‘Liberal Elite’ Perils Defense, Bush Charges

Vice President George Bush today accused a “liberal elite” of seeking to undermine U.S. defense and said that while he was encouraged by the upcoming superpower summit, “we cannot wish away the Soviet Union as a competitor.”

The Republican presidential contender, addressing a graduation ceremony at the U.S. Military Academy, said the times require leadership that “will pursue negotiations with the Soviet realistically.”

Standing in a pouring rain during the outdoor ceremony, Bush told the graduating cadets that summits such as the one in Moscow beginning this weekend “are good in and of themselves, for they contribute to an atmosphere of peace and familiarity.”

However, Bush said Americans must not become too complacent about a Soviet threat just because the two sides are talking.

In what was billed by his aides as a nonpolitical speech, Bush lashed out at liberals.

However, he praised the late President John F. Kennedy for standing firm against the Soviets in Cuba, saying Kennedy’s acts were in line with a bipartisan consensus on dealing with the Soviets that had prevailed from the 1940s.

‘The Center Did Not Hold’

“But by the ‘70s, the consensus had fractured, splintered, the center did not hold,” Bush said.

“The liberal elite do not understand, they never understood, the common sense behind” the former approach to the Soviets, Bush told the graduating cadets.

“They are so blinded by ideology that they cannot see what Americans have understood for 40 years: that peace flows from strength,” he said.

Bush said such people, whom he did not identify, “will make the world more dangerous.”

Bush was campaigning later today in New Jersey, then was heading to his oceanfront vacation home in Kennebunkport, Me. While Reagan is in Moscow, Bush is to spend the next week meeting with advisers and Republican leaders with an eye to sharpening his strategy for the fall campaign.