Reagan May Veto S. Africa Sanctions : Says Curbs Would Hurt Blacks More Than Regime; Defends Crackdown

President Reagan on Monday defended South Africa’s two-week-old crackdown on black political activity as “a governmental reaction to some violence” and hinted strongly that he would veto any legislation imposing economic sanctions on the Pretoria regime.

Reagan’s comments to a selected group of reporters in the Oval Office were in stark contrast to an earlier White House demand that South Africa end the state of emergency under which more than 1,400 people--mostly black political activists--have been arrested.

Although Reagan said he would make no final decision on sanctions legislation until a bill reaches his desk, probably in September, he said sanctions would “only hurt the people we’re trying to help.” He added that his Administration will stick by its policy of “constructive engagement” toward the white-minority South African government.

Soviet Criticism Rejected

The President also rejected criticism by Soviet Communist Party leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev of the U.S. atomic attack on Japan. In a statement released Monday in Moscow, the Soviet leader called the 1945 bombing of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki barbarous, to which Reagan tartly replied: “I always thought it was barbaric of (the late Soviet leader Josef) Stalin to kill some 20 million people in his own country.”

Gorbachev announced last week that the Soviet Union will observe a moratorium on nuclear tests beginning today, the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, until the end of this year. He said Moscow will extend the moratorium indefinitely if Washington joins in it. The U.S. government rejected the proposal out of hand.

Reagan said Washington would be willing to join Moscow in a moratorium on nuclear testing once the United States completes the tests needed to develop a warhead for the proposed Midgetman missile. He said that would not be before the end of this year at the earliest. Reagan also said the deterrent force of nuclear weapons has “kept us at peace for the longest stretch we have ever known.”

Reagan said the Soviets have completed their most recent series of tests, while the United States has not yet begun a similar program, and that a mutual moratorium on testing would mean “that we would not be able to catch up with them.”

Speaking about South Africa, the President described apartheid, the Pretoria government’s system of strict racial segregation, as repugnant.

Economic Dependence

But he said economic sanctions would be less of a burden on the regime than on black South African workers and the “surrounding black countries whose economies greatly depend on their trade and economic relations with South Africa.”

Asked if it would be fair to say there will be no change in U.S. policy and no move to get tougher with Pretoria, Reagan said: “If you mean turning to the thing of sanctions and so forth, no. But there can be fluctuations in your conversation and your relationship with another government.”

Rep. Bill Alexander of Arkansas, in an official Democratic response to the mini-news conference, predicted that Congress will override any veto.

“I think in the absence of sensitivity by the President, you will see Congress respond to the oppressed people in South Africa,” he said.

A spokesman for Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, noted that Reagan did not say flatly that he would veto the legislation. Lugar, who supports the bill, plans to meet with Secretary of State George P. Shultz later this week to urge the Administration to take a tougher line toward South Africa.

The House last week passed a compromise bill banning new bank loans to South Africa and prohibiting importation of South African gold coins. Final Senate action is expected after Congress returns from its August recess.

Reagan’s remarks about South Africa’s state of emergency appeared to reverse a carefully worded White House statement issued July 26. At that time, Deputy Press Secretary Larry Speakes, declaring that the statement reflected Reagan’s views, said: “The real cause of violence in South Africa is apartheid. A lasting peace will take hold . . . only when apartheid is dismantled. We want the state of emergency removed.”

Violence Between Blacks

But the President, asked about the crackdown Monday, said: “You’re talking now about a governmental reaction to some violence that was hurtful to all of the people. We have seen the violence between blacks there as well as from the law enforcement against riotous behavior. I think we have to recognize sometimes when actions are taken, (it is) in an effort to curb violence.”

Reagan’s defense of former President Harry S. Truman’s decision to authorize the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and of Nagasaki three days later came in response to criticism from Gorbachev.

In a letter to Japanese survivors of the bomb, the Soviet leader said, “I deeply sympathize with the grief and terrible sufferings that fell to the lot of the victims of the barbarous American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

Reagan said: “I think to second-guess now those who had to make that awesome decision is ridiculous. I think, horrible as it was, we have to say this, too--that it did give the world a view of the threat of nuclear weapons, and I think that should be an aid in one day ridding ourselves of them. But I think we have to recognize that the presence of our nuclear weapons as a deterrent have kept us at peace for the longest stretch we have ever known, 40 years of peace.”

Reagan also said the chances for deep cuts in numbers of nuclear weapons are better than they have been for a generation, provided the Soviet Union responds positively to U.S. proposals at the arms limitation talks in Geneva.