GORBACHEV/VISIT TO FRANCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000301900004-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 11, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: October 2, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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RADIO TV REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815
[phone]
PROGRAM
Morning Edition
STATION
WAMU-FM
NPR Network
DATE
October 2, 1985
6:10 A.M.
CITY
Washington, D.C.
SUBJECT
Gorbachev/Visit to France
BOB EDWARDS: Soviet leader Mikhail Go
rbachev begins a
four-day visit to France today. The visit comes some six weeks
before Gorbachev is due to hold a summit meeting with President
Reagan in Geneva.
Last night, as Gorbachev was speaking on French
television, French President Francois Mitterrand announced he
will not attend a meeting of Western leaders in New York later
this month, a meeting called by President Reagan to discuss the
Geneva summit.
From Paris, NPR's Neil Conan reports.
NEIL CONAN: There has been a lot of resentment here at
the way President Reagan seems to have summoned Western leaders
to the pre-summit meeting. French leaders often complain, as
well, that the United States doesn't consult them enough. But
the timing of the announcement of the New York meeting, just days
before the Soviet leader was due to arrive in Paris, came at an
awkward moment for Francois Mitterrand. With the French
President also still suffering from the embarrassment of the
Rainbow Warrior bombing in New Zealand, a demonstration of French
independence from the United States may have been calculated to
help Mitterrand's sagging political popularity, as well.
The result wasn't total, though. The announcement from
the Elysee Palace said that Mitterrand would be happy to meet
President Reagan at another time. More importantly, the French
government confirmed yesterday that it will not go along with one
of the main Soviet objectives of Mikhail Gorbachev's visit, a
joint Franco-Soviet communique denouncing President Reagan's
strategic defense initiative.
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The French have been the most vocal opponents of Star
Wars in Western Europe, but an Elysee spokesman said yesterday,
"We wouldn't think of embarrassing our ally."
In an extraordinary appearance on French television last
night, Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev confirmed that building
European opposition to Star Wars was one of the principal aims of
his visit. He spoke in apocalyptic terms about the threat posed
by space-based weapons. "Tension is mounting in the world," he
said. "It's possible that we're heading for a nuclear
catastrophe. Right now the situation is like a tinderbox ready
to explode."
Later, when he was asked what made him so pessimistic,
he told French television reporters, "We're at a crossroads. The
development of space weapons creates a situation where things can
get out of control." And he went on to remark that even
discussion of this question was becoming difficult because of
what he described as being militarization of political
consciousness."
Gorbachev spoke only in general terms and revealed no
details of the arms control proposals under negotiation in
Geneva. He looked very stiff reading a formal 25-minute
statement from behind a big desk, but was relaxed and confident
during the interview segment, sitting around a table with French
reporters. The now famous Gorbachev smile was playing around the
corners of his mouth during most of the interview, but it
vanished when he was pressed on the question of human rights. He
visibly tensed as the subject moved from Andrei Sakharov to
Jewish emigration. Then when he was asked whether it was true
that there are four million political prisoners in Soviet gulags,
he abruptly cut the conversation off: "Let's not talk about this
anymore."
About 3000 people gathered in the Place Trocadero in
Paris last night to denounce the Soviet record on human rights.
The slogan was, "Gorbachev Gulag."
The French Government does not allow street
demonstrations during state visits, so this was the last of the
big rallies before the Gorbachev visit.
During the interview with Gorbachev last night, one of
the French reporters remarked that France was awaiting the visit
with interest and suspicion.
A French expert on Soviet affairs, Jacques Rouknique (?)
of the Institut de Science Politique, said that Gorbachev can
expect a skeptical reception in light of the dramatic change in
the Soviet Union's image here over the past ten years.
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JACQUES ROUKNIQUE: The intellectuals have abandoned
Marxism, discovered the gulag, discovered the horrors of the
Soviet system. Generally speaking, in public opinion polls, the
image of the Soviet Union is very bad, in all respects, not only
for its international behavior -- that was very strongly
influenced by Afghanistan -- but also as the domestic system, it
no longer inspires people on the Left, or even within the
Communist Party there are strong critical voices.
CONAN: Both sides, of course, are stressing the
Franco-Soviet aspects of this visit and deny that it's merely a
prelude to the Geneva summit. Last night, for example, Mikhail
Gorbachev mentioned the United States by name just once.
And Jacques Rouknique says that the two main Soviet
goals here are to see if Star Wars can be used as a wedge between
the United States and its West European allies and to influence
Washington as well.
ROUKNIQUE: Certainly Geneva must be on his mind. This
is, after all, the main target of his. But I think that the two
things are -- can't be really separated. He believes that a good
way to put pressure on the Americans is to show that there is a
significant body of European public opinion which opposes the
Star War project, and that the only way to make progress in
Geneva is to forget about Star Wars and follow some of his
radical proposals for disarmament.
CONAN: After the Soviet General Secretary arrives this
afternoon, he'll have dinner with President Mitterrand....
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