ROCKPORT — Relaxed, casual and as nonpartisan as they could manage, former President George Bush and his wife, Barbara, talked about leadership, literacy and house guests here Wednesday.

The Bushes spoke at a conference at the Samoset Resort held by MBNA America, a Maryland-based bank with customer service and marketing operations in Camden and Orono.

The former president’s list of great leaders he has encountered in his 30 years in public life transcended political ideology to include a few surprises, such as Deng Xiaoping of China and India’s prime minister, Indira Ghandi.

Admitting that praising the leader of the largest Communist regime still in existence is guaranteed to raise eyebrows, Bush said the Chinese premier has “shown great courage and determination in leading his country toward a free-market economy while managing to keep 1.2 billion people fed. The change in China since I became ambassador in 1974 is absolutely outstanding. There are far more individual liberties and human rights than ever before, and Deng Xiaoping has done it almost singlehandedly.”

Despite being a constant, almost paranoid, critic of the United States, Bush said Ghandi “was strong, tough and charismatic, who led her country with great courage until she was murdered by her own guards.”

Bush also cited former Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev for bringing openness and reform to that oppressive regime, Russian President Boris Yeltsin for standing up to the military for the cause of democracy, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt for uniting with the West against Saddam Hussein, Mexican President Carlos Salinas for fighting corruption and radical politics, and Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk for dismantling South Africa’s racist society. But his greatest affection went to his political soulmates: Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.

The strength of those two leaders, Bush said, was that they based their decisions upon a few core principles of freedom, courage and determination.

Immediately after Iraq invaded Kuwait, Bush met face to face with the British prime minister and described the possible need for military intervention.

“She committed the United Kingdom right on the spot; no consultation, no finger in the wind,” Bush said. “She said this was `no time to go wobbly.’ She was a great and loyal ally of the United States.”

While critics of Reagan say he was disconnected and inattentive, Bush said his boss for eight years will be remembered in history as the president who brought totalitarian communist regimes tumbling down.

“He is a man of great kindness, courtesy and humor,” Bush said. “He was guided by a few principles and the Soviets and East Germans got the message.”

Although saying he has avoided criticizing the Clinton administration, despite ample reason to do so, Bush made an exception with Haiti.

“We should not send one American troop to Haiti,” Bush said. “It is not in our vital interest, it would reawaken animosity in our own hemisphere. We would have no problem getting into Haiti; the problem would be getting out.”

Calling exiled President Aristide “unreliable and unwilling to compromise,” Bush said Clinton should “work with the military to restore democracy without the return of Aristide. One of the biggest mistakes made by this administration was allowing one of our ships to be turned away from the dock at Port-au-Prince by a band of thugs. It sent a worldwide signal about our lack of resolve.”

The president’s wife chatted amiably about life with a retiree, the upcoming publication of her memoirs, her children and grandchildren, and her favorite good cause: the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.

“If every single man, woman and child could read, write and comprehend, we would solve a lot of our other problems,” she said. “Our jails and welfare rolls are filled with men and women who can’t read and write.”

Barbara Bush said illiteracy is not caused by low income or low intelligence, but by poor parenting.

“If the parents don’t read, the child is much less inclined to pick up a good book or even a comic book,” she said. “There is nothing better you can do for your children than to read to them. Please, turn off the TV once in a while and share a book. My foundation has two goals: to make America more literate and to strengthen the family.”

Both Bushes suggested, however, that the family reading list not include the work of the Washington press corps, a group of journalists, they said, who have replaced fairness with cynicism and accuracy with speculation.

Although never shy about declaring her admiration and love for her husband of 50 years, the Silver Fox did offer a glimpse of the secret, dark side of George Bush: his uncontrollable penchant for inviting house guests.