Reagan About to Scuttle SALT Treaty, Pravda Says

The Reagan Administration is about to scuttle the SALT II treaty, either in one stroke or “creepingly, step by step,” the Communist Party newspaper Pravda said Sunday.

The accusation appeared in a Pravda editorial on the eve of President Reagan’s scheduled announcement on whether the United States will continue to observe the 1979 strategic arms limitation treaty, which was signed by both sides but never ratified by the Senate.

“The only point at issue is what method of scrapping the (SALT II) treaty would be less painful to the U.S.A. from the point of view of world public reaction: whether the commitments assumed by the U.S.A. should be abrogated openly and in full or whether this should be done creepingly, step by step,” Pravda said.

Western diplomats said that the denunciation of Washington’s approach to arms control was designed to cover any possible action that Reagan takes on SALT II.

Reports from Washington have said that the President will continue to observe the basic provisions of the treaty but reserve the right to depart from specific limitations if he feels the Soviet Union is violating the pact.

The United States has accused Moscow of violating the SALT II accord, which will expire at the end of the year, by developing two new missile systems and encoding data from missile tests to prevent U.S. monitoring. The Soviet Union has rejected the accusations.

Pravda’s editorial continued a tough official line against the American position at the arms control talks in Geneva, asserting that the United States is not really seeking arms agreements.

“The last thing . . . that worries the White House is the process of arms limitation and reduction. Any denial of this fact is a gross deception,” it said.

In addition, the Communist Party paper said that Washington’s agreement to resume arms control talks at Geneva is only a “maneuver” to conceal a policy of nuclear arms buildup.

“One is entitled to ask what the United States is going to seek agreement upon in Geneva if even the existing ceilings on nuclear armaments are becoming too low for it,” Pravda said. “The assurances of the American side that it is prepared to seek a mutually acceptable accord at the Geneva talks on nuclear and space weapons are worth but little. . . .

“Now it is about to go even farther in pursuit of its dangerous militarist line. It raises its hand on the very foundations of international stability and is getting ready to wreck the SALT II treaty, which has up to now served as a threshold containing the escalation of rivalry in strategic armaments.

“The U.S. leadership is treading on a dangerous path. And it should be clear that if the U.S. Administration steps over the threshold, it will incur grave responsibility for all the consequences of this step.”