Shultz, at Berlin Wall, Warns Moscow : U.S. ‘Will Not Be Bullied’ by Kremlin Leadership, He Declares

Secretary of State George P. Shultz, using the Berlin Wall as a dramatic backdrop, warned the Soviet Union on Saturday that the United States “will not be bullied” by Moscow’s leadership.

Shultz stopped in Berlin on his way to Romania and Hungary, the first trip in almost four years by an American secretary of state to any of the Soviet Union’s East European allies.

Although his official visit to the two East Bloc nations, Washington’s favorite members of the Warsaw Pact, is designed to capitalize on the relaxation of East-West tensions following the Geneva summit meeting, Shultz did not stint on Cold War rhetoric during his visit to the divided city of Berlin.

Divided Plaza

Arriving after dark and in a driving rainstorm, Shultz was driven to Potsdam Square, bisected by the Berlin Wall, looking on the western side a little like a New York subway car covered with spray-painted graffiti. Bright floodlights illuminated the scene.

Dressed in a light tan raincoat and a dark cap borrowed from a U.S. soldier, Shultz stood on an unpainted wooden platform while West Berlin Mayor Eberhard Diepgen described the history of the 24-year-old wall. Shultz appeared fascinated, the little streams of water that ran from the peak of his cap notwithstanding.

Earlier, he walked down a soggy red carpet to take the salute from Army and Air Force troops of the U.S. Berlin Brigade.

“Berlin is more than an outpost of freedom,” Shultz said as he added his name to the city’s book of distinguished visitors. “It is a center of Western ideals and a place to renew our moral values.”

‘Opportunity’ for Soviets

In a speech to the West Berlin Press Assn., Shultz said the summit talks between President Reagan and Soviet Communist Party leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev gave Gorbachev’s new team of advisers an opportunity “to see our resolve firsthand.”

“The world can only be better off if these men see that the democracies will stand firm against pressures. . . . We will not be bullied, but we are ready for give and take in negotiations for fair solutions to the problems that divide us,” he said.

Echoing John F. Kennedy’s famous remark “Ich bin ein Berliner” (“I am a Berliner”) by starting his own address, “Fellow Berliners,” Shultz called the city “a beacon to all who yearn for freedom everywhere.”

“By staying in Berlin and retaining our rights here, we and our allies demonstrate clearly to all the world that we do not accept incorporation of Eastern Europe, including the GDR (East Germany) and East Berlin, into a Soviet sphere of influence,” he said.

Shultz is scheduled to venture into Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe today, visiting both Bucharest and Budapest. He plans to remain in Hungary most of the day Monday.

The secretary of state chose Romania for a visit because it sometimes defies Moscow’s lead on foreign policy and because, according to some accounts, it offers easier emigration for its Jews than other East Bloc countries--despite the repressive domestic policies of the Bucharest regime generally. He picked Hungary because its economic policies are more liberal than those of most other Communist states.

Consulted With Bonn

Shultz prepared for his first trip to a Soviet-allied country either as a government official or private tourist by seeking the advice of West German leaders Saturday during a brief stops in Bonn and in Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s hometown of Ludwigshoffen before his arrival in Berlin.

“My German friends have suggested that the Eastern Europeans will be very interested to hear about the Geneva meeting and its implications as we see it,” Shultz said.

Shultz had lunch with Kohl at Lugwigshoffen, near Frankfurt, after meetings in Bonn with Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher and two leaders of the opposition Social Democratic Party, former Chancellor Willy Brandt and Johannes Rau, a leading contender for the party’s nomination for chancellor in the elections scheduled in early 1987.

He said he asked all four men for their impressions of Romania and Hungary, describing his time in West Germany on Saturday as “an academic morning.”

Although the West German Cabinet is scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether it will officially back German participation in President Reagan’s “Star Wars” missile defense plan, Shultz and his aides said that the program was not a major topic of conversation.

Decision Due

Shultz quoted Kohl as saying that the Cabinet’s decision will be made shortly before Shultz returns to Washington.

“I didn’t ask him what that decision was,” the secretary added.

A senior U.S. official said the topic of strategic defenses did not even come up at the other meetings.

The official insisted that Washington-Bonn relationships will not be affected by the decision, whichever way it goes.

“We have never made getting on board on SDI (the Strategic Defense Initiative, the formal name for “Star Wars”) a test of alliance membership,” the official said. “We’ve said we will welcome participation if a country has something to offer. It has become a (political) issue (in West Germany), and we certainly hope it will be resolved in favor of SDI.”