Bush Angrily Defends Quayle on Guard Issue

Vice President George Bush on Monday furiously defended his running mate’s decision to join the National Guard during the Vietnam War, denouncing as a “shrill partisan attack” the controversy surrounding Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle.

“True, he didn’t go to Vietnam, because his unit wasn’t sent,” Bush told members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars at their Chicago national convention. “But there’s another truth.

“He did not go to Canada. He did not burn his draft card. And he damn sure did not burn the American flag!” Bush shouted.

Double Offensive

Bush spoke hours before Quayle himself addressed the veterans. The double-barreled offensive by the Republican ticket aimed to torpedo the controversy over whether Quayle, a pro-military conservative, benefited from undue influence when he entered the National Guard in 1969 as his college draft deferment was ending.

Bush told the veterans’ convention, a carefully selected forum that provided a reminder of his own military service, that Quayle’s Guard unit had openings when he enlisted. He did not elaborate, but Quayle later released a letter from key Indiana National Guard officers supporting the statement.

Quayle has acknowledged that he called a family employee, who was also a retired major general in the Guard, to help him gain entrance. On Monday he told the veterans that he “asked no one for special treatment.”

Bush’s heated remarks won a standing ovation from several thousand delegates, but concerns remain over the Quayle controversy and its impact on the presidential campaign’s momentum.

Despite Bush’s assertion that the furor over Quayle’s military record stems from partisan politics, ranking Republicans have also voiced doubts about the matter, most vocally Kansas Sen. Bob Dole.

On Sunday, Dole said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Quayle’s presence on the ticket will make it harder for the Republicans to win voters, particularly the conservative Democrats whom Bush must attract.

And on Monday, a CBS News poll found that half the respondents in a national survey said they did not believe Quayle has the experience to be a good President, and another 28% were unsure. Thirty-nine percent said they wished Bush had chosen someone else.

Leads by 6 Points

Still, Bush led Democratic nominee Michael S. Dukakis by 46% to 40% in the poll of 1,221 registered voters nationwide. Dukakis had led by 17 points shortly after last month’s Democratic National Convention.

The CBS survey was the first conducted entirely after the GOP convention in New Orleans ended Thursday with a well-received speech by Bush. It found favorable views of Bush and confidence in his leadership well up from their pre-convention levels.

But voters expressed reservations about the qualifications and background of Quayle.

‘Unfair Attempt’

Forty percent of the respondents said phone calls made on behalf of Quayle to the Guard represented “an unfair attempt” to gain admission; 40% said such calls were acceptable, and 20% were unsure.

Among the 7 in 10 who had heard of the issue, 48% said they believed Quayle had joined the Guard to avoid the draft. Just 29% believed that was not his main reason, and 22% said they did not know.

The 6-point spread in the race was just within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 3 points. But several recent polls have shown Bush gaining and Dukakis dropping from his post-convention lead, allowing the conclusion that the Republicans lead slightly. In a Gallup poll last weekend, they led by 9 points, 51% to 42%.

Veterans’ Views

Like many of those polled nationally, several veterans at the VFW convention here said before Quayle’s speech that while they support Bush, they too object to Quayle’s war-era status and fear the Republican ticket will be hurt by its repercussions.

“He should have went and served like anybody else,” said 67-year-old Leonard Wiggins of Albuquerque, a veteran of World War II’s European campaign.

“Yeah, it’s going to hurt them.”

Bush, in making his remarks about Quayle, interrupted an assertive address in which he scoffed at some of Dukakis’ defense policy positions.

Cites War Record

Bush took the stage in a VFW cap and reminded the delegates of his war service, which included the receipt of the Distinguished Flying Cross for action in the Pacific during World War II.

He invoked his background in his defense of the 41-year-old Quayle.

“Let me give you my views, because I served in active combat,” he said, “because I saw my countrymen, some of them, killed, as many of you did. I think I can speak from a sound perspective.”

Bush took special care to applaud Vietnam veterans, telling members of the audience that he cannot pass by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington without “a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye.

“And it’s going to be that way until the day that I die,” he said.

Fierce Defense

But he fiercely defended others who did not fight overseas during the lengthy Southeast Asia conflict.

“Many others served too,” he said. “Some were in the Reserves and were not sent overseas. Some served in the National Guard and were not sent overseas.

“But they served, and my running mate was one of them. . . . So let ‘em criticize.”

A veteran from the crowd yelled, “Give ‘em hell, George,” prompting the vice president to smile, ending his angry denunciation.

The generally conservative veterans’ organization, besides applauding Bush’s defense of his beleaguered running mate, also loudly greeted his swipes at Democratic nominee Dukakis.

Cites Football Player

Referring to Dukakis’ statement two weeks ago that President Reagan’s positions on the Soviet Union, on the Persian Gulf and on southern Africa were closer to his than to Bush’s, the vice president invoked the name of the massive Chicago Bears lineman, William (Refrigerator) Perry.

“He’s about as close to Ronald Reagan in the area of national security as Winnie-the-Pooh is to Refrigerator Perry in the area of bears,” Bush said.

He also criticized the Democrat for opposing construction in Massachusetts of microwave towers connecting an emergency defense communications network.

Bush and his aides said 52 of the 56 sites for the Ground Wave Emergency Network, or GWEN system, have been built and only Dukakis, of the nation’s governors, refused to have a site in his state.

Defense Reforms

On the positive side, Bush pledged that he would push for adoption of the Packard Commission defense reforms, including simplification of procurement laws, a streamlined budget process and cuts in bureaucracy.

The Reagan Administration has been criticized for not pushing harder for implementation of the standards, and a Bush aide acknowledged that stressing his emphasis on reform was a way of underscoring Bush’s differences with Reagan.

“He’s talking about what he believes in,” said Dennis Ross, Bush’s foreign policy adviser.

Bush, whose campaign has been concerned that the recent Defense Department procurement scandal would tarnish his campaign, made a point of referring to the episode in his address.

“There is no more need to tolerate waste in defense resources than there is to tolerate fraud,” he said. “Like espionage, fraud and waste weaken us secretly.”