Quayle Calls For Cease-Fire

Former Vice President Dan Quayle, who is seeking the GOP nomination for president in 2000, has called for an immediate cease-fire in Yugoslavia while NATO negotiates with the Serbs for peace in Kosovo.

Speaking on CBS News' Face The Nation Sunday morning, Quayle said he has opposed the NATO offensive from the start and continues to urge the administration to pursue diplomatic channels to peace.

"We shouldn't be there in the first place," Quayle said from Phoenix. "This is a civil war. I ask the American people: Do you really believe that the Albanian Kosovars are better off today than before the bombing started? Do you really believe that this campaign is being waged properly? Do you really believe that we should be involved in a civil war in the sovereign territory of Yugoslavia?

"And if you don't, and it is the wrong war, why do we want to continue?"

NATO is in its second month of a bombing campaign to keep Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosovic from expelling ethnic Albanians from the Serbian province of Kosovo. NATO has vowed to keep up the bombing until Milosovic agrees to its demands.

Questioned by Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer, Quayle also commented on the U.S. relationship with China in the wake of reports that China stole valuable U.S. missile technology.

He said he does not regard China as an enemy of the United States, but neither does he regard it as a friend.

"We do not we do not have, as the Clinton administration said, a strategic partnership with China," Quayle said. "A strategic partnership means we have common values. We don't have common values. We have values of freedom, democracy, civil rights, civil liberties. The values of china as a communist country, they are going to have political order."

Nevertheless, the U.S. should recognize that this country and China have the common goals of peace and stability in the Far East. The best way to achieve those goals, Quayle said, is to remain involved in the Pacfic rim.

"The Chinese want us out of the Pacific; we need to stay in, " he said.

In specific, Quayle called for working with Japan, Taiwan and South Korea to develop a defensive weapons system.

As for the 2000 presidential race, Quayle cautioned his fellow Republicans not to be too eager to jump on the bandwagon of the frontrunner, Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

"It clearly is a mistake, " he said. "They're rushing to judgment. I believe what my fellow Republicans are attempting to do is putting polls ahead of agenda."

Quayle, who served under Bush's father, former President George Bush, urged Republicans to "go with your hearts."

"You all talk about who the front-runner is,"Quayle said. "We won't know who the true front-runner is until Feb. 7, 2000."