A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, a worldwide pheno

pedo bomber , British Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane fighters , a U.S. . B-17 Fly

ing Fortress bomber , a P-51 Mustang fighter and a C-47 Dakota transport followe

d by low-flying modern jet fighters from Allied nations , some forming the numbe

r `` 50 . '' ( Optional Add End ) On board the George Washington , President Cli

nton told the crew : `` You are , beyond question , the best-trained , the best-

equipped fighting force the world has ever known . And I want you to know that I

 am committed unequivocally , absolutely , to ensuring that you continue to have

 what you need to do your job . You deserve it . Our security demands it . '' Th

e president added , `` The strength of our military is not really in our ships ,

 our tanks or our aircraft , it is in you the dedicated professionalism of the m

en and women of the United States armed forces . '' `` You know what encapsulate

s this all for me ? '' the president asked . `` Eisenhower 's words , in which h

e said that D-day was the fury of an aroused democracy . Those words say it all 

. ''

 WASHINGTON Insistent advice from Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan 

to President Clinton during the presidential transition and early in the new adm

inistration led Clinton to pursue lower deficits at the expense of the economic 

populism of his campaign , according to a new book . The book , `` The Agenda : 

Inside the Clinton White House '' by Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor B

ob Woodward , is an intimate look at how the new Democratic president and his st

umbling , feuding team of advisers struggled to formulate and adopt an economic 

program during Clinton 's first year in office . It depicts a chaotic policy-mak

ing operation , crucial intercessions by Hillary Rodham Clinton and an active po

licy role played by four outside political advisers . The four were given open a

ccess to the White House , which they used in part to criticize the economic tea

m . They complained that Clinton 's fall in popularity was a result of policies 

being promoted by the economic advisers or at least the way those policies were 

packaged for sale to the public . The two groups are described as virtually at w

ar with each other . The book describes Clinton temper tantrums , and it depicts

 him as frequently indecisive and reluctant to delegate . It portrays virtually 

every member of Clinton 's inner circle , including Hillary Clinton , as critica

l of the president 's management style . On the vital economic front , Greenspan

 is described as a central player , albeit once removed from the inner circle . 

The book recounts what Woodward calls a crucial meeting between Clinton and Gree

nspan in Little Rock , Ark. , in December 1992 , the month before Clinton 's ina

uguration . During the 2-hour session , the Fed chairman told the president-elec

t that reducing the long-term federal budget deficit was `` essential '' and tha

t the economic recovery could fall on its face if policies credible to Wall Stre

et , particularly to bond-traders , were not advanced . Greenspan , in later con

versations with Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen , put a number on what would be

 credible : cutting the deficit $ 140 billion or more by 1997 . By tradition and

 law , the Fed is an independent agency it sets monetary policy while the White 

House and Congress decide how much the government will spend , raise in taxes an

d borrow . It is customary for the president and the Fed chairman to hold period

ic meetings . But in Woodward 's recounting of their relationship , Greenspan , 

a Republican appointed by President Ronald Reagan and reappointed by President G

eorge Bush , comes across as a senior adviser , almost a teacher to Clinton . In

 what became a pattern , the Fed chairman made suggestions , Clinton acted on th

em , and Greenspan rewarded the action with approving words to Congress , or oth

er public comments meant to signal his approval . Greenspan outlined to Clinton 

an economic approach Woodward calls the `` financial markets strategy . '' Polic

y was to be designed to send a message to Wall Street and ultimately , drive dow

n interest rates . According to the theory , the economy would improve and as a 

result , Clinton would have more tax revenue to spend on favored domestic progra

ms and be re-elected in 1996 . The theory , and the policy Clinton adopted , bor

e little resemblance to the economic program on which Clinton had campaigned . C

linton 's `` Putting People First '' campaign banner stressed government `` inve

stment '' in programs that would improve the lives of middle-class Americans suc

h as job training , early education , government promotion of cutting-edge techn

ology . A middle-class tax cut and health care for all Americans were additional

 sweeteners . As events developed , Greenspan 's economic scenario was not entir

ely accurate either . The bond market did react positively to Clinton 's economi

c package initially , but then early this year nervousness about inflation began

 to push interest rates up again , and Greenspan 's Fed raised its basic lending

 rate by 1.25 percent . Today long-term interest rates are nearly identical to w

hat they were when Clinton took office . But the economy is stronger now than in

 January 1993 and has added 3 million jobs since then . Woodward 's 334-page boo

k recounts the anguish and infighting produced by the transition from Clinton 's

 winning campaign platform to a national economic policy . It attributes words a

nd thoughts to participants in the debate , including both Clintons and virtuall

y all of their top aides , without saying directly who provided these words to t

he author . In an introduction Woodward writes that whenever he quotes someone ,

 the quotation comes from `` at least one participant , from memos , or from con

temporaneous notes or diaries of a participant. .. . ' ' It appears that Woodwar

d has talked to all the principals in his narrative , including the Clintons and

 Greenspan . He writes that all his interviews were conducted on ` ` ` deep back

ground , ' which means that I agreed not to identify these sources . '' The Wash

ington Post will publish four excerpts from `` The Agenda '' beginning Sunday . 

