Clinton Assails Bush Over ‘Erratic’ Foreign Policy : Campaign: Democrat charges President is guided by politics. He is upstaged as White House unveils $24-billion aid plan for former Soviet republics.

Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, unveiling a plan of his own to assist the former Soviet republics, on Wednesday assailed President Bush and his Administration for having pursued foreign policy without purpose.

Criticizing what he described as “reactive, rudderless, and erratic” diplomacy under Bush, the Democratic front-runner said a Clinton Administration would seek to “lead the world we have done so much to make.”

In delivering a major foreign policy address to the nonpartisan Foreign Policy Assn., Clinton had hoped to prod a reluctant White House to embrace a plan of assistance for the struggling new nations that once made up the Soviet Union.

He complained that the Bush Administration had been “overly cautious” in recognizing the need for such aid and charged that it had operated “not for policy considerations but for political calculation.”

But Bush upstaged his likely rival by putting forward his own aid plan, and Clinton was instead in the position of claiming partial credit and pledging support for an effort he said would be “good for them and good for us.”

“I am flattered, I am glad and I say let’s do some more,” Clinton said. “I wish that I could have the same influence on his domestic policy.”

Bush on Wednesday unveiled a $24-billion program to bolster Russia’s struggling economy, stabilize its currency and provide far-reaching support for its transition to a market system. The United States will contribute $6.6 billion. Germany, Britain, Canada, France, Italy and Japan will also take part.

At a time when voters seem hostile toward foreign-aid programs, the Democratic candidate’s support for such a sweeping assistance plan may put him at odds with members of his own party in Congress. But Clinton indicated that he plans to use his stature as his party’s likely nominee to press fellow Democrats to sign off on the package.

“Our nation can afford this,” he said. “This is not an exorbitant price to pay for a chance to create new American markets and anchor a revitalized Russia firmly in the Democratic camp.”

In a foreign-policy debate later Wednesday on PBS’ McNeill-Lehrer News Hour, Clinton reiterated his support for the Bush plan but said it was essential that any new funds be drawn from reductions in defense spending.

Clinton’s rival, former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr., said he regarded the Administration plan as “moving in the direction that is needed to help bring the Soviet Union back into the family of nations.”

But the two candidates squabbled bitterly as Brown called for more dramatic cuts in defense spending while Clinton questioned whether his rival had thought through those far-reaching proposals.

The presentation of the Bush plan served to deprive Clinton of one arrow from the quiver he has fired at the Administration periodically through his campaign. But it did not stop Clinton from blaming Bush’s delay on “political calculation” or from issuing a broader challenge to an Administration he said has been too wedded to stability.

“America’s challenge in this era is not to bear every burden,” he said as he outlined a vision for the post-Cold War world, “but to tip the balance. Only America has the global reach and influence to lead on the great issues confronting the world.”

Apart from Bush’s slowness in reaching out to the republics, Clinton criticized the President explicitly for his closeness to China after the 1989 Tian An Men Square massacre and for his decision not to assist the Kurds when Iraq quelled their rebellion after the Gulf War.

He also denounced an absence of “positive vision” that he said had made the Administration too critical of Israel and put the Mideast peace process at risk.