Quayle Flies to Vets Parley to Defend His War Record : Will Follow Emotional Bush Talk

Sen. Dan Quayle, his vice presidential bid increasingly drawing fire, cut short his visit in Washington this afternoon and abruptly flew to Chicago to address a VFW convention that hours earlier had cheered when an angry George Bush declared that his running mate had not burned his draft card during the Vietnam War.

David Prosperi, Quayle’s press secretary, said the senator would speak to the veterans “not only about the past, but the future.”

Earlier, an angry Bush, fighting to get past a controversy threatening his campaign, declared in a passionate speech at the convention that his running mate had served honorably in the National Guard during the war.

“Dan Quayle served in the National Guard, signing up in a unit that had vacancies at the time, and now he is under shrill partisan attack. . . . He served honorably. True, he didn’t go to Vietnam, but his unit wasn’t sent,” Bush said, his voice rising with emotion as he departed from his text.

“But there’s another truth: He did not go to Canada, he did not burn his draft card and he damn sure didn’t burn the American flag, and I’m proud to have him at my side,” Bush said, drawing a standing ovation from participants at a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

“Give ‘em hell, George!” some of the audience shouted.

Shifting Terms of Debate

By reminding voters that thousands of Americans avoided military service by moving to Canada while others burned their draft cards and the U.S. flag to protest the war, Bush appeared to be dramatically shifting the terms of the debate.

Quayle, a 41-year-old Indiana senator who was virtually unknown before Bush tapped him for the second spot on the Republican ticket, has been mired in controversy over allegations he pulled strings to win a spot in the National Guard in 1969 to avoid being drafted for combat in Vietnam.

Quayle, who returned to Washington on Sunday after three days of joint campaigning with Bush, has admitted that his influential family made some phone calls on his behalf but says he did nothing improper.

“By golly, I’m proud that Mom and Dad wanted to help me,” Quayle said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” this morning.

Sees No Hypocrisy

Quayle also said he does not think it was hypocritical for him to strongly back the war effort and opt to join the Guard at the same time.

“I don’t think it’s hypocritical. There were a lot of people that were in my National Guard unit that supported the goals of fighting communism in Vietnam but were in the National Guard.”

But the flap has prevented the Republicans from taking the offensive against Democratic candidate Michael S. Dukakis. It has raised doubts about Bush’s judgment in picking a candidate whose qualifications to be President have been widely questioned and overshadowed efforts to lay out his own agenda.

Bush opened his discussion of Quayle with a reference to his own service as a naval aviator in the Pacific in World War II.

‘A Sound Perspective’

“Because I served in active combat, because I saw my countrymen killed . . . as many of you did, I think I can speak from a sound perspective,” Bush said.

“I hardly ever walk by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington when I don’t get a lump in my throat or a tear in my eye. But many others served, too, some in the Army Reserve, some in the National Guard--people who were not sent overseas. But they served, and my running mate was one of them.

“Now, 20 years later, he’s a seasoned United States senator, a leader in defense matters, a strong supporter of American veterans,” he added.