President Denies He Sold Out Lithuania : Secession: Bush rejects charges by Baltic nation leader who criticized United States for not imposing sanctions on Soviet Union.

President Bush today rejected charges that the United States is selling out Lithuania, saying his decisions have the strong support of the American people and “that’s who I work for.”

Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis suggested that Washington had abandoned his people by refusing to impose sanctions against Moscow--saying the decision was akin to a political “Munich.”

“I don’t need any defense,” Bush told reporters when asked about Landsbergis’ remarks. “The political decisions I have taken have strong support from the American people; that’s who I work for.”

Bush said Tuesday he decided to withhold retaliation against the Soviet Union for its crackdown on Lithuania, saying he did not want to provoke a backlash from Moscow.

“I’m concerned that we not inadvertently do something to compel the Soviet Union to take action that would set back the whole case of freedom around the world,” Bush said Tuesday.

He also said he did not want to undermine Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and give aid to hard-line forces that might “crack down and set the clock back to the days we all remember of a Cold War mentality.”

Landsbergis issued a statement Tuesday critical of Bush’s course of restraint, saying: “We were afraid that America might sell us out. Let the people decide whether this has already happened.

“I don’t understand whether it is possible to sell the freedom of people for the freedom of another. If that is so, then of what value is the idea of freedom itself?”

“This is Munich,” Landsbergis said, referring to the 1938 bid by Britain and France to secure peace with Nazi Germany by accepting a German takeover of part of Czechoslovakia.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater sought earlier today to play down the remarks by the Baltic leader, saying: “We sympathize with Mr. Landsbergis’s frustration.

“The President has reiterated time and again our support. . . . We want a peaceful dialogue in Lithuania that answers the aspirations of the Lithuanian people.”

Landsbergis has appealed repeatedly for Western moral and material backing for Lithuania’s March 11 declaration of independence from Moscow.

Thus far, no country has given Lithuania diplomatic recognition or offered any aid, while Moscow has piled economic pressure on the republic, cutting off oil and reducing gas and other supplies.