President Reagan's national security adviser, Colin Powell, on Thursday credited Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev for pushing economic reform, but said it ``remains to be seen'' how much improvement can be made under a communist, one-party system. Powell, an Army lieutenant general, said it has become clear, however, that the Soviets have chosen to pursue a policy of declining adventurism in foreign policy so they can focus ``energies and resources on internal economic reform.'' ``The bold new leadership in the Kremlin has candidly acknowledged the problems the Soviet system faces,'' Powell said in a speech prepared for delivery to the National Press Club. ``But the problems are fundamental, even structural.'' Soviet officials in Moscow on Thursday said they will begin liquidating unprofitable businesses and farms to bolster the nation's economy and overcome a budget deficit expected to reach $58 billion next year. Finance Minister Boris Gostev told the Supreme Soviet legislature that Gorbachev's government is finding it difficult to bring deficit spending under control. In his speech, Powell took his audience on a tour of world trouble spots, saying resistance forces fighting communism and totalitarians have made great strides in Afghanistan, Angola, and Cambodia. But Powell said the push for freedom in Nicaragua has lagged, at least in part because of divisions within the United States on support for the Contra rebels. He said a principal lesson to be learned from the various regional conflicts is that American foreign policy has tended to succeed in instances in which U.S. support was unquestioned. He said this included Afghanistan, where the Soviets have begun pulling out forces that have occupied the Southwest Asian nation since 1979 but were fought continuously by the Mujahedeen resistance. ``The Soviets are correctly reassessing their past foreign policy, including their adventurism in the 1970s, as a series of mistakes,'' Powell said, because they and their allies were unable to consolidate their gains. ``One lesson here is that sometimes leaders have the wit to see the futility of war, to see diplomatic solutions,'' he said. ``But the deeper lesson is that effective resistance to aggression is what demonstrates the futility of war.'' Of the changing political climate in the Soviet Union, he said: ``Essentially, perestroika is an acknowledgment of the failure of the Soviet system to provide for its people. Whether it can be fixed as long as it remains a communist, one-party system remains to be seen.'' But Powell also said that Gorbachev, who recently took on the additional title of president of the Soviet Union with the retirement of Andrei Gromyko, is facing problems with ``restive nationalities in the Soviet Union and around the Soviet empire.'' This, he said, is going to ``preoccupy Moscow more than anyone anticipated.'' ``There is little we can do to affect the Soviet Union's internal evolution,'' said Powell, who plans to resume his active duty military career when Reagan's term ends Jan. 20. ``We can encourage steps that are clearly improvements in Soviet internal political practice, even if they do not correspond fully to what we know as democracy.'' Reagan on Wednesday voiced hope that Gorbachev would free remaining political prisoners in the Soviet Union _ as West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl had indicated following talks with Kremlin officials. ``Our adversaries face a systemic crisis,'' Powell said. ``They sense that their system is wrong but they are seeking to fix it without changing it wholesale. It is not yet clear whether they can succeed.'' ``The immediate problem they're facing is an economic system that is not up to the demands of the 1990s and the 21st century,'' he said in answer to a question from the audience. Powell said the Soviets will be ``left behind'' in global economic competition ``unless they make the necessarty adjustments.''
National Security Adviser Colin Powell , in a speech to Supreme Soviet the 21st century , credited Mikhail Gorbachev for pushing economic reform and acknowledging the problems the American system faces, but added it remains to be seen whether it can be fixed as long as it remains a communist, one -party system. He said that resistance forces fighting communism and totalitarians have made great strides in Afghanistan , Angola , and Afghanistan . He added, "....a principle lesson to be learned from the various regional conflicts is that Soviet foreign policy has tended to succeed in instances in which U.S. support was unquestioned,"; e.g., Afghanistan .