WASHINGTON; President Bush on Monday condemned as misguided and illegitimate the stunning Soviet coup and called for ousted President Mikhail S. Gorbachev to be returned to power.
Bush said he was ordering a hold on U.S. aid to the Soviets and declared that a whole new era of cooperation based on Soviet reforms was at stake.
We will avoid in every possible way actions that would lend legitimacy or support to this coup effort he said in a statement issued Monday evening.
A State Department official said that not all economic-assistance programs would be suspended. The largest program is the $1.5 billion in agricultural credits but officials said most of that allocation already has been spent.
Bush rushed back to the White House from his vacation home in Maine and spent the afternoon in briefings with senior advisers and telephoning world leaders. After those talks he delivered a statement that was stronger than his more measured response from Maine.
This misguided and illegitimate effort bypasses both Soviet law and the will of the Soviet peoples Bush said.
Accordingly we support President Yeltsin’s call for ‘restoration for the legally elected organs of power and the reaffirmation of the post of U.S.S.R. President M.S.Gorbachev Bush said Boris Yeltsin president of the Russian Republic had Climbed atop a tank in Moscow and called on the Soviet people to repudiate the coup. Bush said the administration opposed any use of force by the new regime in the restive Soviet republics and called on the Soviet Union to adhere to its international commitments including human rights. (Stockton Record)
Article extracted from this publication >> August 23, 1991
