Thatcher Vows to Preserve Close U.S. Ties : Tells Party She Will Also Continue Capitalist Crusade in Europe

BRIGHTON, England —  Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on Friday described Britain’s close relationship with the United States as a pivotal factor in forcing communism’s global retreat, and she pledged that Britain will be a strong ally of the next American President.

“President Reagan has rebuilt the strength and confidence of the West--not without a little help--and inspired the democracies to go out and win the battle of ideas,” she said. “It is vital that Britain and America should always stand together, so the next President of the United States, too, will have the United Kingdom as a staunch ally.”

She made no reference in her 40-minute speech to either presidential candidate, but a handful of people held up signs lettered “Bush-Thatcher” and “Bush-Quayle.”

Enthusiastic Reception

Addressing an enthusiastic crowd of 2,000 people on the final day of her Conservative Party’s annual conference here, the 63-year-old prime minister vowed to carry her capitalist crusade to the heart of Europe as the 12-nation European Communities moves toward greater unity by 1992.

“We haven’t worked all these years to free Britain from the paralysis of socialism only to see it creep in through the back door of central control and bureaucracy from Brussels,” she said.

Thatcher’s remarks echoed what she said recently in the course of a tour of European cities, deriding proponents--mainly French and West German--of a united Europe without national boundaries or national identities, administered centrally from Brussels, the Belgian capital, where the European Communities has its headquarters.

“That wasn’t what we joined the European Community for,” she said Friday.

She emphasized Britain’s commitment to closer European cooperation but said that Europe should be “based on the widest possible freedom for enterprise. . . .”

She spoke as Western Europe’s most experienced, most influential leader, whose capitalist crusade has come to dominate the political agenda of several countries of the European Communities.

She is now in her 10th year as prime minister, and her hold on domestic power is stronger than at any time since she took office. She has a firm majority of 101 seats in Parliament, and her opposition has fallen into disarray.

A recent national opinion poll indicated that only 11% of Britain’s voters believe that Thatcher can lose the next election, which she need not face for another four years.

Physically strong and armed with a series of popular new themes, including environmental protection and extending her free-enterprise ideas to Europe, Thatcher shows no sign of faltering.

“Next year’s 10th anniversary is no time to rest on our laurels,” she told the party conference. “It marks the start of our next 10.”

Terrorism Threat

The conference was held in this seacoast town for the first time since 1984, when Thatcher and her entire Cabinet narrowly escaped assassination by the Irish Republican Army. Five people were killed and scores were injured when an IRA bomb exploded, destroying much of the hotel where she was staying.

Because of a recent upsurge in IRA activity, the conference took place amid the most intensive security ever mounted for a political meeting in Britain. A small army of police carried out meticulous security checks that made entering the conference hall a long and painstaking process.

A Royal Navy destroyer patrolled offshore, and police and army helicopters enforced an air exclusion zone over the city. The hotel where Thatcher stayed was closed and searched for two days before her arrival.

In her speech, Thatcher recalled the 1984 bombing, speaking of “memories sad and memories brave.”

She saved her toughest language for an assault on terrorism and the IRA. “ . . . This government will never surrender to the IRA,” she vowed. “Never.”

The IRA campaign of violence is aimed at ending British rule in Northern Ireland, but she said the terrorist threat to freedom is worldwide, and added: “It can never be met by appeasement. Give in to the terrorist and you breed more terrorism. We will not bargain, nor compromise, nor bend the knee to terrorists.”

Three British nationals are being held hostage by Muslim extremists in Lebanon, and Thatcher has consistently condemned attempts, including some by the United States, to negotiate for their freedom.

She also raised the issue of protecting the environment, which she brought up last summer following reports of alarming levels of pollution in the waters in and around northern Europe and growing concern about the so-called greenhouse effect and an endangered ozone layer.

She urged greater global cooperation to protect natural resources and pledged to reduce the use of fossil fuels through “a safe, sensible and balanced use of nuclear power.”