Bush, Dukakis Aides Slate 1st Debate Sept. 25

The campaign chairmen for George Bush and Michael S. Dukakis agreed today that the first of two presidential debates will take place Sept. 25 at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Dukakis campaign chairman Paul Brountas said there will be two presidential debates with the second scheduled for Oct. 13 or 14. A vice presidential debate will take place during the week beginning Oct. 3, he added.

Brountas, who had initially wanted four presidential debates, told reporters that the American people will have a chance to see candidates “face to face and man to man.”

Brountas met with Bush campaign chairman James A. Baker III for more than three hours.

Accord Not Yet Final

Both men said that details on the format of the debates have not yet been worked out and that the accord is not final until those questions have been resolved.

“I think that what we had was a cooperation today that we haven’t seen previously,” Brountas said. “We reached an agreement to have three debates, and that’s the important thing.”

The date of the second debate between Bush and Dukakis is dependent “on the time of the seventh playoff game of the American League. . . ,” Brountas said in reference to the major league baseball playoffs.

The two sides say they hope to increase the television audience for the encounters by avoiding a conflict with sporting events.

Potential Conflicts

Beginning with the Summer Olympics in Seoul that open Sept. 17, the debates face potential conflicts almost every night with the Olympics, the baseball playoffs and World Series, and professional football.

The agreement was a tactical victory for Bush who wanted to limit the debates to two and to have them end well before the Nov. 8 election.

Dukakis, who needs to persuade voters that he is equal in stature to his more experienced rival, initially sought four debates beginning in early September and with the last just before the November balloting.

The Dukakis campaign also abandoned its demand that the first debate be restricted to international and defense matters.