Bush Revives Ike’s ‘Open Skies’ Proposal

President Bush today revived an Eisenhower-era “open skies” proposal for mutual East-West surveillance flights, as he exhorted the Soviet Union to begin a friendship “that knows no season of suspicion, no chill of distrust.”

He praised Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s political reforms and new policies of openness, but he also declared, “Mr. Gorbachev, don’t stop now.”

To show there is nothing to hide, he suggested, other members of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact and of NATO should join the superpowers in allowing unarmed aerial intelligence-gathering flights over their territories.

“Such surveillance flights, complementing satellites, would provide regular scrutiny for both sides,” Bush said. “The very Soviet willingness to embrace such a concept would reveal their commitment to change.”

Bush announced the completion of his Administration’s 3 1/2-month review of U.S.-Soviet relations in a speech to graduating seniors at Texas A&M; University.

He mixed new overtures to ease East-West barriers with a dose of the kind of skepticism he has expressed before, urging Gorbachev to match promises of a new openness with deeds.

“The Soviet Union has promised a more cooperative relationship before, only to reverse course and return to militarism. Soviet foreign policy has been almost seasonal--warmth before cold, thaw before freeze,” Bush said.

He called on the Soviets to permit the distribution of banned newspapers and books, to disavow links with terrorist nations like Libya, to tolerate more political dissent within its borders and to free Eastern Europe from its grip.

“One day, it should be possible to drive from Moscow to Munich without seeing a single guard tower or strand of barbed wire,” he said.

“In short, tear down the Iron Curtain,” Bush said.