President Gives Soviets High Marks for Disinformation

President Reagan gives the Soviet Union high marks for its ability to get “disinformation” published and broadcast to suit its purposes and says, “I don’t think we have anything comparable to that.”

In a television interview with evangelist Pat Robertson carried Friday by the Christian Broadcasting Network, Reagan was asked whether the American media were manipulated by the Soviets to stack the deck against him in the November summit meeting in Geneva with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

“Well, I did begin to feel there for a while that when the summit started they’d be rooting for the other side,” the President replied. “But he was wearing the white hat and I was wearing the black hat.”

You know, that’s an old Hollywood expression that you identify the villain by the color of the hat.”

Reagan said he wasn’t criticizing the media but that the American people should understand that the Soviet Union has a worldwide disinformation network.

“It’s very effective,” he said.

“They can get many things published and broadcast and so forth to suit their ends, and in their drives, for example, to try to create some friction among us and our allies. And I don’t think we have anything comparable to that.”