What's up with Kerry and his 'secret plan'?

Kerry promise on Iraq rings of Nixon 'secret plan' on Vietnam, Eisenhower on Korea
By Ron Fournier, Associated Press, 8/3/2004 14:17

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WASHINGTON (AP) John Kerry says he can ''put a deal together'' as president to drastically reduce U.S. troop strength in Iraq, a pledge reminiscent of Richard Nixon's secret plan to end the Vietnam War and Dwight D. Eisenhower's promise to stop fighting in Korea.

Like those Republican presidential candidates, the Democrat's blueprint for peace lacks detail and has critics squawking.

With voters skittish about the death toll in Iraq, Kerry is pinning blame on President Bush and his shaky relationships with allies who have refused to support U.S. troops with soldiers of their own. The four-term Massachusetts senator suggests he has back-channel assurances that foreign leaders would do more if he were president.

''There is a potential to be able to put a deal together over the course of time,'' Kerry told The Associated Press in his first interview as the Democratic nominee. ''At least, that is the perception that smart people like Joe Biden and, you know, Carl Levin and other leaders who've been there for a long time.''

He said his fellow Democratic senators, reporting on their foreign travels, have told him, ''A change in the presidency is essential to our ability to restore our respect and relationship.''

But when asked for hard evidence that his victory would produce a troops-reducing deal for America, neither Kerry nor his fellow senators cite anything other than their vague perceptions and utmost hopes.

''I can't give you the details of any deal, obviously,'' Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said Monday. ''You don't negotiate a deal until you have a leader who is there to negotiate a deal.''

Levin said he has talked to foreign leaders about potential changes in their Iraq policies after the U.S. election. ''Nobody is going to say what the details of the deal are. They simply report to us that distrust of the administration is so intense that you can't take a risk'' and deploy troops to Iraq, he said.

''I'm not going to tell you which foreign leaders, because I'd be breaking the confidence of foreign leaders that I've met,'' said Levin, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Last spring, Kerry said foreign leaders preferred him to Bush, though he also refused to identify any.

Levin wavered on the question of whether any foreign leader promised to get more involved in Iraq if Kerry wins. ''It seems to be that's the basic implication,'' he said at first.

But has any leader made a commitment?

No, he replied.