European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 20, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday november 20, 1994 . The stars and stripes Page 7 South rises again to Lead military panels  quarterly Washington the South Long bastion of unswerving support for the military has seized control of the armed services committees on Capitol Hill. And this time it s a South Carolina sweep. -.-. / sen. Strom Thurmond , an indefatigable Hawk will succeed Georgia Democrat Sam nun As Senate armed services chairman. By the time thur mond takes the Gavel in january he will be 92 the oldest member of Congress. In the House rep. Floyd Spence ., another advocate of a More muscular defense establishment is in line to succeed armed services chairman Ron ald Dellums d-calif., one of Capitol Hill s strongest advocates of Radical cuts in the size and Cost of the military. Despite the philosophical chasm be tween Dellums and Spence the practical effect of the turnover is Likely to . As in the Senate conservative democrats outnumber liberals of the House committee. Thurmond s views on defense Are anchored in the twin convictions that the world is a potentially dangerous place and that . Policy should err on the Side of being too hard Lin rather than too soft. It is a perspective that both antedated the cold War an survived it As illustrated by Thurmond s hard line approach to internal Security. In 1935, during his first term As a stat senator he proposed requiring loyalty oaths from Public school teachers. In1993, As the senior Republican on the Senate armed services committee he helped Spike the appointment of Morton Halperin to a top Pentagon Job in Par because he said the nominee s civil libertarian views discounted the continuing need for official secrets and internal Safe guards against terrorists. Thur Mohd like other republicans believes that president Clinton is cutting defense spending too far too fast. The president is further eroding . Security Thurmond believes by spending Penta gon dollars on no defense programs and by detailing . Forces to peacekeeping and humanitarian missions in which no vital National interests Are at stake. Like Many other conservative critics including Nunn and several other armed services democrats Thurmond con tends that Clinton s projected budgets Are too Small to meet the administration s declared goal of sustaining a mod Ern and combat ready Force Large enough to win two concurrent regional wars. At a minimum these critics Hope to stave off further cuts an Effort that May reinforce Pentagon efforts to boost projected budgets at least by enough to cover the costs of inflation and congressionally mandated pay raises unlike Nunn chairman for eight years Thurmond has never been a detail Man. Nor has he been one to trim his sails tothe prevailing political winds. Typically his role in great National debates Over the past five decades has been neither policy architect nor legislative tactician. Rather Thurmond s Forte has been straightforward advocacy dogged Plain spoke confrontation of his opponents. He Ham mers at a few key themes in a Way that forces his issues onto the Agenda and energizes his allies. In the House Spence has climbed the committee s gop seniority ladder without attracting much National attention. In the 1980s, he was beset with a lung disease that nearly crippled him before his health was re stored by a rare double lung transplant inlay 19g8. He became the senior armed services Republican Only last year. Despite his previously Low profile Spence has gotten off to a very fast Start since the  this month Spence said that Al though defense policy had not been Amajor Issue in the Campaign it is Clear to me that the administration s dismal re Cord on defense contributed to the electorate s overwhelming rejection of the Linton  a tour of . Bases in Europe late Las month left Spence particularly concerned about the combat readiness of the  week Spence warned that by Cut Ting Pentagon spending even As it . Forces on unplanned missions such As those in Haiti and Rwanda the Clin ton administration was starting the Pentagon into a downward readiness spi ral soon afterwards in a letter to senior congressional defense specialists de sense Secretary William Perry acknowledged that for the first time in 12 years three of the army s 12 divisions reported significant limitations in their ability to carry out the full Range of their potential combat missions. _. 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