THE BALTIC TRIANGLE 461the USSR. He asked foreign leaders to recognize his duty to secure
constitutional order. He assured British Foreign Secretary Douglas
Hurd that, although Landsbergis and his friends were mere adventur-
ers, he still aimed to behave with restraint in Vilnius.^49 Bush felt much
sympathy. He could well imagine Akhromeev and others saying:
‘Enough is enough!’^50 On 29 April he wrote confidentially to Gor-
bachëv along these lines, even stressing that he understood the Soviet
official standpoint that the Baltic states belonged to the USSR.^51 When
Baker came to Moscow in May, Gorbachëv asserted that ‘Lithuania
was always tied to Russia’. He hinted at the potential for trouble; he
also noted that Stalin had set the Lithuanian border – and now the
Belorussians wanted some of their territories back. Baker was accom-
modating and recalled how he had told the American Congress that
Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, had not even belonged to Lithuania
but to Poland before 1940.^52 On 18 May Britain’s Ambassador
Braithwaite refused Lithuanian Prime Minister Kazimira Prunskienė’s
request for support for her government. Braithwaite urged dialogue
and patience. The Lithuanian leadership, he affirmed, had an interest
in Gorbachëv’s perestroika remaining a success.^53
When Gorbachëv flew to Washington later that month, Bush
expressed sympathy for his Baltic predicament but asked him to
understand the criticism he was attracting for failing to intervene on
Lithuania’s behalf. He mentioned his own reasons for disliking Lands-
bergis, who had compared him to Neville Chamberlain.^54 Bush made
Gorbachëv an offer. In return for Moscow lifting restrictions on emi-
gration and ending the Lithuanian economic blockade, the American
President would ease the USSR’s commercial difficulties: ‘So, with this
private understanding, I’m going to sign the trade agreement today,
although my critics will give me hell.’^55 Senator Bob Dole was less
gentle. He harangued Gorbachëv for denying independence to Es -
tonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Gorbachëv angrily replied: ‘Why did you
let your administration intervene in Panama if you love freedom so
much? . . . You have given Most Favoured Nation [status] to China
after Tiananmen. What are we supposed to do, declare presidential
rule in Lithuania?’^56 Richard Perle in the New York Times accused
Bush and Baker of being too eager to please Gorbachëv. He reminded
readers that the Lithuanians had a justified claim to independence.^57
On 29 June, as the result of joint pressure from Washington and
Moscow, the Lithuanian authorities suspended their declaration of
independence. The Americans continued to ask the Kremlin for