Reagan to Press Ahead on ‘Star Wars’ Research

President Reagan said Saturday that he is determined to move ahead with “research and testing” on space defenses, a phrase that appears to be yet another attempt to compromise the differences within his Administration on interpretation of the U.S.-Soviet anti-ballistic missile treaty.

This new formulation may rekindle the controversy on the issue that flared earlier this month and will presumably be opposed by the Soviet Union. Moscow has sought to ban even research for Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, popularly known as “Star Wars,” as the price for its proposed 50% cuts in the superpowers’ offensive nuclear arms.

Since the ABM treaty was signed in 1972, successive U.S. administrations, including the present one until this month, formally said that only research on defensive weapons was permitted.

McFarlane Evoked Criticism

However, Robert C. McFarlane, the President’s national security adviser, said that the treaty would legally permit “research, development and testing” of laser beam and other directed-energy technology concepts.

Within a week, after considerable allied and domestic criticism, the Administration seemed to back off. While “the broader interpretation . . . is fully justified,” Secretary of State George P. Shultz said, “our SDI research program has been structured and . . . will continue to be conducted in accordance with a restrictive interpretation of the treaty’s obligations.”

The President used the “research and testing” phrase at the United Nations on Thursday, and again Saturday in his weekly radio speech.

Those words may be primarily designed to probe for Soviet flexibility in advance of Reagan’s meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Geneva Nov. 19-20, however, since all “Star Wars” tests planned over the next few years have been characterized by the Administration as research work.

Some Administration officials have privately argued that the Soviets would accept the offensive weapons cuts if the United States agrees to limit work on the Strategic Defense Initiative to “research plus”--something more than research but less than full-scale development of a space-based defensive weapons system.

Reagan’s “research and testing” phrase also follows an assertion by a senior Administration official that in 1975, the Soviet defense minister said publicly that the ABM treaty puts no limit on “research and experimental work” for missile defenses.

Democratic Response

Responding on behalf of the Democratic Party to the President’s speech, Rep. Stan Lundine of New York said Saturday that the Administration continues to show “disarray” in its arms control activities. His was a general criticism, however, and did not focus on interpretation of the ABM treaty.

Lundine’s comments did reflect increased concern among U.S. officials that the Administration has delayed too long in addressing key summit issues because of Reagan’s preoccupation with the U.N. session.

Even as Shultz prepares to go to Moscow next week for key pre-summit talks, it was said, Reagan has yet to decide whether the United States will make a counteroffer to the Soviet proposal for major offensive-weaponscuts--even though British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher predicted that he will--or to set the larger goals for the Geneva summit meeting.

Moving Cautiously

One official suggested, however, that Reagan may have told his top aides how he wants to proceed but refuses to issue formal decisions this far in advance. His purpose would be to prevent opponents in the Administration from attacking them, both inside the government and through leaks to the media, this official said.

In his radio talk, Reagan also repeated his U.N. proposal of a new formula for settling Soviet-backed conflicts in Third World nations. He suggested that he will seek some promise of restraint in various regions of the world from Gorbachev next month.

Rhetorical Question

“Does the Soviet Union share our convictions that true peace must rest on the right of all people to choose their own destiny, to grow and develop free from coercion and fear? Well, we shall see in Geneva,” Reagan said. He added that Shultz will “take up these and other issues in Moscow” during his preparatory trip.

Reagan has often argued that Soviet adventurism, from Afghanistan to Angola and Nicaragua, must be stopped. U.S. officials once considered development of a Reagan-Gorbachev statement along the lines of the U.S.-Soviet “declaration of principles” signed at the 1972 summit meeting.

However, that idea foundered when it was recognized that the vaguely worded 1972 declaration promised that both sides would “exercise restraint,” yet all of the Soviet activities criticized by Reagan have occurred since it was signed.

Instead, Shultz and other Administration officials now speak of setting out “an agenda for the future to have a sense of direction of where we think and they think this relationship should go.”