Bush Steps Out of Shadows (Cautiously) as 2 Presidents Confer

For President-elect George Bush, the two hours spent Wednesday with President Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev offered a carefully constructed opportunity to step out of the foreign policy shadows in which he has resided for the past eight years. And that’s just what, ever so cautiously, he did.

It was no accident that when Reagan and Gorbachev shook hands on the steps of Quarters One, the home of the U.S. Coast Guard commander on Governors Island, the vice president remained a pace or two behind Reagan.

Effusive Welcome

Strolling into the sunshine from the shadows of the gracious red-brick Georgian building, he reached in front of the retiring President and introduced himself to Gorbachev. The Soviet leader responded with an effusive welcome.

And when Reagan escorted the Soviet leader to Liberty Village at the southern end of the island to peer across a narrow stretch of New York Harbor to the Statue of Liberty, Bush went along for the view.

“The way we put this together, it elevated him to the category of Reagan and Gorbachev,” a senior White House official said. “All that has been done consciously.”

Never mind that when the three leaders climbed into Gorbachev’s Soviet-made Zil limousine for a short trip across the island, it was Bush who rode backward on the jump seat. He is not the President--not yet.

Indeed, Bush was very precise in drawing the line between everything that happens before his inauguration at noon EST on Jan. 20 and all that follows.

During a picture-taking session, Reagan was asked what he thought of Gorbachev’s announcement that the Soviet Union would trim its military strength in Eastern Europe. “I heartily approve,” he replied.

When the question was put to Bush, the vice president and President-elect answered: “I support what the President says.”

But he added, “Give me a ring on the 21st.” That prompted Gorbachev to crack: “One of the best answers of the year.”

Bush, referring to the reporters and photographers who were being ushered out at that moment, came back: “At least it made them go away.”

During the luncheon, according to Secretary of State George P. Shultz, Bush played a “quite active” role, even though “he came here very deliberately as the vice president.”

Shultz said Bush pressed Gorbachev on the need to eliminate chemical weapons from the global arsenals, as well as raising the difficulty of such a task--an element the President-elect frequently introduces in discussions of the future of East-West relations.

The secretary of state also said that as a number of U.S.-Soviet issues were raised--including the direction of efforts to reduce the superpowers’ arsenals of long-range nuclear missiles and bombers--Bush focused on the need for continuity and the need to study the proposals.

He “was in and out of the discussion in a very comfortable and strong way,” Shultz said.

For his part, Gorbachev made it clear that although he was pleased to meet again with Reagan, the lame-duck 40th President, he was eagerly awaiting Bush’s inauguration as the 41st President.

In the speech Gorbachev gave to the U.N. General Assembly before the Governors Island meeting, the Soviet leader pointedly referred to “the next U.S. Administration headed by President-elect George Bush.”

The new leadership in the United States, he said, would “find in us a partner who is ready--without long pauses or backtracking--to continue the dialogue in a spirit of realism, openness and good will, with a willingness to achieve concrete results.”

In recent weeks Bush has spoken only in general terms about the future of U.S.-Soviet relations. One month after his election, he remains in the midst of putting together the team of senior advisers who will conduct his foreign policy.

So far, he has selected his secretary of state, James A. Baker III, and his national security adviser, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Brent A. Scowcroft. But their senior advisers and assistants have not yet been named, and, as if to underscore his vice presidential role, Bush took no retinue of foreign policy experts with him to the meeting Wednesday.

Although he has stressed that he would not stray greatly from Reagan’s approach, Bush has expressed skepticism about the sincerity of the Soviets’ intentions. Only a year ago, he said that Gorbachev, despite his appeal to many in the West, remained “an orthodox, committed Marxist and a formidable and determined competitor for world power.”

Less Fervor

At the same time, Bush has displayed less ideological fervor on the issue than has Reagan, who only recently rescinded his view of Moscow as the heart of an “evil empire.” Just six days before the Nov. 8 election, he promised a more open relationship with the Soviet Union than he had advocated in the past.

Soon after Gorbachev’s plans to visit New York were made public, Bush, his aides and White House officials were careful to note that his role in the Governors Island meeting would be that of vice president, not of President-elect.

Indeed, as Reagan and Bush awaited Gorbachev’s arrival on the Coast Guard base in New York Harbor, the President was more than willing to chat with reporters, while Bush dismissed questions with a smile.

Bush, a White House official said, was “very careful to not upstage the President.” On the other hand, were Bush not the President-elect, he “very likely wouldn’t have been included,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

So although Bush again was acting as vice president--sitting, typically, slightly off-center while Reagan and Gorbachev posed for pictures in front of a smoldering fire--he was playing an unusual role.

Message of Continuity

To be sure, his presence sent a message of continuity in U.S. relations with the Soviet Union, even as the nation stands six weeks away from its first change in leadership in eight years.

That, said one senior aide to the President-elect, “is the biggest symbol” of the day.

Another Bush aide was similarly skeptical this week about public attempts to play down the importance of the President-elect’s role.

“It’s a major event, no matter how low-key, when the leader of the Soviet Union and the man who will be the leader of the free world actually meet. You can down play that to a point, but it’s always significant.”