WHAT'S BUSH'S VISION?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00418R000100310015-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: May 11, 1989
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/10: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100310015-2
STAT
STAT
What's Bush's Vision?
G EORGE BUSH's inclina-
tion to be cautious and de-
liberate has generally
served him well over the years. For
the most part, it's been what the
country needed as it moved beyond
the Reagan era in foreign and do-
mestic policy. The President has put
together a solid Cabinet of ex-
perienced veterans and begun in a
few areas to make his mark.
But there's a feeling now - six
months after the election - that
events are beginning to control Mr.
Bush rather than the other way
round.
Looking at public opinion and
the pronouncements of many ana-
lysts and former government offi-
cials - even those close to Ronald
Reagan - one senses caution be-
coming hesitancy. It's too soon to
call it lack of leadership or drift
(and certainly not "malaise"). But
Americans, and the country's allies
and adversaries, have yet to get a
clear picture of Bush's world view
and how he'll proceed now that he
heads the world's richest, most pow-
erful nation.
He may be uncomfortable with
"the vision thing," as he unfortu-
nately once called it. But that's ex-
act) what's needed now, and no-
where is this more important than
in relations with the Soviet Union.
It affects how the US conducts itself
in other parts of the world. And it's
essential to building the domestic
political support necessary to move
ahead in a time of new relation-
ships.
There can be little doubt that
things have changed remarkably
under Mikhail Gorbachev. Soviet
troops start pulling out of East Ger-
many today. Americans are in Rus-
sia (and Russians in Utah) checking
out the dismantling of nuclear mis-
siles. Soviet voters are chucking out
party hacks. Political reform is com-
ing to Poland, and some of the
barbed wire between Hungary and
Austria has been torn down. These
are largely symbols, its true. But
they are symbols with considerable
substance behind them as well, and
they require a substantial response.
The Bush administration reac-
tion has been to tut-tut over West
Germans wanting to get rid of nu-
clear weapons designed only to land
on German soil (not an unrea-
sonable concern). Defense Secre-
tars Richard Cheney suggests, un-
helpfully, that Gorbachev is likely to
fail. And Secretarv of State James
Baker III brings nothing new to
Moscow.
The Soviet leader could fail (al-
though it's increasingly unlikel
that would mean a return to the old
days of Soviet bulling). NATO
should remain strong (and that prob-
T e Washington Post
The New York Times
The Washington Timee
The Wail Street Journal
The Chrinian Science Monitor
Now York Dally News
USA Today
The Chicago Tribune
Oats JMM4 y J
ably will have to include some bat-
tlefield nuclear weapons for at least
a while). And caution in dis-
mantling the remnants of the cold
war still is called for.
But as former CIA director
James Schlesinger caid th-e tither
day, "For [the USI to appear both
passive and impassive to Gorbachev
is a problem. One needs to strike a
balance between caution ... and re-
sponsiveness to the changes going
on in the Soviet Union."
So it's time for George Bush to
demonstrate a little more boldness,
a little more vision in hip approach
to the way the world is changing. He
could start with the speeches he's
planned for this week and next. We
haven't heard one of any particular
note since Republicans nominated
him last summer. We need to now.
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1, Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/10 _ CIA-RDP99-00418R000100310015-2 . ~~ ,,,