The book goes on sale next week . Greenspan 's advice to Clinton that a long-ter

m deficit-reduction program was of paramount importance was backed not only by B

entsen , but also by Budget Director Leon E. Panetta and his deputy , Alice M. R

ivlin , according to the book . The president 's economic advisers , with his as

sent , quickly jettisoned the tax cut , delayed health care reform , and then ad

ded an energy tax and spending cuts . Clinton 's political team campaign adviser

s James Carville and Paul Begala , media adviser Mandy Grunwald and pollster Sta

n Greenberg are portrayed as horrified and disgusted with this effort to please 

the market . Carville is quoted as joking he used to want to die and come back i

n a second life as the pope or president , but now he just wanted to be the bond

 market because it seemed to run the world . The four seem to have spent much of

 last year decrying what that saw as mismanagement at the White House and firing

 off memos arguing that the president and some of his aides had lost their souls

 to the deficit-cutters . In one memorable scene depicted in the book , Grunwald

 told White House deputy economic adviser Gene Sperling who had helped formulate

 the campaign budget plan that his new emphasis on deficit-cutting was coming ``

 dangerously close '' to betraying the themes that had gotten Clinton elected . 

Later , Grunwald told others that Sperling 's body had been snatched by Washingt

on insiders and deficit hawks and that `` hostile forces '' were seizing control

 of Clinton 's White House . Even Clinton , while intellectually acquiescing in 

the devastation of his investment programs , raged nonetheless at how it happene

d . While the book depicts him as highly intelligent and energetic , it recounts

 several Clinton temper tantrums , quoting senior aide George Stephanopoulos as 

calling them `` the wave '' overpowering , prolonged rages that shocked outsider

s and often seemed far out of proportion to their cause . In one scene late in t

he campaign , a low-level aide had told an audience that Clinton did not want lo

cal voters at an event . The president , discovering this , angrily said of the 

culprit , `` I want him dead , dead . I want him horsewhipped . '' He sent aides

 to Little Rock to find and fire the young man . After he cooled down , Clinton 

relented . In another scene , with the campaign en route to Chicago , Clinton di

scovered his staff had told Mayor Richard M. Daley the candidate had no time for

 a requested meeting with him . A furious Clinton asked , `` Who the hell could 

make such a dumb .. . mistake ? '' and ranted on and on . White House counselor 

David R. Gergen , witnessing the Clinton temper for the first time , is said to 

have been so alarmed that he raised it with Stephanopoulos , the frequent recipi

ent of Clinton 's verbal abuse . Stephanopoulos brushed it off as part of Clinto

n 's personality . A recurring theme in the book is Clinton 's inability to term

inate debate and make a decision and his reluctance to delegate . Amid the inter

nal debate over the budget , Clinton is portrayed as holding repeated , seemingl

y endless meetings at which issues rarely were decided , and during which he fre

quently changed his mind . Once the budget was passed by one vote in the House a

nd a tie-breaking Senate vote by Vice President Al Gore Bentsen is said to have 

taken Clinton aside and warned him he was mismanaging the presidency by trying t

o make every small decision and refusing to delegate . Bentsen believed Clinton 

had a superior , inquisitive mind and was capable of genuine vision , Woodward r

eports . Bentsen compared Clinton to Jimmy Carter displaying admirable energy an

d intellect but getting bogged down in the range of opinion and debate he demand

ed inside his government . Clinton `` could not contain his own doubts , '' Bent

sen told associates . `` The lapses of discipline and restraint '' kept him from

 acting methodically as a president should . Some of those concerns appeared to 

grow out of a White House with little management structure , in which the four p

olitical aides had unusual status . Outside the normal avenues , they sent angui

shed , internal memos into the White House warning of the near-collapse of the C

linton presidency and demanding meetings with the president and senior advisers 

. One of the memos , written in July as the White House headed into the crucial 

month leading up to the budget vote , warned apocalyptically that the `` current

 course , advanced by our economic team and congressional leaders , threatens to

 sink your popularity further and weaken your presidency . '' The memo , referri

ng to extensive polling and focus groups , recommended dropping the gasoline tax

 , paring back the deficit-reduction package , and repackaging and reselling an 

economic program so it was not about taxes but about getting the nation 's econo

mic house in order . The memo prompted Hillary Clinton to go to White House Chie

f of Staff Thomas F. `` Mack '' McLarty and insist it was `` panic time , '' wit

h no plan to sell the program they were about to send to Congress , no strategy 

and no decisions made on key elements . Hours of debate , presided over by the p

resident , ensued among the political team and policy advisers . One of the advi

sers , congressional liaison director Howard Paster , is described as being in a

