Speech Called Rehash of U.S. Policy : Soviets Say Reagan’s U.N. Address Ignored Nuclear Disarmament

The Soviet Union charged today that President Reagan’s speech to the United Nations ignored the “burning” problems of nuclear disarmament and served only to justify a U.S. policy of “international banditry.”

Reagan, addressing the General Assembly’s 40th anniversary session Thursday, called for joint U.S.-Soviet action to end wars in Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, Ethiopia and Nicaragua. (Story, Page 4.)

The official Soviet news agency Tass said today in a statement from New York that Reagan “flagrantly misrepresented” the turmoil in those countries and his speech “boiled down to the rehashing of Washington’s well-known bankrupt foreign policy directives . . . in a more attractive package.”

Reagan also said in his speech that he was looking forward to a “fresh start” in superpower relations when he meets Gorbachev in Geneva Nov. 19-20.

‘Star Wars’ Justified

But Tass said that, “passing on to concrete issues of U.S.-Soviet relations, Reagan . . . forgot a fresh start altogether. He exerted himself to justify the Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as ‘Star Wars,’ under an awkward pretext that the United States does not want to remain undefended.

“The main attention of the speech was paid not at all to the most burning problems of nuclear disarmament but to other matters.

“Being aware of natural indignation over the policy of state terrorism conducted by Washington . . . trying to whitewash the undeclared wars unleashed for the purpose of suppressing people’s struggles for freedom and progress, Reagan set out a so-called plan for the resolution of regional conflicts in Africa, Asia and Central America,” Tass said.

Calling Reagan’s plan an attempt to legalize U.S. “actions of international banditry,” Tass said that Reagan showed no intention of giving up his policy of “glorifying” the 1983 U.S. invasion and occupation of Grenada.