U.S. TROOPS . . . HOME BEFORE CHRISTMAS

President Clinton has signed off on a Pentagon plan to bring 13,800 U.S. soldiers home fromHaitiandKuwaitin December -- an idea that Clinton himself had floated on his recent Kuwait stopover, government officials said today. Now -- with time to actually set the details -- the White House says 6,000 of the 15,000 or so troops in Haiti will return by Dec. 1, and 7,800 of 29,000-member U.S. force in Kuwait will fly back by Dec. 22. Withdrawing the rest depends on the success of the missions to support Haitian democratic reform and contain Saddam Hussein in the Persian Gulf. TIME Pentagon correspondentMark Thompsonnotes the U.S. commander in Haiti, Gen. Hugh Shelton, mentioned last week that 9,000 troops there would come home -- so, commitment-wise, "he was more cutting edge than the White House."