Bush Defends His Policies on Eastern Europe : Defense: In San Francisco speech, he says, ‘The world is simply moving too fast to forecast.’

President Bush, saying “the world is simply moving too fast to forecast,” defended his policies Wednesday against charges that he has been too slow in adapting to the change in Eastern Europe.

“As President, I receive an intelligence briefing every morning. And I receive the best information available to any world leader today,” Bush said in a speech to the Commonwealth Club here. “Yet the morning news is often overtaken by the news that very evening.”

Because of the continuing uncertainty the world faces, Bush argued, the country should resist pressures for rapid reductions in defense spending.

“I would rather be called cautious than I would be called reckless,” Bush said. “The Cold War is in retreat” but policy-makers “must not let impatience, born of euphoria, jeopardize all we hope to achieve.

“We are taking the first steps across a bridge . . . that can lead us from seemingly endless conflict to the promise of a lasting peace,” Bush said. “But no matter how great the promise, we must be certain the bridge is secure.”

In wide-ranging comments during his speech and a question-and-answer period that followed, Bush also denied accusation by some leading Democrats that Administration proposals to close certain military bases have been tainted by politics.

And he laid out in general terms a defense policy outline for the future that emphasizes combatting “new threats” such as terrorism and drugs, rather than the “traditional East-West antagonism of the last 45 years.”

On the bases, Bush noted that many are in California “just as many are in my home state of Texas, but let me state right here and now: There have been no politics in these proposals.”

Defense budget cutbacks will have a “short-term cost”--eliminating jobs--Bush conceded. But, he said, that is “the cost of peace.”

“There is something just a little bit ironic about certain members of Congress whose philosophy seems to be make deep cuts, but be sure to cut in somebody else’s state or somebody else’s district. We can’t have that anymore.”

The heart of Bush’s speech, however, was a series of comments that reflect the overriding reality of current U.S. policy-making: On key developments such as moves toward German unification and political pluralism in the Soviet Union, the speed of change has left senior figures improvising policy on the run.

Asked about relations between a future reunified Germany and NATO, for example, Bush noted approvingly that West Germany’s current leaders had said the country would remain “tied into NATO in some way, maybe not a NATO in exactly the same form it is.”

Within minutes, the White House, sensitive about suggestions that the United States might go along with a German decision to end formal military participation in NATO, put out a clarification.

Bush “meant that Germany would remain as a member of NATO, but NATO may have a changing mission,” the statement said. Such clarifications were common during the Ronald Reagan Administration but have been rare in the Bush presidency.

In another statement, the White House announced that two key European officials will visit Bush this month to discuss German reunification, NATO and related issues. NATO Secretary General Manfred Woerner will arrive in Washington on Saturday. West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl will meet with Bush, also in Washington, on Feb. 24 and 25.

The combination of uncertainty over the pace of events and the deep-seated caution of Bush and his advisers continues to leave the Administration appearing to be tongue-tied on major events.

On Wednesday, for example, Bush aides originally said the President planned to comment in his speech on the decision by the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party to eliminate the party’s monopoly on power. But Bush, according to his spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, vetoed the idea.

Having voiced generalized support for Gorbachev on Tuesday, Fitzwater said, Bush felt he “really had nothing to add.”

Asked about Gorbachev in the question-and-answer session, Bush avoided direct comment on the party’s decision, saying he wanted to “avoid doing dumb things” like “trying to fine-tune” Soviet decisions from afar.

“Generally speaking, it is in our interest to support perestroika ,” he said, adding that Gorbachev had “handled some extremely complicated internal problems” with “restraint, finesse.”

“There’s an awful lot to be hopeful about there,” Bush said.

Bush also warned against a resurgence of isolationist sentiment in the United States.

“Our allies want us involved,” he said, because U.S. presence “provides a certain stability.”

The United States, he said, must avoid “some sort of neo-isolationist decoupling.”

Earlier in the day, Bush made a brief tour of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he reiterated his support for the “Star Wars” strategic defense program. The President said the research into strategic defense being done at the laboratory was “promising” and that he would support continued funding for it.

The Administration has requested about $3.6 billion for Star Wars research next year, but it is considered highly likely that Congress will reduce that amount sharply as it did for the current year’s budget.

The visit to Livermore was part of Bush’s tour of defense-related facilities, which will continue today when he visits the Strategic Air Command’s base outside of Omaha. Bush left for Omaha after his speech to the Commonwealth Club.

MONTEBELLO VISIT: First Lady Barbara Bush observes a literacy program in operation in Montebello. B1