Bush Brushes Aside ‘Nuclear Keys’ Threat : Defense: The President, apparently anxious to get back to his vacation, also downplays Bessmertnykh’s forced resignation.

President Bush, responding to reports that those who sought power in the Soviet Union gained control of its nuclear weapons during their coup attempt, said Friday there were no actions that caused the Administration “any concern for a nuclear threat of any kind.”

Speaking on a golf course near his vacation home, Bush also said he was confident that the forced resignation of Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander A. Bessmertnykh would have no adverse effect on planned Mideast peace talks.

The President, who made only brief public remarks here Friday after adhering to a crisis pace of five news conferences in four days, appeared intent on returning to his summer vacation.

When reporters sought to question him further about events in the Soviet Union before an early morning golf game, Bush said without apology: “Please--we’ve been through a lot here.”

The hurried return to vacation had put the President somewhere near the fifth hole of the Cape Arundel Golf Course when the telephone that aides carry on a specially equipped electric cart rang with news of Bessmertnykh’s dismissal.

“I don’t think it means all that,” Bush said later when asked whether the unexpected dismissal would force postponement of the planned October peace conference that is to be jointly sponsored by the United States and the Soviet Union.

Indeed, Bush went on to say that Secretary of State James A. Baker III, the caller who relayed the news, had assured him that Bessmertnykh himself was confident that his ouster would have “no implications” for the historic session.

The circuitous route of the report--from Bessmertnykh’s office in the Kremlin to Baker’s ranch in Wyoming to the presidential golf cart in Maine--reflects the degree to which the Bush Administration has quickly scattered to less-than-official pursuits.

Just hours after his dramatic announcement Wednesday that he had spoken by telephone to Mikhail S. Gorbachev and that the Soviet leader was safe, Bush was back on the golf course urging crisis-minded reporters to “get out and relax now.”

By Thursday, the President, who last summer waxed passionate about his desire to “recreate,” had a new phrase to describe his current plans. “It’s my vacation, and I’m going to vacate,” he vowed.

And by Friday afternoon, Bush was back in full summer swing as he began his third round of golf in 24 hours, the last with the legendary Arnold Palmer, the President’s weekend guest.

“I’ve gotta get down here and hit,” Bush insisted as he left for the course.

Later in the evening, he headed for a party aboard a boat owned by Jimmy Dean, the country singer and pork sausage king.

Asked before the early morning golf game about a Washington Post report that the coup plotters took possession from Gorbachev of the secret codes necessary to launch a nuclear war, Bush said he “didn’t know anything about that.”

The Administration reacted swiftly after the start of the coup to move extra satellites and other intelligence assets into position to detect any possible danger signs related to the Soviet arsenal. Bush said that nothing “picked up” by the Administration showed “movement or things that you would associate with any concern for a nuclear threat of any kind.”

The President did not rule out, however, the prospect that the codes might have changed hands, and it was unclear Friday night whether such a transfer did indeed take place.

In cutting off questions about the Soviet nuclear arsenal, Bush climbed into his golf cart and pleaded about his hope now “not to have daily press conferences--please understand” before he roared away.

But it seemed as if his zeal for early morning sports had left at least one member of his family testy for quite a different reason. “You said 6:30, and it’s only 6:10,” complained daughter Dorothy as she rushed to join her mother in a golf cart.

Barbara Bush answered with the resignation that comes from years of marriage to a man who turns boy-like around a golf club, a tennis racquet or even an iron horseshoe.

“You know your father,” she said.