U.S. Hails Czechoslovak Shake-Up : Foreign Policy: The Administration calls on the new leaders to seize the chance for true reform.

The Bush Administration, welcoming the fall of Czechoslovak Communist Party leader Milos Jakes, urged his successors Saturday to seize the opportunity “to begin the process of democratization of Czechoslovak political life and true reform of the potentially powerful Czechoslovakian economy.”

In a statement infused with both enthusiasm and admonition, State Department spokesman David Denny called on the new regime headed by Karel Urbanek “to take advantage of this opportunity by entering into genuine dialogue with the Czechoslovak people, so that Czechoslovakia--so central to European culture and history--can resume its proper place in world affairs.”

The statement represented the Bush Administration’s first public response to the changes sweeping Czechoslovakia, which has joined other East European nations in replacing hard-line Communist officials and moving toward democratic reforms.

“Czechoslovakia’s Communist Party has elected a new leadership under Karel Urbanek. Hard-liners associated with the post-1968 repression have resigned, and the new Czechoslovak authorities have begun to speak of official dialogue with society,” Denny said.

“This election of new leadership is but the first in a series of steps necessary for political freedom and economic renewal in Czechoslovakia,” he added. “The United States government welcomes this first step and hopes the new Czechoslovak leadership will respond rapidly and positively to popular demands for free elections and the release of political prisoners.”

The statement seemed designed to reflect the note of caution sounded by the Administration throughout the upheavals in East Europe while showing that it shares at least some of the elation felt throughout the world at the turn in Czechoslovak fortunes.

The Administration has been criticized in recent weeks for its seeming hesitation to appear too enthusiastic about the extraordinary events in Eastern Europe.

That criticism was repeated Saturday by Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D-N.Y.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “What we are witnessing is the crumbling of the Communist empire,” Solarz said, “and I think that we need to respond to that in a way which is commensurate with the opportunities which we now have.”

The remark drew a rebuttal from Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), another member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who appeared with Solarz on Cable News Network’s “CNN Newsmaker” program. “I don’t know what they’d have him (Bush) do,” Hyde said, “run over and kiss the (Berlin) Wall or something for a photo opportunity? I think we’re being prudent. I think there isn’t a great deal we can do to accelerate what’s going on. It’s working well.”

But even the Administration’s position, as expressed by the State Department, was not as cautious as that of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. After meeting with President Bush at Camp David on Friday, Thatcher told a news conference, “We in the West have great hopes that Czechoslovakia also will become a democracy, (but) the wish is not the deed.”