Reagan Picks Conservatives to Negotiate With Soviets : Washington Lawyer to Head Team

Washington lawyer Max Kampelman will be the chief U.S. negotiator in new talks with Moscow on medium-range nuclear missiles, strategic arms and weapons in space, Secretary of State George P. Shultz announced today.

Kampelman, a conservative Democrat with little experience in arms control but a reputation as a hard-liner toward the Soviets, will have two roles in the negotiations: one as the ranking member of the delegation and another as chief negotiator for talks on space weapons.

Former Sen. John Tower, a conservative Texas Republican who chaired the Senate Armed Services Committee at the time of his retirement last month, was named to lead the U.S. side in talks on strategic arms.

Ambassador Maynard W. Glitman, who served as the No. 2 American negotiator in the previous talks on intermediate-range nuclear missiles, will head the new U.S. team in that area, Shultz said.

Called ‘Terrific Slate’ In a statement read by Shultz, President Reagan called the three “highly capable negotiators.” Shultz said he is confident that the U.S. side will be led by “an absolutely terrific slate.”

In addition to the three team leaders, Reagan said veteran negotiators Paul H. Nitze, who directed the last round of talks on medium-range missiles, and Edward L. Rowny, who spearheaded the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks, will serve as special advisers to himself and Shultz.

Administration officials said the concept of having three team leaders--and the appointment of Kampelman, who has demonstrated an ability to take a hard line with the Soviets, as head of the U.S. delegation--were approved Thursday by Reagan.

Kampelman, 64, a protege of the late Vice President Hubert Humphrey and a co-founder of the hawkish Committee for the Present Danger, will be making his debut as an arms control negotiator.

However, Shultz said Kampelman had proved his muster by doing “an outstanding job” as chief U.S. negotiator at the East-West talks on security and cooperation in Europe. “He is really first class, as are the other two,” Shultz added.

No Date or Place Set Selection of the three top negotiators followed last week’s agreement in Geneva, Switzerland--hammered out during two days of meetings between Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko--to revive an arms control process stalled for the last 13 months.

Although preliminary discussions on the time and place for those negotiations have been held, no decisions have been reached. The United States has proposed a March starting date in Geneva. The Soviets have so far declined to set a date and place.

Shultz was defensive about the credentials of the three and reluctant to characterize their politics. When pressed on their collective hawkish perspective, Shultz replied, “It’s pro-American and pro our allies.”

“All three, I think, are people who are accustomed to the give-and-take of negotiations,” he said.