Bush Vows to Keep Military Might Intact

President Bush on Monday marked the Memorial Day holiday by vowing to retain the nation’s military might despite post-Cold War cuts in defense spending.

“We cannot go back to a hollow Army,” Bush said in a visit to an American Legion post here. “We cannot go back to the days of weakness that invite mischief and invite possible international terror.

“The nation will remain strong,” he said.

Before returning to Washington, the President attended a brief wreath-laying ceremony at the post before a small audience that included state and local law enforcement officers.

Bush chose not to appear at a separate Memorial Day parade near his vacation home that featured among its participants a few dozen AIDS activists. At the end of the parade, some of the activists lay down in the street and others held a rally at which speakers criticized what they said was inadequate Bush Administration support for AIDS research.

Although parade organizers invited him to attend, Bush chose instead to spend most of the morning on the golf course with Maine Gov. John R. McKernan Jr.

Before he played golf, Bush delivered a brief radio address in honor of those who died in the nation’s wars.

“We must tell the stories of those who fought and died in freedom’s cause,” Bush said in the radio broadcast. “We must tell their stories because those who’ve lost loved ones and those still enduring uncertainly need to know that a grateful nation will always remember.

“Because they fought, we have freedoms many all too often take for granted,” Bush said. “And because of their sacrifice, our children can sleep soundly--without the threat of nuclear war hanging over their heads.”

Later, at the American Legion post, Bush said: “We are very grateful that the Cold War is over,” but he said the nation must remain “strong enough to repel any threat.”

Apart from the scripted Memorial Day tributes, Bush maintained his uncustomary silence on the last day of his four-day trip. He has not yet spoken publicly about his chief spokesman’s criticism last week of likely presidential challenger Ross Perot, and he kept his lips sealed on the subject once again on Monday.

“Is Perot a monster?” one reporter asked Bush as the President finished his round of golf. The question referred to a comment made by White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater who told the Los Angeles Times that the American people would one day find out what a “monster” Perot really was.

Bush, behind the wheel of a golf cart, simply drove on.