By BRIAN KNOWLTON,
International Herald Tribune
Published: March 7, 2005
ASHINGTON, March 7 - President Bush is nominating Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton, a blunt-spoken hawk with a history of skepticism toward the United Nations, to be the United States ambassador to the organization, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced today.
"The president and I have asked John to do this work because he knows how to get things done," Ms. Rice
said. "He is a tough-minded diplomat, he has a strong record of success, and he has a proven track record of effective multilateralism."
Ms. Rice credited Mr. Bolton, now undersecretary for arms control, with helping to build an international coalition to combat the spread of weapons of mass destruction, helping to negotiate Libya's agreement to renounce such weapons, and serving as chief negotiator of the Treaty of Moscow, which called for sharp reductions of American and Russian nuclear warheads.
He also worked with the first President George Bush as assistant secretary of state for international organizations.
But the choice of Mr. Bolton, who has long demonstrated a preference for a direct approach to diplomacy, appeared likely to raise concerns abroad and rattled some Democrats.
Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts asked in a statement, "if the president is serious about reaching out to the world, why would he choose someone who has expressed such disdain for working with our allies?" And the Senate minority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, called the nomination a "disappointing choice and one that sends all the wrong signals."
Mr. Bolton, 56, is considered one of the administration's leading conservative hawks. He pressed the case for war with Iraq. And he has been witheringly critical of autocratic countries including North Korea, Iran, Syria and Cuba.
Today, Mr. Bolton promised to work closely with members of Congress to advance Bush's policies and said his record showed "clear support for effective multilateral diplomacy."
"The United Nations affords us the opportunity to move our policies forward," said Mr. Bolton, who acknowledged that in the past he has been critical of the organization.
Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, twice today appeared to allude to Mr. Bush's desire to see changes at the United Nations, underscoring the president's "strong commitment to making sure that multilateral organizations are effective."
The United Nations is at a delicate point, under fire over abuses of the Iraq oil-for-food program and allegations of sexual abuse by United Nations peacekeepers in Congo. This has added to harsh criticism of the organization by some American conservatives.
Nor has the Bush administration yet completely moved past tensions dating from the Iraq war. Mr. Bolton himself has led an administration effort to oust Mohamed ElBaradei as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency; critics have said the administration was angered that Mr. ElBaradei did not take a tougher stance on Saddam Hussein's nuclear ambitions for Iraq.
One analyst, Nile Gardiner, a security specialist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, suggested that Mr. Bolton's tough approach might be controversial in places but that was exactly what the administration wanted at the United Nations.
"John Bolton will be a U.S. ambassador who aggressively pursues the U.S. national interest at the United Nations, which includes fundamental reform of the U.N., and bringing the U.N. kicking and screaming into the 21st century," he said. "The White House has chosen someone who will be tenacious and aggressive in pursuing the president's goals."
Yet, Mr. Bolton's past comments on the world body seemed dismissive. He has been widely quoted as saying at a 1994 conference that "if the UN secretariat building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference."
Mr. Bolton would succeed John C. Danforth, who resigned as the United Nations ambassador in January. He must be confirmed by the Senate for the post, which is being filled temporarily by Anne Patterson, a career foreign service officer.
Mr. Bolton's confirmation hearings appear sure to generate controversy, possibly even among some Republicans, although few expect the nomination to be blocked. Mr. Reid, the Democratic Senate leader, said Mr. Bolton would have "much to answer for" during confirmation hearings.
"At a time when President Bush has recognized we need to begin repairing our damaged relations with the rest of the world," Mr. Reid said in a statement, "he nominates someone with a long history of being opposed to working cooperatively with other nations."
Some diplomatic observers saw Mr. Bolton as an odd choice.
"Mr. Bolton is seen as among the most hawkish of President Bush's advisers, and as among those who are most sympathetic toward unilateral action, and perhaps least sympathetic toward a multilateral approach to things," said Robert Hathaway, director of Asia studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington.
"Certainly, many people around the world will see this nomination as raising questions about the president's sincerity in wanting to work in a cooperative fashion, a multilateral fashion," he said.
After a period in which the Bush administration has emphasized a desire for international cooperation, underscored by the president's trip to Europe, the nomination of Mr. Bolton appeared to show that hard-liners on foreign policy still carry clout in a clearly divided administration. Mr. Bolton has been championed in the past by Vice President Dick Cheney.
David Abshire, a former colleague of Mr. Bolton when he was at the American Enterprise Institute and a former ambassador to NATO, defended the nominee's plainspoken ways. "I think it's important to keep in perspective that while he was undersecretary of state working against proliferation, it was his job to be extremely blunt," he said.
Mr. Abshire said Mr. Bolton's position in the first Bush administration involved "alliance building," and he added, "When he's at the U.N., where collegial relations are important, he's got that kind of experience."
And Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, who served as the United Nations ambassador under President Ronald Reagan, said in 2003 that Mr. Bolton "loves to tussle," adding, "He may do diplomatic jobs for the U.S. government, but John is not a diplomat."
In 1999, Mr. Bolton called for full diplomatic recognition of Taiwan and said the notion that "China would actually respond with force is a fantasy."
His hard line, and blunt talk, on nuclear negotiations with North Korea has roiled the Bush administration's already-difficult dealings with the government there.
In July 2003, as delicate six-party talks including North Korean were about to start, Mr. called Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, a "tyrannical dictator" of a country where "life is a hellish nightmare."
North Korea responded furiously, saying that "such human scum and bloodsucker is not entitled to take part in the talks" and that Pyongyang no longer considered Mr. Bolton to represent the administration. The State Department removed him from its delegation.
Mr. Hathaway of the Wilson Center said other parties to the Korean nuclear talks had at least privately challenged Mr. Bolton's confrontational approach. But he also noted that the United Nations, for now, "is not where the action is on the North Korea question."
Mr. Bolton also raised concerns when he was quoted by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in early 2003 as saying that the United States, after defeating Iraq, would "deal with" Iran, Syria and North Korea. And in June of that year he told the BBC that in the case of Iran, "all options are on the table."
In a 2002 interview with The New York Times, Mr. Bolton was asked about what seemed to be mixed signals from the Bush administration on North Korea. He grabbed a book from a shelf and laid it on the table. Its title: "The End of North Korea."
"That," he told the interviewer, "is our policy."
chemical weapons, the nuclear
test ban; any accord that limited anything the United
States might someday want to do. At State, Bolton's main
job was to serve as Vice President Dick Cheney's agent at
Foggy Bottom, monitoring, opposing, and, to the extent
possible, thwarting from within the moderating influence
of Secretary Colin Powell and his crew of pin-striped
diplomats. He was particularly active in sabotaging
Powell's efforts to open up nuclear disarmament
negotiations with North Korea.