Soviet Reform Vital for Lasting Peace, Bush Says : Policy: He also reiterates that U.S. won’t intervene in Iraq uprising and warns Baghdad against interfering with refugee relief.

Declaring that the course of change in the Soviet Union remains unclear, President Bush said Saturday that it is facing an “extraordinarily painful” period but that the Soviet reform campaign must succeed if “true international peace is to endure.”

In his first major speech assessing the state of the world in the wake of the Persian Gulf War, Bush firmly cast the United States’ lot with a united Europe, saying that “America’s commitment is the best guarantee of a secure Europe, and a secure Europe is vital to American interests and vital to world peace.”

The President also reiterated his adamant opposition to involving U.S. troops in the unsuccessful campaign by Iraqi Kurds and Shiite Muslims to overthrow President Saddam Hussein.

Demonstrating White House defensiveness on the plight of the Kurds fleeing Iraqi military repression after the failure of their uprising, Bush said angrily: “I do not want one single soldier or airman shoved into a civil war in Iraq that’s been going on for ages. And I’m not going to have that.”

He was cheered by his audience of several thousand mid-level Air Force officers--students at the Air University--in a hangar at this base in Montgomery, Ala.

Bush has insisted throughout the past week, as the Kurds’ plight appeared ever more desperate, that he wants to pull all American forces out of the Persian Gulf region as quickly as possible. His remarks Saturday were among his most forceful on the subject.

The President declared that “we will not tolerate any interference in (the) massive international relief effort” that, led by the United States, is intended to bring--by airplane and truck--hundreds of thousands of meals, blankets and other shelter to the refugees who have fled north to Turkey and east to Iran to escape feared further repression by Hussein’s forces.

“Iraq can return to the community of nations only when its leaders abandon the brutality and repression that is destroying their country,” Bush said. “With Saddam in power, Iraq will remain a pariah nation, its people denied moral context with most of the outside world.”

Bush’s speech, which dealt extensively with Europe, reflected a hasty effort by the President’s staff, which finished work on the address at 4 a.m. Saturday, six hours before Bush spoke, one aide said. It is the first of a series of speeches the President is planning to deliver this spring. Subsequent talks will focus on defense issues, the Middle East, and international economic issues--all fitting the category of the “new world order,” as Bush characterizes international politics in the wake of the collapse of communism.

However, his address made little headway in defining more precisely than previously the elements of this global scheme.

“I’m not talking here of a blueprint that will govern the conduct of nations or some supernatural structure or institution,” he said. “The new world order does not mean surrendering our national sovereignty or forfeiting our interests.”

Rather, he said, it “describes a responsibility imposed by our successes . . . working with other nations to deter aggression and to achieve stability, to achieve prosperity and, above all, to achieve peace.”

With the dismantling of the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet-led military alliance of Communist Eastern Europe, Bush’s words were intended to reinforce the central role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, even though there is no organized opposing bloc.

“Europe’s long-term security is intertwined with America’s, and . . . NATO remains the best means to assure it,” the President said.

In a direct reminder to those Western Europeans who question whether their region’s role in the Persian Gulf War was necessary, Bush said: “We look to Europe to act as a force for stability outside its own borders. In a world as interdependent as ours, no industrialized nation can maintain membership in good standing in the global community without assuming its fair share of responsibility for peace and security.

“And . . . Americans will remain in Europe in support of history’s most successful alliance--NATO,” he said. “This century’s history shows that America’s destiny and interests cannot be separate from Europe’s.”

With Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev facing rightist pressure to crack down on dissent and step back from economic reform, and facing calls from the streets for his resignation, Bush called for patience and adherence to the principles of reform that Gorbachev launched.

In the Soviet Union, Bush said, “The discredited dogma of communism . . . lies dormant, if not mortally wounded.”

While Gorbachev’s policies of international cooperation mark a dramatic departure from past Soviet policies, he said, “The course of change within the Soviet Union is far less clear.”

“Economic and political reform there is under severe challenge,” and “ancient ethnic enmities” as well as conflict within the central government are contributing to the “monumental challenges” there.

“America’s policy toward the Soviet Union in these troubled times is, first and foremost, to continue our efforts to build the cooperative relationship. . . ,” he said.

“At the same time, we will support a reform process within the Soviet Union aimed at political and economic freedom.”

Bush said this policy would be pursued both with the Kremlin and with “all elements active in Soviet political life,” an indication of U.S. contact with the increasingly diverse segments of Soviet society, rather than just with Gorbachev and his allies in Moscow.

“Let there be no misunderstanding. The path ahead for the Soviet Union will be difficult and, at times, extraordinarily painful,” Bush said. “It’s going to be slow. There will be setbacks. But this process of reform, this transformation from within must proceed. If external cooperation and our progress toward true international peace is to endure, it must succeed. Only when this transformation is complete will we be able to take full measure of the opportunities presented by this new and evolving world order.”

After the speech, Bush took part in a $100,000 celebrity fund-raising fishing tournament in a stocked, 55-acre private lake owned by Ray Scott, described by a spokeswoman as the founder of the professional bass fishing tour.

Ten teams took part in the fishing tournament. Bush’s team came in 10th; a team that included National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft placed third.