Newt Gingrich isn't well known for his foreign policy stances. But he has been speaking on a number of issues over the years since he was Speaker of the House, and his views on foreign affairs and national security are on the record.
Here are Gingrich's comments on foreign policy.
On China: I Don't Worry About China
On the Fox program "Hannity" on Jan. 18, Gingrich encouraged America to worry more about itself and less about China's policies. "If we do the right things in America, we can compete with China and India for the next 100 years and not worry about it and remember it's not about cheap wages." he said. "I don't worry about the Chinese. I worry about bad American government, that's crippling us a lot more than the Chinese are."
On Mexico: Control the Border by Jan. 1, 2014
Gingrich's Contract with America suggests that controlling the border is essential to national security. He focuses the southern border with Mexico, noting that there hasn't been enough of a sense of urgency given the "drug-fueled civil war." He referenced the Regan-era Simpson-Mazzoli immigration reform bill, noting the goal and expectations hadn't been met. But he hopes that his solutions would "waive every obstacle to controlling the border and would shift resources to achieve virtually 100 percent control by Jan. 1, 2014. If necessary, we would move one-half of the 23,000 Washington-area Department of Homeland Security bureaucrats to the Texas, New Mexico and Arizona borders."
On Afghanistan: Stating Withdrawal is Wrong
At the American Enterprise Institute on July 29, 2010, Gingrich spoke against using timetables for leaving Afghanistan. "Now, I think that it's important to recognize that the very act of stating a date for withdrawal has a frightening potential. It encourages our enemies to hang on, encourages our allies to leave and to fear that we will cut and run and courts a disastrous defeat which I believe will have worldwide repercussions because of the morale effect on radical Islamists." He tempered his comments by noting, "Yet, you have to recognize that victory over radical Islamism is a long process. This will be a long struggle. It doesn't fit our model of a spasm war of two or three or four years really pay attention, get it over again, that's why I used the Cold War as a model. Took 44 years, most of it was non-violent. But very tense and with enormous preparation."
On the Middle East: More Engagement Needed
Gingrich has said he will sign an executive order on his first day recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. In June, Gingrich tore apart President Barack Obama at a Maryland Republican Party dinner in Baltimore. "We should have taken extraordinary actions against Pakistanis -- within 24 hours. We should have said if you don't release those people you can assume we have no relationship and we'll chat with you from India." He went on to say he was concerned with how Egypt and Tunisia would work out, that Obama hadn't been vocal enough about Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime attacking its own citizens, and felt that the Libyan revolutionaries might not have America's best interests at heart.
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