EST POINT, N.Y. - Al Gore accused rival George W. Bush yesterday of threatening progress toward lasting peace by calling for unilateral arms cuts and a missile defense system, proposals the vice president said would ''hinder, rather than help, arms control.''
In a commencement speech at the US Military Academy at West Point, and, more pointedly, in remarks to reporters aboard Air Force Two, the Democratic presidential candidate capped off a week in which foreign affairs took center stage in the campaign. Yesterday, the vice president assailed Bush's new arms policy as a dangerous break from more than 40 years of strategic thinking.
Addressing graduates and their guests in the academy's sun-washed football stadium, Gore said ''an approach that combines serious unilateral reductions with an attempt to build a massive defensive system would create instability and undermine our security.''
Bush spokeswoman Mindy Tucker responded to Gore's address by criticizing him on the missile-defense issue. ''It's unfortunate that Vice President Gore feels that it's not important to protect America with a ballistic missile defense system,'' Tucker said.
Gore never named Bush in his West Point speech. And later, he insisted his remarks adhered to the longstanding policy that service academy speeches should be nonpolitical.
But the comments in Gore's speech were clearly aimed at the defense proposal unveiled by Bush last week. The GOP presidential candidate called for deep cuts in the nation's nuclear arsenal, even if Russia fails to match them, along with deployment of an antiballistic missile system capable of protecting all 50 states from attack by rogue nations or accidental launches.
Along with Bush's recent proposal partially to privatize Social Security, arms control has emerged as a central distinction between the two candidates.
The key difference in the arms control debate is the candidates' approach toward the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty with Russia, which bans national missile defenses.
The Clinton administration is testing a limited defense system while trying to persuade Russia to accept amendments to the ABM Treaty that would permit deployment, once the workable technology is developed. Bush, in contrast, has said he would abrogate the pact, if necessary, to build a more elaborate system of missile defenses.
Speaking to reporters Friday night as he traveled to West Point, Gore offered a scathing critique of Bush's approach toward arms control. He noted that the Texas governor opposed the nuclear test ban treaty voted down last year by the Senate and said that sentiment, combined with his attitude toward the ABM Treaty, was ''a formula ... for a reignited arms race.''
''Reductions have to be carried out in a way that reduces the risk of confrontation,'' Gore said. ''If you're not careful, you could have fewer missiles and a more dangerous world.''
Gore was far more oblique in his West Point speech, telling the graduating class of 944 cadets that the United States had achieved great progress toward reducing its nuclear arsenals.
President Clinton will travel to Moscow this week to meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir V. Putin, and Gore said the administration hopes to ''continue on a course of deeper reductions. But it is critical we have the right approach in doing so.''
In his speech, Gore also called for higher military pay and ''a new level of cooperation'' between the branches of the armed services. He also recounted his experience in the Army, which included a stint as a journalist stationed in Vietnam.
''I know what it's like to serve our country,'' Gore said, adding he and his wife, Tipper, also ''know what it's like to live on a private's pay on the outskirts of an unfamiliar Army post - where the helicopters sometimes blew Tipper's laundry off the clothesline.''
In a statement released before Gore's speech, Tucker contended that under Clinton the US military has become ''underpaid, undertrained and overextended.''
