Bush Pleased North Was Not Sent to Prison

President Bush expressed pleasure today that Oliver L. North was not sentenced to jail for his Iran-Contra convictions, but sidestepped a question about whether he has considered pardoning the former White House aide.

“I’m happy he’s not going to jail,” Bush said in answer to a question during an interview with a group of journalists. “I’m not going to comment further because this matter is under appeal and is in the federal courts.”

U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell sentenced North on Wednesday to a three-year suspended sentence, two years’ probation, $150,000 in fines and 1,200 hours of community service work.

Gorbachev’s Call Deflected

On another topic, Bush deflected Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s call for swift negotiations over short-range nuclear weapons, noting that NATO leaders agreed not to entertain such talks until an accord has been reached on conventional forces.

“I don’t want to get off track” by reopening the issue of short-range nuclear forces that Western leaders agreed to in Brussels in May, Bush said in a nationally televised session with foreign reporters designed to set the stage for his European journey Sunday,

In a speech earlier in the day in Strasbourg, France, Gorbachev offered to make additional and rapid cuts in his country’s nuclear arsenal if NATO accepts negotiations on tactical nuclear weapons. (Story, Page 2.)

Bush said he hoped to use his visits to Poland and Hungary to nudge both Communist-controlled countries toward democracy.

He insisted that he is not trying to stir up trouble in Gorbachev’s back yard, saying, “That is not what 1989 diplomacy is about.”