Move Ahead on ‘Star Wars,’ Reagan Says : Would Be ‘Greatest Fools’ Not to Do So, He Declares in Taped Talk

Americans will be “the greatest fools on Earth” if they fail to press forward with research on the “Star Wars” space-based missile defense program, President Reagan told the nation Saturday in a radio address taped a day earlier, before he entered the hospital.

Reagan said he will maintain in his November meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev that the United States has the right under the SALT I treaty to proceed with research on the multibillion-dollar program, formally known as the Strategic Defense Initiative.

And, “in light of the scale of their program, we’d be the greatest fools on Earth not to do so,” he cautioned.

Last week, Administration officials said, Soviet arms negotiators in Geneva indicated that Moscow would accept a provision in a new arms limitation treaty permitting laboratory research on strategic defense while opposing actual development and testing.

Reagan made no reference to the unofficial overture, which came after months of acrimony over “Star Wars.” But he called it “preposterous” for the Soviets to attack “Star Wars” in view of their own continued anti-missile program and their alleged failures to adhere to SALT I and the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

At times, the United States made certain assumptions after the signing of the treaties that, “to put it charitably, have not proven justified,” Reagan said. These included:

--An assumption that the pacts would lead to stability and eventual reduction in strategic arsenals, which he said was scotched by the Soviet refusal to accept “meaningful and verifiable reductions” in offensive nuclear arms.

--An assumption that the treaties contemplated parity in offensive weapons systems, when actually, Reagan said, “the Soviets have continued to race for superiority.”

Soviets’ Condemnation

--An assumption that the mutual vulnerability implicit in the treaties is in the common interest of Moscow and Washington. He said this has been hampered by the Soviets’ condemnation of U.S. research on defense against first-strike missiles “while blanketing their country with the most sophisticated air defense system ever seen.”

U.S. Dismantled System

The United States dismantled its anti-ballistic missile system 10 years ago, he noted, but the Soviet Union “consistently improved the world’s only missile defense system, deployed around Moscow,” as well as “the world’s only operational killer satellite system.”

--An assumption that the two agreements would be complied with, which, Reagan said, “the Soviets are seriously violating in both offensive and defensive areas.” He cited construction of a huge Soviet radar facility in the interior of the country--an apparent treaty violation--and Soviet testing and deployment of “sophisticated air defense systems which we judge may have capabilities against ballistic missiles.”

Because Reagan was hospitalized for intestinal surgery, congressional Democrats called off the weekly broadcast with which they have customarily responded to the President’s five-minute Saturday radio talks.

Senate Minority Leader Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, who was to have spoken for the Democrats, canceled his talk when Reagan entered the hospital Friday. According to his spokeswoman, Linda Peek, Byrd decided it would be “unseemly” to deliver a partisan attack while the President was undergoing surgery.

However, Byrd’s office made public the text of a statement in which Byrd claimed Democrats scored a victory by persuading Reagan not to press for suspension of Social Security cost-of-living increases.