Key Democrat Strauss to Be Envoy to Soviets

President Bush said Tuesday that he will nominate Robert S. Strauss, a central figure in Democratic Party politics for more than two decades, as U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, turning to a longtime friend rather than a career diplomat to play a central role in the Western effort to help stave off Soviet disintegration.

“I . . . can think of nobody, no one more qualified or more talented, to bring to this representation what we need: contacts with high officials, a knowledge of America, a guarantee that two ships--big ships, important ships--won’t pass in the night . . . during this important, critical period,” Bush said.

The announcement stunned official Washington, where Strauss is known more as a veteran political strategist and Democratic Party stalwart than as a diplomat. But the nomination is not likely to face strenuous objection in the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats.

The nomination will give Bush a trusted voice in Moscow. It will assign to the rapidly changing U.S.-Soviet relationship an envoy who has the ear of the President and other key players in the executive branch and Congress, a standing that can only enhance his impact at the Kremlin.

“He’s the right man to represent the United States in this fantastic period of change in the Soviet Union,” Bush said, as Strauss and Secretary of State James A. Baker III stood at his side in the White House Rose Garden.

More than perhaps any other recent diplomatic development, the appointment reflects the changes taking place in the Soviet Union, which, under President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, is attempting to modernize its economy and reform its political process.

In this new era of superpower relations, the need for a U.S. ambassador well versed as a Kremlinologist has been overtaken by the advantages of political experience.

Like Bush and Baker, Strauss, 72, a former chairman of the Democratic Party, grew to professional maturity in the rough and tumble--and definitely undiplomatic--world of Texas politics.

In the past, said Jane Taubman, a professor of Russian at Amherst College, “you couldn’t schmooze” with Soviet officials. “Now, there are lots more people to schmooze with,” both within the Soviet government and outside of Soviet officialdom.

In addition, said an Administration official, the choice of Strauss, a former U.S. special trade negotiator, reflects the increasing emphasis on economic issues affecting the superpowers and a gradual shift away from arms control matters.

“In this scenario, a guy like this can add international financial experience and bridge a gap between Democrats and Republicans and present a united front,” the official said. “What you’re getting is someone with knowledge of all the actors inside the Beltway,” the interstate freeway that circles Washington.

Strauss, whose confirmation is not likely to be taken up by the Senate until this fall, would replace Jack F. Matlock, a career Foreign Service officer who has spent the last four years in Moscow.

“We’ve got real problems and real opportunities with the Soviet Union. They’re imminent. They’re going to happen in the next two years. They’re going to happen under the guidance of the next ambassador,” White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said. “The President wants somebody that he knows, that he trusts.”

Strauss is a founding partner of a major Dallas law firm, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, that has offices in Washington, London and elsewhere. In addition to serving as President Jimmy Carter’s trade negotiator, he worked as Carter’s special Middle East envoy and chairman of the former President’s unsuccessful reelection campaign in 1980. And, during the depths of the Iran-Contra scandal, Strauss was an occasional White House visitor, quietly offering advice to Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy.

More recently, he played a middleman’s role in the $6.6-billion takeover of MCA Inc. by Matsushita, the Japanese conglomerate--a role for which his firm was paid $8 million.

Within the Democratic Party, he served both as treasurer and as chairman, holding the senior post in the mid-1970s, when Bush was chairman of the Republican Party.

“I enter this Administration as a Democrat. It’s a nonpolitical appointment if ever there was one, and could be one, and I certainly will come out a Democrat,” Strauss said.

He said in a recent interview that, even though he and Bush have long been friends--he recently was invited by the President to stop by for lunch and bring with him the spicy chili about which he brags--he would never cross the line and support Bush politically.

“I have never voted for him in my life. I’ve actually opposed him in everything he’s run for--he knows that--and never will vote for him. But it hasn’t had any impact” on the friendship, Strauss said.

It took some persuasion by Bush and Baker to get Strauss to accept the job. When first approached several months ago, he reacted coolly, according to sources close to the effort. But, as Soviet President Gorbachev loosened his grip on the Baltic nations, pressed ahead with efforts to reform the moribund Soviet economy and, with U.S. encouragement, tackled the forces tearing away at the central government, Bush and Baker renewed their appeal, and Strauss eventually relented.

A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Bush saw Strauss’ political connections with lawmakers and business leaders as a major benefit. And, from long experience on the other side of the table, he knows Strauss as a “shrewd and wily negotiator,” the official said.

In particular, Bush sees a growing role for economic cooperation and interaction in the evolving U.S.-Soviet relationship and believes Strauss can be a catalyst in boosting U.S. business involvement in the Soviet Union, the official said.

On the U.S. side, Strauss’ rapport with American politicians, including conservatives, is seen as an important advantage for the Administration if, as is expected, it continues to consider moves to liberalize trade with Moscow.

“He is a political figure and can represent himself more directly as the President’s man than if he had been drawn from the Foreign Service,” said Raymond L. Gathoff, a former arms control negotiator and U.S. official in Moscow, who is now affiliated with the Brookings Institution.

Staff writers Robert Toth and Doyle McManus contributed to this story.