Politician Bush Offers Advice to Gorbachev

President Bush, a veteran of rough and tumble public life, had some advice Friday for a neophyte to the world of popular politics, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

The President suggested that Gorbachev could turn the declaration issued Friday at the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s summit conference into a powerful, American-style stump speech attacking his Soviet critics.

“If I were him I’d take a hard look at this document,” the President said, with an eye toward how Gorbachev could use it against his critics on the right and the left--a task Bush himself has tackled as a campaigner.

Indeed, Bush suggested, what Gorbachev should do is claim credit for everything that the NATO leaders have done to moderate their military stance and reassure Moscow.

Putting himself in Gorbachev’s shoes as he fends off those who would return to a hard-line approach and those who feel he is not moving fast enough to reform the Soviet system and dismantle the old anti-West foreign policy, Bush said:

“I would think he could say, ‘We’ve been right to reach out as we have tried to do to the United States and indeed to improve relations with countries in Western Europe. They’re changing. They have now changed their doctrine (as evidenced by the NATO declaration) because of steps that I, Mr. Gorbachev, have taken.’ ”

“And,” Bush recommended, “I’d get on the offense.”

Bush assumed the role of political consultant to the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in response to a question at a news conference about whether Gorbachev, facing political challengers, would be helped by the NATO declaration.

The document asserts the military alliance’s readiness to step back from its forward deployment of troops and declares a willingness to modify NATO doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons in the event of a conventional war.

To his critics, Bush suggested, Gorbachev could say, “ ‘Look, NATO has indeed changed in response to changes that have taken place in Eastern Europe.’ ”

“If I were him, I’d say, ‘I’ve been right. They’re changing and now I want to go forward with the United States and negotiate some more deals. I want to see us reform, I want to see us stop some of what we’ve been doing in various regions around the world that others view as detrimental to the interests of freedom and democracy,’ ” Bush said, in a bit of free, unsolicited advice to the Soviet leader.