 `` slow burn '' over the series of meetings and arguments from the outside cons

ultants . Paster thought `` it was outrageous the outside consultants were provi

ding the president with major policy option papers in confidential memos '' many

 senior staffers never saw , according to the book . The consultants got `` valu

able inside information '' and `` conflicts abounded . '' The consultants were t

rying to remake policy to respond to polls , a risky course , Paster felt , acco

rding to Woodward 's account . At one crucial meeting last July attended by the 

president and the first lady , Hillary Clinton chastised both the economic and p

olitical teams for ill serving Clinton , for lacking organization and planning ,

 for creating a `` dysfunctional '' White House . She complained they had allowe

d Clinton to appear to be a `` mechanic-in-chief , '' erased his `` moral voice 

'' and changed his economic program from a `` values document '' to a bunch of n

umbers . `` I want to see a plan '' for selling the program , she demanded . Mos

t saw Hillary Clinton 's denunciations in that meeting , which were followed by 

a burst of anger from Clinton himself at his staff , as an indictment of McLarty

 , whom the book portrays as an ineffective , sometimes bumbling character with 

no feel for politics and a fundamental misunderstanding of congressional relatio

ns . Hillary Clinton 's July critique , Woodward writes , amounted to a `` scald

ing indictment of McLarty . At crucial moments like this , Hillary was often de 

facto chief of staff . '' She insisted on the creation , with her assistance , o

f a campaign-like war room to run the budget operation . At the end of the budge

t battle , Paster resigned , citing a desire to return to private life . Woodwar

d attributes the resignation to McLarty 's failure to manage the White House . `

` Everyone and anyone freelanced , '' Paster is quoted as saying , and his job h

ad been made impossible . The book describes tension between Gergen , the Republ

ican brought in by McLarty on the advice of Sen. David L. Boren , D-Okla. and ma

ny of Clinton 's advisers , such as Stephanopoulos and the outside political con

sultants . Gergen concluded that the campaign team was captive of a mentality th

at needed someone to be against , and he was that someone . Carville and Begala 

argued against Gergen incessantly and Stephanopoulos is described as finding him

 `` almost intolerable . Whenever Clinton did something Republican , Gergen proc

laimed that the president was standing up for principle . Whenever Clinton did s

omething Democratic , it was caving . ''

 ALGIERS Ending a two-month lull , Islamic insurgents in the third year of a blo

ody struggle to turn Algeria into an Islamic republic have resumed attacks again

st government targets from barracks to troop convoys , dashing President Liamine

 Zeroual 's hopes of quelling the rebellion by a combination of force and dialog

ue . The country , North Africa 's largest and endowed with oil and gas riches ,

 thus seems headed for still more low-grade violence as a majority of the popula

tion persistently refuses to choose between the Islamic underground and an army-

based government seeking to preserve the secular state that emerged when Algeria

 won independence from France in 1962 . The rebels ' renewed military operations

 have undercut Zeroual 's innovative twin-track policy , designed to crack down 

on guerrilla activity while initiating controversial contacts with jailed leader

s of the Islamic Salvation Front . As a result , a stalemate appears to have set

 in nearly 29 months after the army precipitated the conflict by canceling indep

endent Algeria 's first free multiparty elections when the Islamic Front seemed 

headed for victory . The attacks also tarnished major government success in winn

ing support from international financial institutions and creditor governments f

or rescheduling Algeria 's crushing $ 26 billion foreign debt , devaluing an ove

rvalued currency by 40 percent and adopting its command economy to market forces

 . Coupled with the failure of Zeroual 's initial contacts with Islamic Front le

aders , the surge in fighting has heightened concerns in Paris , Madrid , Rome a

nd Washington about Algeria 's potential disintegration and repercussions in nea

rby southern Europe , already the main destination for thousands of Algerian emi

grants . In an apparent hedging of bets that has troubled Algerian officials , U

.S. diplomats in Washington said the Clinton administration has initiated contac

ts of its own with Islamic Front representatives . But Foreign Minister Mohammed

 Saleh Dembri , citing Russia , argued in an interview that Algeria deserves the

 same special treatment as other countries making a transition away from single-

party politics and command economies . As if to underline their staying power an

d ability to strike seemingly at will , in the past two weeks Muslim guerrillas 

have killed dozens of draftee soldiers , often by slitting their throats , in wi

dely separated parts of the country . Despite an official news blackout , key Al

gerians and foreign diplomats reported clashes at Telagh , 50 miles south of the

 western port city of Oran ; in Tenes , on the Mediterranean coast 75 miles west

 of Algiers , the capital ; in Medea , 50 miles south of Algiers ; and around th

e port of Jijel , nearly 200 miles to the east . Diplomats said the insurgents '

