Bush Says Dukakis Is ‘Far Outside’ Mainstream on Defense

Intensifying efforts to unsettle America about his Democratic opponent, Republican Vice President George Bush said Thursday Michael S. Dukakis stands “far outside” the bipartisan mainstream that has guided American defense policy for 40 years.

“My experience tells me that the governor of Massachusetts would make the world not a safe place. I think it would be more dangerous,” Bush said.

He charged that Dukakis’ views on defense “amount to a rejection of America’s role as a world leader.”

Further, Bush asserted that policies advocated by Dukakis would “seriously cripple deterrence and put us in a weak negotiating position with the Soviets.”

Bush’s remarks, delivered to an audience of Latino military veterans, represented an escalation in the already heated attempts by Republicans to portray Dukakis as a liberal out on the left horizon of American political thought.

Bush strived to separate Dukakis from the traditions established by Democratic presidents Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy.

“The measure of our commitment is not words, but the willingness to live up to them when faced with a challenge. Harry Truman did that when the Soviets blockaded Berlin in 1948. John Kennedy did that when ballistic missiles were installed in Cuba in 1962,” Bush said.

“Do today’s liberal leaders understand what it means to stand up to a challenge and meet our commitments? I guarantee, I will.

“It concerns me . . . that the Democratic nominee seems to have veered far outside that mainstream. His positions, if taken together, add up to a major departure from the post-war bipartisan consensus on foreign policy.”

Bush complained that Dukakis would lead the United States to effective “unilateral disarmament” by not pursuing new multi-warhead MX missiles, by opposing development of the single-warhead Midgetman missiles and by opposing flight testing of new missiles.

Bush also criticized Dukakis for expressing reservations about deploying stealth weapon technologies and arming Trident submarines with a new generation of weapons. The vice president additionally said Dukakis was shortsighted in opposing construction of two new aircraft carriers and their battle groups of ships and charged that Dukakis supported a nuclear freeze that “would have doomed” disarmament talks with the Soviets and locked in a Soviet advantage in the number of nuclear warheads.

“American strength cannot be built on the basis of slogans. It is not enough to say you are for a strong defense and at the same time pledge to eliminate nearly every new weapons system that would give those words substance,” Bush said.

Dukakis, campaigning in Mississippi Thursday, said: “Well, that’s nonsense. The fact of the matter is we have a massive survivable nuclear deterrent right now--12,000 strategic nuclear warheads. What we don’t have is the kind of conventional deterrent we need.”

Referring to Bush’s attack, Dukakis said: “I think the vice president knows better than that. I want a strong America. All Americans want a strong America. But we’ve got to have strong conventional forces as well as a strong nuclear deterrent.”

Dukakis said he used to favor a nuclear freeze in the early days of the Reagan Administration to put pressure on Reagan to take arms control seriously. “Now that’s turned around, and we’re seriously talking about arms reduction,” he said.

Bush’s speech was the third in a recent series on foreign affairs--an area in which the candidates have keen differences, and where Bush claims an advantage in experience. This address was far and away the harshest on his opponent.

Repeatedly in Thursday’s speech, Bush ridiculed Dukakis campaign statements about defense and foreign affairs. He charged that in some cases Dukakis had taken confusing positions on important matters and that Democrats in their 1988 platform “skirted the issues.”

“Why,” Bush asked, “are they so afraid to tell the American people what they think?

“Is it because the last two times they did so--in 1980 and in 1984--they lost by two of the biggest landslides in history?”

Bush belittled his opponent for once opposing the B-1 bomber but now saying he would accept it.

“He (Dukakis) said the defense budget would have to be cut. Then he said it was about right. Then he backed away from both positions, saying he refused to make a commitment either way,” Bush said.

This was the vice president’s first trip to his adopted home state of Texas since Dukakis picked Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen for a running mate and thereby drove up the ante here.

And if there is one political prize in Texas--and the rest of the West--that Bush, Dukakis and Bentsen all are determined to seek, it is Latino voters. Hence, the speech to the American GI Forum, one of the country’s most important Latino organizations.

The vice president acknowledged that Dukakis is fluent in Spanish. But Bush claimed a different connection.

“My blood is in the veins of some Hispanics--my three grandchildren. And so he can speak Spanish, I’ve got the heartbeat.”

Bush expanded the bloodlines metaphor for the benefit of other Lone Star voters, too. “My heartbeat is Texas,” he said at an airport news conference. “His heartbeat is liberal Democratic Massachusetts.”

The vice president abruptly changed travel plans Thursday and made a side trip to Chicago en route from Texas back to Washington, D.C. The purpose was to attend a wake for Aloyius Majewski, 72, who was president of the National Polish Alliance.

Bush called him “an old friend.” Majewski died Wednesday of a heart attack while golfing in Wisconsin.