Ex-U.N. Envoys Optimistic on U.S.-Soviet Ties

Former U.S. ambassadors to the United Nations Jeane J. Kirkpatrick and Andrew Young, usually on opposite sides on foreign policy issues, both expressed optimism Tuesday night that American relations with the Soviet Union can improve and that troubled spots around the world may stabilize.

The two shared a platform at Santa Ana High School in a city-sponsored Great American Talk Festival. Although billed as a debate, Kirkpatrick and Young gave separate addresses to the crowd of 1,000 before answering questions from the audience.

Kirkpatrick, who recently resigned after four years as U.N. ambassador, said the change in leadership in Moscow has given her hope that relations between the two countries might improve. But Kirkpatrick maintained that the U.S. military should remain as strong as possible.

“Our military budgets have to be reactive to the Soviets’ (military budgets),” she said.

Kirkpatrick’s View

Kirkpatrick, however, said the United States under President Reagan’s direction was “not locked with the Soviet Union for world domination.”

She said the United States is more interested in the production of goods and services, while the Soviet Union is more concerned with expanding its power.

“We are playing two different games on the same board. We’re playing Monopoly and they are playing chess,” Kirkpatrick said. “But there are grounds for hope. With a little luck, things just might get a little better.”

Young, the mayor of Atlanta who served as U. N. ambassador under former President Carter, said the Geneva summit Nov. 19-20 between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev could provide the basis for a shift in foreign policy between the two superpowers.

Young, who said economic stability is needed to mend such trouble spots as the Middle East and Central America, said a 10% switch in U.S. military spending to peacetime production of goods and services would contribute to greater economic stability around the world.

He said the Soviet Union has taken advantage of the frustrations of poorer nations when their economies have failed.

The United States “needs global economic stability and superiority, as well as global military stability and superiority,” Young said. “But I am convinced that you can’t have one without the other. If not, we will just be providing more playgrounds for Soviet intervention.”

Young also echoed Kirkpatrick’s sentiments that the Reagan-Gorbachev summit could lead to a lessening of tensions between the two countries.

“This summit, which will take place only a few days from now, could be the beginning of a new change in American foreign policy and has the potential to bring peace and prosperity over this world,” Young said.