 operations were only the most spectacular incidents in day-in , day-out violenc

e in which the terrified citizenry is cut down by Islamic killers or shadowy gov

ernment death squads conducting summary executions in random reprisal . Although

 information from within the Islamic movement is sparse , specialists here say t

hey are convinced the imprisoned Islamic Front leadership cannot direct the smal

ler , more radical Armed Islamic Group , led by veterans of the Afghanistan war 

, and may not be in total control of the Islamic Front 's own military wing , th

e Armed Islamic Movement . Because of Algeria 's government censorship , no offi

cial casualty statistics are published , apparently for fear of panicking the co

untry 's 27 million citizens and its neighbors on both sides of the Mediterranea

n . Often the only widely publicized deaths are those of prominent citizens such

 as the rector of one of Algiers University 's campuses , who was assassinated t

his week . But educated guesses suggest that some 4,000 Algerians were killed in

 the first two years of strife and that in the last few months the accelerating 

toll has reached up to 40 fatalities daily , including many civilians . Foreigne

rs have been specifically targeted since September . Thirty-seven have been kill

ed by Islamic extremists , provoking the departure of most of the foreign commun

ity and discouraging desperately needed investment from abroad . Foreigners stil

l here lead circumscribed lives , often without their families , who have been s

ent abroad for safety . Diplomats rarely leave their embassy grounds . Other for

eigners constantly vary their movements and do not stray far from neighborhoods 

reputed to be safe . Algiers streets , clogged with car traffic and strolling pe

destrians during the day , are generally deserted by nightfall , well before the

 curfew , from 11:30 p.m. to 4 a.m. , takes effect . Further sapping Algerian so

ciety is the flight abroad of thousands of doctors , lawyers , architects , prof

essors , journalists , managers , engineers and others who considered themselves

 likely targets for Islamic assassins . Timid hopes of initiating meaningful pea

ce negotiations between the army and the Islamic Front foundered late last winte

r . The failure has frustrated many mainstream Algerians ' dreams of reconciling

 moderate political Islam with secular institutions . Zeroual 's mid-winter deci

sion to meet jailed Islamic Front leaders Ali Benhadj and Abassi Madani in Blida

 prison outside Algiers broke a taboo . But it frightened many in the so-called 

democratic parties representing educated , Westernized Algerians . They feared t

he army and Islamic Front might cut a deal excluding their rival constituencies 

, often disorganized but important . Two of these parties won seats in the first

 round of the 1991 elections-before the second round was canceled-although the t

wo parties finished far behind the Islamic Front . They are the Socialist Forces

 Front , strong among the ethnic Kabyle minority , and the National Liberation F

ront , which monopolized power after Algeria 's independence from France but has

 tried to move toward democracy over the last half-dozen years . The 150,000-man

 army , made up overwhelmingly of conscripts , is widely viewed as the last inst

itutional bastion of the secular state , even by critics who bemoan its lack of 

imagination , denounce its human rights violations and say they wish it would ne

gotiate a settlement with its Islamic adversaries . Whatever its shortcomings , 

the army has confounded predictions of inevitable collapse . These were first ma

de after key generals violated Algeria 's institutional legitimacy by forcing th

en-President Chadli Bendjedid from office and canceling the elections on Jan. 11

 , 1992 , reversing what had been a limited but noticeable move toward increased

 democracy . Nonetheless , conversations with politicians , military men , forme

r cabinet ministers , doctors , business people , housewives , analysts , journa

lists and diplomats revealed a profound pessimism about the future . In one meas

ure of the atmosphere , all refused to allow their names to be published . `` Th

e population refuses to take sides , '' a retired senior military officer said .

 `` The overwhelming majority of Algerians reject the regime because they want n

ew faces after more than 30 years of the same people in power . Equally overwhel

mingly , Algerians reject an Islamic republic because they are convinced the Isl

amic resistance is nihilist and incapable of running the country . ''

 RICHMOND , Va. . One day after Oliver L. North won Virginia 's Republican nomin

ation for the U.S. Senate , Senate GOP leader Robert J. Dole rained on North 's 

victory celebration by refusing to endorse him and reaching out to potential Nor

th opponent J. Marshall Coleman . Dole , of Kansas , said in a nationally televi