Bush Sworn In, Tells U.S. ‘A New Breeze Is Blowing’ : 200,000 Attend the Inaugural

George Herbert Walker Bush was inaugurated 41st President of the United States today, describing the nation at the end of the Reagan era as prosperous and at peace but promising that “a new breeze is blowing.”

He then jubilantly led his inaugural parade to the White House, stepping out of his limousine twice to walk a short part of the way.

The new President, holding hands with his wife, Barbara, waved to cheering onlookers as he walked between his car and a Secret Service vehicle along Constitution Avenue and again along a stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue. Vice President Dan Quayle and his wife, Marilyn, followed a similar pattern in their car farther back.

In his speech, Republican Bush told Democratic congressional leaders that his would be “the age of the offered hand.” To the world, he said the offered hand would be “a reluctant fist,” which once made, would be “strong and . . . used with great effect.”

The noontime transfer of power had to be as satisfying to Ronald Reagan as to Bush. Not since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1961 had a President finished a full two terms, and it had been 60 years since a President bequeathed office to a man of his own party.

At 12:03 p.m., Bush recited the 35-word oath of office, resting his left hand on two Bibles held by his wife, Barbara. One edition was a family Bible; the other was used by George Washington at his swearing-in 200 years ago.

200,000 Watch Ceremony

Bush took the oath at the West Front of the Capitol, standing on a red-carpeted stage behind a clear, bulletproof shield. A crowd estimated at 200,000 spilled across the Capitol lawn to witness the ceremony under cloudy skies and mild temperatures that hit 50 degrees.

Immediately after Bush was sworn in by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, a 21-gun salute boomed over the Capitol and echoed off the marble monuments.

After his inaugural address, the Bushes escorted the Reagans to a waiting helicopter. It carried the Reagans to Andrews Air Force Base, detouring briefly to circle low over the White House. At Andrews, Reagan reviewed the troops one final time before flying into retirement in Los Angeles.

“Just carry on.”

Reagan’s final words in Washington: “Just carry on.”

Later, Bush was asked about saying goodby to Reagan. “I was trying to keep the tears from running down my cheeks. After eight years of friendship, it was pretty tough,” the new President said.

Before leading the inaugural parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, Bush and his wife attended an elegant luncheon with congressional leaders in the marbled Statuary Hall in the Capitol. House Minority Leader Bob Michel presented Bush with an engraved portrait of Martin Van Buren, the last vice president to be elected President--152 years ago.

The incoming vice president, former Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle, just 41 years old, took his oath at 11:57 a.m., his hand on a family Bible as he followed the words read by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. His wife, Marilyn, and their three children stood with him.

In his address, Bush won applause with his vow against drugs: “This scourge will stop.” It was perhaps his most specific promise in a speech that offered few details on a Bush agenda.

He spoke directly to Democratic congressional leaders, saying the nation needs “compromise where there has been dissension.”

Bush said Republicans and Democrats have often been too mistrustful, an attitude he traced back to the Vietnam War. “The final lesson of Vietnam is that no great nation can long afford to be sundered by a memory,” he said.

With that Bush said he meant to put out his hand to the Speaker of the House, Jim Wright, and to the majority leader of the Senate, George Mitchell. “This is the age of the offered hand,” Bush said.

He nodded directly to Wright and Mitchell, sitting among the VIPs near the lectern. Wright raised his hand in acknowledgment; Mitchell sat passively. Later the leaders met with Bush and watched as he signed papers formally nominating his Cabinet.

Bush’s address was to the nation as much as to Congress. He called for a “new activism” across the generations, saying, “America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral purpose. We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of a nation and gentler the face of the world.

“My friends, we have work to do. There are the homeless,” he said, and Americans who cannot free themselves of “whatever addiction--drugs, welfare, demoralization that rules the slums.”

Bush said “the old solution, the old way, was to think that public money alone could end these problems. But we have learned that is not so. And in any case, our funds are low. We have a deficit to bring down. We have more will than wallet.

“But will is what we need,” he said. “ . . . we will do the wisest thing of all: We will turn to the only resource we have that in times of need always grows: the goodness and courage of the American people.”

With a trumpet salute, Bush was introduced at the ceremony one last time as “the vice president of the United States.” He stopped briefly for a word with his 87-year-old mother, Dorothy, and then shook hands with Reagan.