West Point Cuts Bush Off at the Stump

WEST POINT, N.Y. — When Vice President George Bush visits the U.S. Military Academy in a few weeks, he will have to watch what he says.

Bush, with the Republican presidential nomination in his pocket, will be the main speaker at the academy’s commencement on May 25, but he won’t be allowed to give his stump speech. Political campaigning is forbidden on U.S. military installations.

It may be the first time that a presidential candidate has been West Point’s graduation speaker, spokeswoman Andrea Hamburger said. “We checked with . . . our archives, and we can’t seem to find any other” in the academy’s 186-year history, she said.

In 1984, when Bush was the incumbent vice president as well as a vice-presidential candidate, he spoke to the academy’s graduating class, promising that the Reagan Administration would “maintain our military strength in order to deter aggression and protect freedom throughout the world.”