By JOHN M. BRODER

          TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- President Clinton visited American troops involved in relief
          efforts in Honduras on Tuesday in an effort to dramatize the new security relationship between
          the United States and Central America.

          No longer are thousands of American soldiers and covert agents engaged in not-so-secret wars on
          leftist insurgents, the president underscored with his appearances with U.S. forces involved in
          hurricane-relief projects. American troops in Central America today are social workers in fatigues,
          clearing highways, providing shelter and immunizing children.

          The president told the troops here that their job today was building bridges, physical and
          metaphorical, between the people of the United States and the peoples of Central America.

          Clinton visited the site of the Juan Ramon Molina Bridge in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital,
          where a 44-year-old span over the Choluteca River washed away on Oct. 31 in the floods of
          Hurricane Mitch. In February, a Marine detachment installed a 230-foot-long steel-panel bridge to
          reopen a critical commercial link between Tegucigalpa and its sister city, Comayaguela.

          The destructiveness of the floods is evident along the riverbed, where dozens of structures were
          smashed by the onrushing waters, and debris remains scattered high along the banks.

          Earlier on Tuesday, at Soto Cano Air Base, 60 miles from here, Clinton praised the "courage,
          competence and compassion" of the 500 American military personnel of Joint Task Force Bravo,
          which is helping Honduras recover from the hurricane.

          "You have shown the people of Central America the true colors of our men and women in uniform,"
          Clinton told the troops, who interrupted his 15-minute talk eight times with lusty war whoops.

          A spokesman for the National Security Council, Michael Hammer, said the American relief efforts
          had changed the way Central Americans look at the United States and its military forces. They are
          no longer seen as partners in their governments' repression, Hammer said, but as sources of aid at a
          difficult time.

          "Clearly, there has been apprehension in the past about the U.S. military," Hammer said. "But the
          way we responded immediately through our military to provide assistance has cast a new light on the
          U.S. military, a positive light."

          The president said that the mission, Operation Fuerte Apoyo, or Strong Support, was one of the
          largest relief efforts undertaken by the military since the Berlin Airlift 50 years ago. At its peak,
          5,600 American troops were in Honduras, which bore the brunt of the hurricane rains.

          More than 5,600 Hondurans were killed by the storm. An additional 8,000 are missing; 82,000
          houses were destroyed, and 2.1 million of the population of 6 million were displaced.

          Although the United States has committed $420 million to relief efforts, Clinton said, "I believe the
          United States should do more." He has proposed an additional $956 million. The request is hung up
          in Congress in a dispute over the source of the money.

          In the Soto Cano audience was Chief Warrant Officer Noble Calloway, a veteran of 32 years in the
          Marines, who is deputy director of civil-military operations for the U.S. forces here. He supervises
          troops that are repairing roads, building bridges, digging wells, providing medical care and delivering
          food and clothing.

          Trained as an infantryman, Calloway said his job now is a welcome change from the combat that he
          saw in Vietnam and projects a better image for the Marine Corps, whose training emphasizes killing
          with efficiency and dispatch.

          "I definitely know that end of it," said Calloway, who is on a three-month tour here from his post at
          the Anacostia Naval Station in Washington. "This is, after all those years, totally different. It's more
          fulfilling, because you're actually helping people."

          He served in Bosnia, where the residents at first met American troops with suspicion. He said he had
          not encountered any anti-American sentiment in the 37 days he has been here.

          "It's a lot nicer to go home and talk about how you helped a country rebuild," Calloway said, "rather
          than talk about the death and destruction you've seen and taken part in."
 
 

                     Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company