Former President Bush returns to Kyiv, comments on "Chicken Kiev" speech (05/30/04)

Former President Bush returns to Kyiv, comments on "Chicken Kiev" speech

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - President George H.W. Bush, notorious for his reference to "suicidal nationalism" in what has come to be called the "Chicken Kiev" speech, finally explained his statement on his first trip back to the Ukrainian capital 13 years later, on May 21.

"That's not what I said," explained the 41st president of the United States, referring to the statement, which he made in Ukraine's capital just three weeks before the Soviet Union collapsed and Ukraine declared independence in August 1991.

"I encouraged them not to do something stupid. My speech here - if you look at it, if you read it - I said to restrain from doing anything that would cause them to react when things were going the right way," he added.

Mr. Bush explained that, indeed, because the Ukrainian leadership of the time acted carefully and with restraint the country moved smoothly towards sovereignty and independence without what could have been a bloody encounter with Moscow.

"Because your leaders acted in the national interest and not in self-interest they avoided what could have been another Prague Spring," noted Mr. Bush.

He compared Ukraine's first president, Leonid Kravchuk, to Lech Walesa, the leader of the Polish independence movement, and Vaclav Havel, the Czech Republic's charismatic first president.

Mr. Bush made his remarks during a 40-minute presentation to the students of Kyiv State University in which he encouraged them to a life in public service, volunteerism and charitable work.

Looking tan and fit, former President Bush, who will turn 80 in June, called on the students not to become discouraged as Ukraine continued through the painstaking process of building a democracy and making the transition to a free-market economy. He said he was sure that there were those who were "frustrated by the problems of reforms and the checks and balances of democracy that make progress difficult," but asked them to persevere because "better days lie ahead."

He alluded to his much-publicized "thousand points of light program," which he espoused during his presidency in 1988-1992, and told the Ukrainian students that volunteerism offers rewards far richer than financial benefit.

"At 80, I still work with charities, not through the government, but with charities. It just feels so good," explained Mr. Bush. "It is just so selfishly satisfying that without government intervention, without government money you can help somebody else."

Mr. Bush visited the historic "Red Corpus" of Kyiv State University - where U.S. President Bill Clinton, the man who won the 1992 election, denying Mr. Bush a second term in office, addressed the Ukrainian public in 1995 during the first visit by a U.S. president to independent Ukraine. He used the visit to recount the events of 1991 and perhaps dust off his place in history. He offered several anecdotal insights on the days that marked the last chapter of the Soviet era.

In one, he recalled that a week after Ukraine affirmed independence via a national referendum and elected Mr. Kravchuk its first president, he met with Russian President Boris Yeltsin to discuss the future of the Soviet Union. As Mr. Bush noted, while officially the Soviet Union leadership was maintaining the political line that the Soviet empire would continue to exist, Mr. Yeltsin told him that the vote for independence by Ukraine meant the dissolution of the empire.

"He read a prepared statement that the three sides had formed a Commonwealth of Independent States, but he had just told me in private that he and the presidents of Ukraine and Belarus had decided to dissolve the Soviet Union."

Mr. Bush told the audience of mostly college-age young adults that, in retrospect, it seemed that the new world order of which there had been so much talk - first during the fall of the Berlin Wall and then with the collapse of the Soviet Union, actually occurred during his visit to Moscow and Kyiv in August 1991.

He said that he had always supported those "who pushed the frontiers of freedom."

He said that Ukraine today has much opportunity and many prospects. However, as he explained to the audience, the current Ukrainian leadership must adhere to democratic principles and not fear losing positions of power and authority. As an example, he gave his own failed effort at re-election and the frustrations he felt with the U.S. mass media, which he said he felt was opposed to a second term for him.

"I strongly disagreed with almost all the news reporting. I felt in 1992 that the U.S. news media was strongly biased against me," noted Mr. Bush with no real hint of bitterness in his remark.

The point, as he made clear, was that he understood that in a democracy personas are far less important than ideas and that respect for the process is the overriding priority.

Mr. Bush also offered his opinions on several international issues affecting Ukraine. He lauded Ukraine's participation in the Iraq Stabilization Force and mentioned that the country is poised to enter the World Trade Organization.

He mentioned Ukraine's sizzling economy, which grew by 9.4 percent in 2003 and said that, if that type of growth continues, Ukraine would become a country that Europe would be forced to contend with. However, as have several high-profile U.S. political figures who have recently visited Ukraine, including Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, current U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and financier-philanthropist George Soros, Mr. Bush warned that for Ukraine to become a true player on the world scene, it needed to assure free and fair presidential elections in October.

He noted that the European Union, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe had all strongly criticized the way in which local elections in Ukraine had occurred. He held out hope, however, that these were aberrations and the problems would be corrected.

"If Ukraine continues its democratic path and its economic transformation, it will be considered a true leader - and not only in the region, but throughout Europe and in the U.S. If Ukraine can continue on its path and come out of the shadow of its Soviet past, it will be a truly historic change for the world," explained Mr. Bush.

The former U.S. president, who was also a U.S. congressman, ambassador to China, CIA director and vice-president during his four decades of public service, said that now that he is out of politics he can be far more straightforward with people, and can be frank in acknowledging when he doesn't have the answer to a question. He used the remark to emphasize that he had no idea when NATO might be ready to accept Ukraine as a member.

Nor could he say whether his son, the current U.S. president, has any plans to visit Ukraine in the near future. However, he pointed to his wife, Barbara, as someone who might know more inasmuch as she had much more influence over their son. "I don't have any influence over him, but his mother sure does," explained Mr. Bush.

During his two-day visit to Kyiv, Mr. Bush met with President Leonid Kuchma and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. His visit came after an invitation from National Deputy Viktor Pinchuk, one of Ukraine's wealthiest businesspersons and President Kuchma's son-in-law.

Mr. Pinchuk recently became a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, an international organization that counts President Bush as a member as well.

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