WASHINGTON -- Vice President George Bush defended President Reagan's leadership Friday, saying Grenada was 'a proud moment for this country.'
'Four years ago I really think it was fair to say there was in the country, in the broader sense, a crisis, a crisis in leadership,' Bush told the American Soybean Association.
'Confidence in the future was at an all time low.'
'Today America really feels the future is bright,' he said.
When Reagan took over, inflation was soaring and the 'legacies of Vietnam and Watergate ... still haunted our own conduct of foreign policy,' Bush said. He said President Carter talked of 'paralysis, stagnation and drift.'
'When the president faced this crisis in Grenada he didn't wait until we were taken hostage, he acted before the crisis became a humiliation,' Bush said.
'I don't care what the hand-wringers say, Grenada was a proud moment for this country,' Bush said.
Bush said the 'jury is still out on Lebanon' and, while noting and 'regretting the (loss of) lives,' he said at least the president is not afraid to 'take action.'
'Four years ago there was a certain embarrassment, you still heard excuses for those who attacked the values,' Bush said. 'Today we do have a president who says yes, the values that have guided us are still valid. Family, free enterprise, hard work are still worth defending in word and deed.'
