Washington Post - 06.26.2001

 

 

The Washington Post

Looking Back at Summit: Tossing Softballs, Talking History

By Charles Babington
washingtonpost.com staff writer

As President Bush prepared for his June 16 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, one might have thought he was apprehensive about facing a man with more experience in summit settings. Now we learn that Bush felt protective toward the younger Putin, who "didn't know what to expect" from international reporters – although Bush knew they would lob "essentially softball questions."

That's one of several intriguing tidbits from a lengthy interview Bush granted last week to former GOP speechwriter Peggy Noonan. In their Oval Office chat, Bush responded to critics who chastised him for quickly declaring Putin - a former KGB agent – as being trustworthy. "I was able to get a sense of his soul," Bush told reporters in Slovenia.

Noonan's interview account ran on the op-ed page of Monday's Wall Street Journal. Don't look for a transcript on the White House web site, because administration aides said no stenographer was present. (They had considered the session a "meeting" about Noonan's forthcoming book on Ronald Reagan rather than a newsy interview, said spokesman Scott McClellan).

While Bush seemed eager to answer his critics, he may have raised a few new questions in the Noonan interview. Here are some of the exchanges.

Trust and Sophisticates

According to Noonan, Bush was thinking of Reagan's well-known "trust but verify" admonition when he met with Putin. The president told her: "To me my attitude is, and this is Reaganesque in a sense, 'Yes, I trust him, until he proves otherwise.' But why say the 'proves otherwise'? To me that goes without saying."

Bush added, "Sophisticates surely understand that once you lie, you know, that trust isn't forever, trust is something you must earn."

Appealing to "sophisticates" isn't standard procedure for Bush, who has criticized "thinkers" and who expresses disdain for the snobbery and elitism he detects in places such as his alma mater Yale University. Campaigning in Pennsylvania on Sept. 20, Bush said, "This is a campaign which trusts people, as opposed to a campaign [by Al Gore] that trusts bureaucrats, planners, thinkers – people in Washington, D.C., who want to plan our life for us."

Putin and the Press

Noonan wrote that Bush "spoke sympathetically of the challenges Mr. Putin faced during their joint press conference. . . .It was the biggest press conference Mr. Putin had ever had. Mr. Putin. . . .in some ways is unused to the demands of the world stage. 'For me, I was used to it but. . . .here's a guy who walks out, and now he's in the – this is the big leagues, this is the brightest kleig light of all. And it was a big press conference, there were a lot of people, and he didn't know what to expect. I knew what to expect, I knew there were going to be essentially softball questions by those reporters."

Loving History

Bush told Noonan that Putin talked at length about Russian history and the difficult transition from communism to democracy. Bush noted this and Putin replied, "Yes, I love history," according to Noonan's article. Her account continues:

Mr. Bush: "I said, 'You know, it's interesting, I do too, I like history a lot.' I said. . . .'You know, sometimes when you study history you get stuck in the past.' I said, 'President Putin, you and I have a chance to make history. The reason one should love history is to determine how to make good history. And this meeting could be the beginning of making some fabulous history. We're young. Why do you want to stay stuck? This isn't the Nixon-Brezhnev conversations!'"

Eyeball to Eyeball with Putin

Bush recounted that he told the Russian president: "You know, if you look at me and think I'm trying to pull one over on you and trying to weaken Russia, then we don't have much to talk about. We can go through the diplomatic niceties. . . .Mr. Putin, you've got to figure – you've got to look at me and decide whether I am hostile or not hostile, whether or not I want to diminish Russia or whether I want Russia as a friend and ally with whom we can trade and keep the peace. And. . . .if you think negative, then this is going to be an interesting conversation for us but short-lived, and we'll go out and play like we had a good conversation."

Bush said Putin "thought that was interesting."