First Steps Toward a Policy

Baker plays coy with Israel and hangs tough on Nicaragua

As past masters of the technique, the Viet Cong had a term for it: Danh va dam, dam va danh -- fighting and talking, talking and fighting. By adopting that pattern of feints and jabs, the P.L.O. in the Middle East, the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the Marxist guerrillas in El Salvador have managed to keep Washington's foreign policy off-balance and on the defensive. Only now is the Bush Administration beginning to make moves that may allow it to capture some momentum.

In the Middle East the P.L.O. has been ahead in the battle for world opinion ever since last December...

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