Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 20, 1994 TAG: 9402200117
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Bush said he is confident history will treat his four-year term kindly.
"History will be a little kinder to us than the voters were in 1992," he said to the Richmond Forum, a subscription series of speeches by prominent artists and politicians.
"I'm proud to say the Cold War is over . . . I have no regrets," Bush said.
Bush counted as foreign policy successes the Persian Gulf War, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union, and the beginning of peace overtures in the Middle East. Bush also said he is proud of his arms control agreements and of the North American Free Trade agreement.
Bush said for effective foreign policy, a president must be forceful abroad, to make decisions and stick by them.
Clinton did not heed that advice in Haiti and Somalia, Bush said. Both became foreign policy debacles in the year-old Clinton presidency because Clinton failed to articulate a clear strategy and objective, Bush said.
"You can't stop and start. You cannot retain credibility for leadership if you do that," Bush said.
Bush also cautioned Clinton not to let the current trade dispute with Japan escalate into genuine bad feelings. "Japan's a friend," he said.
And Bush warned the U.S. will get further with China by opening trade and business relationships than by hammering that country on its human rights record.
He praised Clinton's stewardship of the NAFTA vote in Congress and the anti-crime proposals in Clinton's State of the Union speech. Bush refrained from direct criticism of his Democratic successor on most other fronts.
"I've tried very hard in a sincere way not to be hypercritical of the president," Bush said.
Bush said he failed to communicate to voters that the economy was really on the mend.
"I believe the main reason I was defeated was this perception of the economy," Bush said. "I was unable to dispel the myth, the myth that was very cleverly manipulated by the other side," he said.
Bush said America faces a serious threat at home in the dissolution of the traditional family.
by CNB