Nixon Warns House GOP on China : Must Maintain Contact, Former President Says

Richard M. Nixon, returning to the House where he began his political career bashing communism, said today the United States has an important role to play in China and warned anyone who “thinks Japan is going to export democracy to China must be smoking pot.”

Nixon spoke for more than an hour before House Republicans on Capitol Hill, where 43 years ago he opened a tumultuous career that led him up the political ladder to the White House, then down to the disgrace of Watergate.

There was no mention that the House of Representatives was prepared to vote Nixon’s impeachment in 1974 when he resigned the highest office in the land.

The former President was invited by the Congressional Institute Inc., an organization founded three years ago by House Republicans.

Appearing vigorous, relaxed and in good health, Nixon, 77, gave the House Republicans and later reporters a review of the revolutionary political changes that he said have closed the door on the Cold War--the threshold of his entrance into politics.

As President, Nixon reopened U.S. relations with China in 1972 and has firmly supported President Bush’s efforts to maintain ties with Beijing despite the brutal repression of pro-democracy demonstrators last June. He warned that the United States cannot leave China to the designs of Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s Soviet Union or Japan, an ambitious economic superpower with a largely closed society.

“Does anybody think the Soviet Union is going to export human rights to China?” Nixon asked. “Gorbachev has not criticized what happened on June 4.

“And anybody that thinks Japan is going to export democracy to China must be smoking pot.”

Nixon, jamming his hands in the pockets of a well-tailored blue pinstriped suit and gesturing to make his points, also said:

--The challenge of his generation was to defeat communism. Today’s challenge is “the victory of freedom” by assuring that the new democracies emerging in Eastern Europe succeed.

--U.S. aid to the Soviet Union is “a bad idea” unless Gorbachev asks for it and stops the export of arms to the Third World.

--There will be a “peace dividend” from a shrinking defense budget, but it should be tapped first to reduce the deficit and strengthen the economy.

--The days of Cuba’s Fidel Castro are numbered, and if Gorbachev cuts off his annual $6 billion in aid, Castro will have to deal with the West.

--Ronald Reagan is not trying “to cover up” about his role in the Iran-Contra scandal and the 79-year-old former President has simply forgotten many of the details.

Nixon also visited later with Senate Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas, and Secretary of State James A. Baker III dropped by Dole’s office for a chat.

The former President paused to look over his bust outside the second floor of the Senate, where he was presiding officer as vice president under President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953-61.

Nixon has become more visible in recent months through his visit to China, a dinner with President Bush to discuss that trip, and his effort to help Bush persuade the Senate to sustain a veto.