REAGAN'S ANTI-SUMMIT ARSENAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504100020-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: August 22, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504100020-3
ARTICLE APPEARED
A ?
ON PAGE -
WASHINGTON POST
22 August 1985
MARY McGRORY
Reagan's Anti-Summit Arsenal
T he way he is acting, you'd think
that President Reagan were
fighting charges that he is "soft on
communism." His red-baiting in recent
weeks has reached a point where it is
reasonable to ask how he can bear to go
to Geneva and shake hands with Mikhail
Gorbachev.
A day after announcing that the
United States will test an antisatellite
weapon in space, his administration
scared the Soviets of conducting a
kind of chemical warfare against
Americans in Moscow. The Soviets
have been spraying Americans' steering
wheels and doorknobs with a "tracking
substance," initially described as a
potentially cancer-causing "mutagen"
but then termed something less Lethal.
A team of doctors has been
melodramatically dispatched to Moscow
to check the victims.
It is also reasonable to ask if Reagan
is trying to goad Gorbachev into calling
off the summit. If not, he is serving
notice that Gorbachev, who has come
on as a matinee idol in the European
press, will get no quarter in Geneva.
If Gorbachev thinks he will face a
defensive and ailing old man, he is
wrong. He's going up against Rambo.
Reagan will be a furious warrior
prepared to smite the Red with charges
about cheating on arms treaties and
powdering innocent Americans with
spy-dust. And there will be no retreat
on "Star Wars." The antisatellite test
speaks volumes to the contrary.
Sen. John P. Kerry (D-Mass.), who
proposed a ban on ASAT testing, says
he finds the administration's
announcement "unbelievable"-and
revealing. "It is his notion of how to
approach the talks, his notion of
bargaining. He is trying to set up the
summit in his terms, so that when it
doesn't produce anything, it can be
blamed on the Soviets, who won't talk
because they are ahead of us."
Kerry contends that Reagan's claim
that he has met the conditions on ASAT
testing established by Congress is
contradicted by Reagan's statement,
which says we are "studying' the limits
on antisatellite weapons: Congress
required "good-faith negotiations."
Reagan baldly claims that the "U.S.
must develop its own ASAT capability
in order to deter Soviet threats to U.S.
and allied space systems."
"The facts are," says Kerry, "that the
Soviets have a very rudimentary
system. They've had it for 15 years,
they declared a moratorium on testing
two yearsago. And we're going to test
ours two months before the summit.
Congress said he could test only if be is
negotiating on ASATs. They aren't on
the table in Geneva. But he certifies
while Congress is in recess. It all shows
where he's coming from on arms
control."
The announcement of the
antisatellite testing follows closely the
Reagan rejection of a Soviet offer, mtde
on the eve of the anniversary of
Hiroshima. of a comprehensive test ban.
It was dismissed as a crass "propaganda
ply' and cuttingly countered with an
invitation to the Soviets to come watch
our tests.
The message: Don't get smart with
me, Gorbachev.
Last Monday, out of the blue,
national security affairs adviser Robert
C. McFarlane made a crushing speech
warning the Soviets that they could
expect nothing from us unless they
change their ways. It was an echo of an
early first-tetra utterance by Richard
Pipes, who told the Soviets that they
must change or expect war. He caused
a furor; McFarlane's gratuitous attack
was explained as a preemptive strike in
the anticipated pre-summit Soviet
"propaganda offensive."
The clenched fist is, apparently, to be
the logo of the second Reagan term. A
domestic war council produces threats
of confrontations for Congress; the
moral crisis in South Africa is
stubbornly viewed as a battle in the
Cold War, press disclosures that a
member of the National Security
Council is running the contra operation
in Nicaragua is countered with a White
House demand that the commandante's
name be withheld.
Gorbachev is not to think for a
minute that Reagan is a lame duct. The
president can show his contempt for
Comm, as in the high-handed ASAT
certification notice; he can turn his back
on public opinion, and he can get away
with it all.
Gorbachev has to be pummeled so
that he goes into the summit wary and
off his game. The president will be
brandishing nukes and blasting away
about sinter spy-dust sprayed on
innocent Americans in the capital of the
Evil Empire.
Reagan has lowered expectations to a
level that if the summit's outcome is an
exchange of ballet dancers and a chess
player or two, everyone will be relieved
enough to call it a triumph.
Maybe it would be better if. in his
present frame of mind, he didn't go at
all.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504100020-3