this sounds like something that would have come out of the Carter administration. The Bush administration isn't going to like anything in here.
PRESTOWITZ: But think about it. Conservatism is in favor of fiscal responsibility, small government, civil liberties, no foreign adventures. It was John Adams, one of our founding fathers, who talked about, America does not go abroad to slay dragons. And what we're pursuing now is a course that results in enormous government, enormous military establishment, oceans of red ink, which are crushing state and local governments, where conservatives live.
WOODRUFF: But you know the Bush administration is saying, we are living in a different world. After 9/11, we are subject to terror attacks at any time and any place. We have to be aggressive. We have to look out for American interests. That's their argument.
PRESTOWITZ: Well, but the issue is, how do you define American interests?
We have gone into Iraq. And we went in on the basis of a preemptive and preventive strike. But now we're in Iraq. And we don't have any real support. We're going around the world begging countries like Honduras to send 200 soldiers. We go to the Indians and we ask the Indians to send a division of troops. And the Indians, say: Sorry, but we'll only do that under a U.N. mandate.
So we're in a situation which is expensive and risky. And we find that we don't have any support. So it is not clear that it's really in our interests to pursue this kind of a policy.
WOODRUFF: There is much more to talk about. Our time is limited. The book, again, is "Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions," the author, Clyde Prestowitz.
We thank you very much for coming in.
PRESTOWITZ: My pleasure. Thank you.
WOODRUFF: Very provocative.
PRESTOWITZ: Thank you.
WOODRUFF: We appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
