Advisers urge Bush to aid Lithuania. . .

President Bush is being pushed by a newly forming consensus ofhis advisers to prepare a dramatic means of getting supplies toLithuania if President Gorbachev orders a boycott, just as HarryTruman beat Joseph Stalin's Berlin blockade in 1948.

That runs counter to the timidity of other NATO members,especially the Germans. Nor is that what George Bush really wants.Concerned that Soviet hard-liners are using Lithuania to undermineMikhail Gorbachev, Bush's policy is to ease the pressure on his newsuperpower partner.

But warnings from his advisers are bolstered by congressionalleaders of both parties, who want concrete language from thepresident that would bind U.S. support to Lithuania. SenateDemocratic Leader George Mitchell agrees with his Republicancounterpart, Sen. Robert J. Dole, that the United States may have totry helping Lithuania through the other two Baltic states, Estoniaand Latvia. On NBC's Meet the Press, Dole suggested extending themhard-currency credit that "might supply these vital needs toLithuania" cut off by Gorbachev.

In the House, insiders predict a torrent of demands forpostponing or canceling the summit scheduled next month inWashington.

The administration labored late last week - without decision -over exact wording to be used in a letter from Bush to Gorbachev, butthe consensus was clearly moving toward a harder line. Worried thatanother dose of equivocation will only embolden Gorbachev, theseofficials privately argued for a declaration that the United Stateswill not accept the slow strangulation of Lithuania, just as Trumanrefused to knuckle under to the Berlin blockade.

Despite stark differences in the Lithuanian case, memory ofTruman's response runs strong as a symbolic undercurrent inside theadministration's policy talks. During the 18-month Berlin airlift,Stalin did not permit a single U.S. aircraft to be attacked as tonsof food and fuel were flown to beleaguered West Berlin. Bushadvisers now are urging similar methods to be used by their chief toreduce Gorbachev's pressure on Lithuania, much as Stalin's was onBerlin.

The situations, over 40 years apart, are dissimilar. Lithuanianairfields and Baltic ports are in Soviet hands, while the UnitedStates and its allies controlled West Berlin. There is one newfactor: U.S. allies, lusting for business with Moscow, have become sostrong that they think they can tell Uncle Sam where to get off.

That is particularly true of soon-to-be-reunified Germany.Behind the scenes, Bonn lobbied furiously to bring the Soviets intothe new $12 billion European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.The United States yielded, in effect retreating from Bush's NationalPublic Radio interview March 17 that opposed loans to Moscow.

Bush will face heavy going if he converts handwringing into atrenchant U.S. policy toward Lithuanian independence.

But Bush is undisputed leader of the West. This is also onecrisis he could enter enjoying a united home front. Bipartisancongressional demands for an end to ambiguity are steadily pulling insupporters from across the ideological spectrum.

These politicians want George Bush to lay down a marker for allthe world to see, no matter how much discomfort it brings Gorbachevand his trading pals in Bonn. With the ghost of Harry Trumanstalking the Oval Office, Bush may be ready to act.

Evans & Novak are nationally syndicated columnists of theChicago Sun-Times.