Giuliani touts free trade during speech to Illinois manufacturers

Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani says free trade leads to peace because war is an undesirable option between trade partners.

"It's part of the story of how we won the Cold War," Giuliani told more than 450 members of the Illinois Manufacturers Association meeting in Chicago on Friday. When American companies started doing business with the former Soviet Union, tensions between that country and the United States began to ease, he said.

The remark was Giuliani's second mention of the Cold War, the post World War II rivalry between the United States and the former Soviet Union. In a tribute to late Illinois congressman Henry Hyde, Giuliani mentioned Hyde's role in ending the Cold War.

Giuliani recently has cloaked himself in the mantle of Ronald Reagan, whose name is most associated with the Cold War's end. He evoked Reagan's optimism Friday, promising fiscally conservative policies if he is elected president and calling President Reagan his hero.

Later Friday, the former New York mayor held a town hall meeting at the National Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame, where he got the endorsement of former Republican Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood.

Giuliani told the crowd of about 120 people that illegal immigration has to end because of the risks posed by terrorism and drug dealing. He said it's wrong to suggest that all illegal immigrants who come to the U.S. are bad people but that illegal immigration makes us vulnerable to the few people who want to do us harm.

The front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination has already been endorsed by two former Republican Illinois governors -- James Thompson and Jim Edgar. Wood served with George Ryan, who is currently serving a 6 1/2 year federal prison sentence for racketeering and fraud.