Who Defends America?; First Duffer; China Spindrome; Right Turn?; Bounced in Beijing; From France, With Love; Kick-Boxing Kids
Pentagon needs more brass, Clinton's Irish golf dream, the Mulan effect
Who defends America? Pentagon needs more brass, Clinton's Irish golf dream, the Mulan effect The Pentagon wants to start conducting war games soon to analyze various "homeland defense" scenarios, such as a terrorist attack with a biological weapon on U.S. soil. But first they must decide who, exactly, is responsible for defending America. During the cold war, most of the world was put under the jurisdiction of the Pentagon's various geographic commands. (The military calls such commands "CINCs," an acronym for the four-star service commanders in chief who run them.) But four major countries were assigned no CINCs--the Soviet Union, which was too big and powerful for a single command; friendly neighbors Canada and Mexico; and the United States. Now that it wants to run defend-America war games, the Pentagon feels that it needs a CINC-U.S.A. In the running are U.S. Navy Adm. Harold Gehman, who now oversees military activity in the Atlantic Ocean and counterdrug efforts on the Southwest border, and Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, the incoming head of U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs. When the CINC is chosen, the games can begin.
First duffer. President Clinton, who in recent years has become an avid (some would say fanatical) golfer, has been telling aides how much he wants to accept the long-standing invitation of former Irish Foreign Minister Dick Spring to play Ballybunion, the world-famous course in southwestern Ireland. Their game is now planned for early September, after the president visits Dublin and Belfast to celebrate the Northern Ireland peace accords. Since this trip follows Clinton's summit with Russian President Boris Yeltsin in Moscow, White House officials hope the Ballybunion interlude will help Clinton decompress after weighty talks on the Russian economic crisis, nuclear nonproliferation, arms reductions, and NATO.
China spindrome. The White House should be pleased with its public-relations handiwork during President Clinton's nine-day trip to China. A soon-to-be-released study by the Washington-based Center for Media and Public Affairs finds that 78 percent of the evaluations of Clinton's trip and his China policies carried by ABC, CBS, and NBC were positive. Notably, 79 percent of the Chinese sources quoted by the networks also gave Clinton favorable marks.
Right turn? Liberals have a new beef with the White House over use of judgeships as a political chit on Capitol Hill. In mid-July, President Clinton quietly nominated federal trial judge William Traxler for a prestigious court that hears appeals in five mid-Atlantic states. Critics say the appointment of the conservative white man was made to curry favor with both South Carolina senators, Democrat Fritz Hollings and Republican Strom Thurmond. Traxler once campaigned for Thurmond, a fact not noted in the White House announcement of his choice. Liberals complain that although the five states in the court's jurisdiction have the nation's highest proportion of African-American population, no black sits on the court. Clinton's defenders say he nominated a black to that court in 1995 but that North Carolina senators have blocked confirmation.
Bounced in Beijing. In this age of growing international crime, getting federal agents posted to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing has become a high priority. Convincing the Chinese has been tough, but, it turns out, getting past the State Department has been even tougher. Two years ago, both the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration had hoped to send attaches to Beijing. The Chinese welcomed the FBI at first, but the bureau's investigation into illegal campaign contributions suddenly made the FBI agency non grata. That left the door open for the DEA, which had spent a year training agent Greg Korniloff to speak Chinese. Last month, Korniloff finally arrived in Beijing, only to be sent packing by top diplomats at his own embassy. State had belatedly learned that Korniloff had been asked to leave the U.S. Embassy in Burma years earlier, after disagreements with the ambassador. This has left DEA officials scrambling to find another Chinese speaker for the job. Someone should tell the president. Just days after Korniloff was bounced, Clinton announced to the press: "We're about to open a DEA office in Beijing."
From France, with love. French President Jacques Chirac wants to give the National Order of the Legion of Honor, his country's highest decoration, to all 1,800 surviving U.S military veterans who fought on French soil during World War I. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has agreed to help; this year will mark the 80th anniversary of the armistice. The VA knows the whereabouts of 900 of the 1,800 vets because they currently receive veterans' benefits. Soon, VA Secretary Togo West will send them all a letter urging them to declare themselves to the French Embassy in Washington, where their claims will be reviewed. To try to reach the rest, the Torch, a small U.S.-based WW I veterans publication, will publish West's letter and an application form.
Once awards get approved by the Grande Chancellerie de la Legion d'Honneur in Paris, French officials will travel throughout the United States to decorate the soldiers in person. With the average age of WW I vets being 98, the VA says it's giving the effort "high priority." The Legion of Honor is not awarded posthumously.
Kick-boxing kids. Mulan, the female warrior whose cunning and kick boxing helped save China from Mongol invaders dynasties ago, is doing more than just animate the Walt Disney Co.'s bottom line. Her screen adventure has generated a surge of interest among young girls in martial arts. "We've been getting lots of calls" since the movie opened June 19, says George Anderson, president of the Akron, Ohio-based USA Karate Federation. Anderson predicts a 20 to 30 percent increase in the number of young females taking tae kwon do, karate, or other disciplines. (About 2 million American kids--equal numbers of boys and girls--are in martial arts classes.) The Mulan-inspired boom promises to top the one that followed the 1984 hit movie The Karate Kid, and instructors believe the trend will last longer. Parental buy-in is there from the start, says Anderson; parents watch the film and emerge saying, "I want that for my daughter."
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"You ever wanted to put one of those in the Oval Office?" NBC correspondent Maria Shriver, to first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, on being shown the cot that Thomas Edison kept in his laboratory for taking naps
"You can't exactly show it to your friends." Lenny Prussack, gift shop manager at the James Dean Memorial Gallery, suggesting why the thieves who stole James Dean's tombstone last week had dumped it on an Indiana country road
"I wouldn't like to see it become a trend." Debra Harder, network director for Adoptive Families of America, on learning that the Sally Jessy Raphael talk show had arranged for the adoption of two children
"No one needs to improve their sex life [so much as] to die for it." Diego Padro, the first Viagra user to sue Pfizer Inc., claiming the anti-impotency drug caused him to have a heart attack
This story appears in the July 27, 1998 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.