Watch Foreign Policy Rhetoric, Candidates Told

Several former secretaries of state and defense from one Republican and three Democratic administrations Sunday cautioned George Bush and Michael S. Dukakis to keep their foreign policy rhetoric toned down to avoid post-election problems.

“Some political promises which bring success in the election may produce failure in office,” said a report from a panel headed by three past secretaries of state--Dean Rusk, Cyrus R. Vance and William P. Rogers.

“Unwise election statements can become unwelcome legacies to the new Administration and mislead foreign powers,” the report said.

The commission, sponsored by the University of Virginia, first met five years ago to study the process and problems of presidential transitions. It completed its work in 1986 but held release of the report until now in order to make it more timely, a university spokesman said.

The report, without mentioning names of candidates, stressed they “should take special care to refrain, even at the expense of political advantage, from disparaging the career services on whom they will later need to rely for the wide conduct of the country’s foreign policy.”

Vance, who served under Democrat Jimmy Carter, and Rogers, who served under Republican Richard M. Nixon, were co-chairmen of the panel, which was founded by Rusk, who served under Democrats John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Also on the commission were Harold Brown, who was secretary of defense under Carter, and Clark M. Clifford, who was a defense secretary under Johnson.