Bush Says Troubled Gorbachev Is Still ‘Pretty Darn Strong’ : Summit: ‘This man has survived,’ the President says. He says Soviet domestic woes are none of his business.

One day after his secretary of state said that unrest in the Soviet Union has increased the internal threat to Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, President Bush said Monday that the Soviet leader, with whom he will meet this week, remains “pretty darn strong.”

“He has enormous problems. But it’s not our business as the United States to sort out the other person’s economic problems. We’ve got some of our own,” Bush said.

Bush spoke to reporters early Monday as he was about to tee up for his final 18 holes of golf before returning to Washington for two days of pre-summit preparations.

“I’ve been reading my briefing books . . . almost through the first one. And I’ll get the second one done tonight. Then we’ll have two days of intensive consultations to bring us up to date on where we go. But I think I know the issues, and I’m sure that all our people do,” the President said.

When the summit was announced last September, its focus was to have been on arms control. At that point, it was hoped that the two leaders could sign an agreement making sharp cuts in their arsenals of long-range nuclear weapons, but that pact has not been completed.

Now, with the evolution taking place in Eastern and Central Europe, the focus has shifted to the new European order after the fall of Communist governments there and to the severe economic problems the Soviet Union is facing.

On Sunday, Secretary of State James A. Baker III alluded to the domestic unrest that has been bubbling in the Soviet Union and to the growing demands for broader reforms at a faster pace.

Baker, on the CBS News program “Face the Nation,” said that even as Gorbachev’s greater presidential authority has lessened any threat that others at the top of the Soviet power structure would try to remove him from office, “a threat from the bottom up is greater than it was before.”

Asked if he agreed with Baker’s assessment, Bush said:

“I don’t think that’s my business to sort that out. I deal with the Soviet leader that’s there in place, coming to the United States to discuss these matters. And I think we spend too much time trying to figure out how long a leader in any country will be there. I mean, this man has survived.

“And my own personal opinion is that he’s pretty darn strong there,” the President said, standing in the dew-soaked grass at the edge of the first tee of the Cape Arundel Golf Course.

The President said he has no surprises planned for Gorbachev, who is scheduled to arrive in Washington on Wednesday evening. The summit talks begin Thursday morning.

Does Bush expect any surprises from Gorbachev?

“I don’t think so. I don’t know,” he said.

Indeed, no surprises, given the history of recent summits, would itself be a surprise. Gorbachev has unveiled proposals for deep cuts in weaponry at previous meetings, and Bush--despite word from his assistants that he had no major new proposals--arrived at the last superpower summit, in Malta in December, with a long list of proposed measures intended to improve U.S.-Soviet relations.

At midmorning Monday, Bush took part in what he called “this little piece of Americana”--the Memorial Day celebration in the town square of the fishing village, and now tourist mecca, where he spends his summer vacations.

“I go to the summit with open arms to welcome the president of the Soviet Union. But we must stand on our principles when we discuss world peace. We must stand on our principles when we discuss the stability in Europe, or the face of the countries round the world that yet are not free,” Bush said in a brief, off-the-cuff speech to about 1,000 local residents and tourists gathered for the parade and a chance to glimpse the President of the United States.

Bush, in blue shirt and khaki trousers, stood in front of the simple monument dedicated in 1909 “to our soldiers and sailors” to watch the units of the Kennebunkport Memorial Day parade pass by.

At 10:27 a.m., along came the two dozen or so members of American Legion Post 159.

At 10:29 a.m., the Kennebunk High School band, 75 or so strong, marched past. Then the Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts and Brownies. Then the middle-school band. Then it was 10:30 a.m.

A 21-gun salute--three volleys of seven rifles--was fired over the roof of the Cafe Gitano, a pizza cafe on the edge of Dock Square. Three Bush grandchildren wandered about. A wreath was placed at the base of the monument.

And the President of the United States spoke.