Clinton wants ongoing Cuban ties -- with an `if'

Published Monday, November 10, 1997, in the Miami Herald

Clinton wants ongoing Cuban ties -- with an `if'

WASHINGTON -- (AP) -- President Clinton said Sunday he wants to develop ``an ongoing relationship'' with Fidel Castro's Cuba much like the one he has with China, but only after America's communist neighbor moves toward democracy.

In an interview on NBC's Meet the Press, Clinton said he had been working toward ``a gradually evolving relationship'' with Havana until Cuban fighters shot down two small planes piloted by Cuban Americans in February 1996. Until then, Clinton had resisted tougher anti-Cuba legislation in Congress, but he signed the so-called Helms-Burton Act after the attack.

``So, we are at an impasse now,'' Clinton said. ``I still want that kind of relationship with Cuba, but we have to have some kind of indication that there will be an opening up, a movement toward democracy, . . . and I don't have that indication today.''

Clinton stopped short of saying he wants diplomatic relations with Cuba, as his reference to China ties would imply, and White House officials said it was not his intent to indicate he wants such ties. ``No,'' said national security spokeswoman Ann Luzatto, ``not under the current circumstances.''

The Cuban president himself rejected prospects for change in the near future. ``In Cuba, there was, there is and there will be a revolution based on principles that are not for sale,'' Castro told 21 heads of government Saturday at the annual Ibero-American summit in Porlamar, Venezuela.

The president also said:

He could not rule out a military strike against Iraq, which has refused to allow the United Nations to inspect possible weapons sites. ``It's very important that the president maintain all options and signal none.''

He opposes teaching homosexuality in public schools as an acceptable alternative lifestyle, but believes children should not be taught to discriminate against or fear homosexual men and women.

He believes the use of soft money contributions to buy television ads during the 1996 campaign ``played a role in bringing down voter confidence'' and underscores the need to overhaul the nation's campaign finance system.

He doesn't believe all the scandal investigations that have dogged his presidency will stick. ``When the history books are written and people look back on it, the public will have a very different opinion . . . about the ethical performance of this administration.''

Asked why the United States has active political and economic relations with vast, distant China but not the smaller, closer Cuba, Clinton said China has been willing to ``open up and to work with us'' on weapons proliferation, human rights and environmental issues.

``We've got this ongoing relationship'' with China, he said. ``That's what I wanted to do with Cuba.'' He was headed in that direction by supporting the 1992 Cuba Democracy Act, which toughened economic sanctions but opened the way for humanitarian contacts -- progress that unraveled when Cuba shot down the planes.

Clinton said he gets ``mixed signals from time to time'' from Cuba but still holds out hope for change under Castro. He complimented the Cuban ruler as ``a highly intelligent man'' who ``spends a lot of time thinking about the future.''

``I wish it could be different than it is,'' Clinton said. ``But we have to have some basis for opening. It can't be a one-way street. There has to be some sense that there's an evolution going on in Cuba, and it can turn into a modern state.''