U.S. Seems Ready to Accept Soviet Bid to Delay Summit

The White House, already feeling the pressure to deliver a successful sequel to last year’s Geneva summit, appears ready to accept a Soviet proposal to hold this year’s superpower talks in mid-September instead of in mid-June.

Although no final decision has been made, an Administration official involved in planning the upcoming summit said he discerned “no dark scenario” in the Soviet request for the three-month delay, even though the new timetable would put the high-visibility session on a virtual collision course with the fall congressional campaigns.

The Administration had proposed the June date in an effort to avoid injecting politics into the summit on the eve of the elections--especially because President Reagan will be fighting hard to help maintain Republican control of the Senate. The Soviets contend that they need more time to prepare, however.

A State Department official said that political exploitation is inevitable, whether the summit is in the spring or the autumn, and that it is “a close call” between the June and September dates.

One advantage of the earlier date, U.S. officials say, is that it would cut short an expected Soviet propaganda campaign in Europe against Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, the space-based missile defense research program commonly called “Star Wars.” The Soviets maintain that the program will initiate a new arms race in the heavens.

“It’s the only issue they have, and it does have some appeal,” Ambassador Edward L. Rowny, a veteran arms control negotiator, said in an interview. Rowny predicted that the Soviets will escalate their anti-”Star Wars” efforts in Europe during the next few months.

But Administration arms control experts said they would welcome additional time over the summer as an opportunity to nail down substantive agreements in advance of the summit--something they were unable to do before last year’s session in Geneva.

Also, they said that they recognize that a repetition of the amiable November fireside chats between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev would not be enough this time around.

“You have to produce something,” Rowny acknowledged, “and the question is, ‘What?’ ”

Offensive Arms Cuts

Several arms control experts said in interviews that the most promising area of accord is in the reduction of offensive nuclear weapons. Both the United States and the Soviet Union have proposed 50% cuts in nuclear arsenals, although there is disagreement over exactly which weapons would be covered.

One official involved in the summit planning said that the Soviet military, usually a major obstacle in any arms restraints, is receptive to the Administration’s latest proposal on nuclear reductions.

“If it was up to the military, they would accept it,” he said. “The military has flip-flopped. They are no longer the real dunderheads.”

Knocking ‘Old Buzzards Off’

The change is attributed in part to Gorbachev’s leadership, combined with the reality of budget constraints. “One by one, he has to knock those old buzzards off,” this official said, referring to the changes Gorbachev has made in the Politburo.

If the United States and the Soviet Union can reach an interim agreement on offensive nuclear weapons--the item that will lead the agenda when arms control talks resume in Geneva on Jan. 16--part of the bargain would be a scaling back of U.S. Pershing 2 missiles in Europe.

“The Soviets worry about the Pershings,” said this official, “so they have something to gain there.”

The danger, officials say, is that Gorbachev will come to Washington determined to hold progress on arms control hostage to the elimination of “Star Wars.” Although the officials said that they could envision some sort of trade-off on “Star Wars” testing, they also stressed that Reagan would never negotiate away the right to conduct research on the controversial system.

“He’s going to get a lot of advice telling him to bargain it away,” one official said. “But if it’s up to him, he’s not going to buy it. He has a deep conviction about SDI.”

On-Site Inspection

A second area in which Administration officials said they are optimistic involves on-site inspection of underground nuclear sites. The Soviets last month proposed an exchange of experts to inspect the sites if the United States would join Moscow in agreeing to a moratorium on all tests.

The White House quickly declined, claiming that periodic tests are necessary and that the United States is catching up to Moscow. But Reagan has sent what officials described as “an upbeat response” to Gorbachev proposing further talks on the subject.

One official calls the notion of on-site inspection “a teaser” and questioned whether the Soviets “really mean it, or is it just more nonsense?” Still, Administration experts said they consider it a fertile field for exploration that could produce an agreement by the time of the second summit.

These officials also confirmed that an earlier American proposal to ban mobile missiles appears to be going nowhere. The Soviets are ahead of the United States in this field and are not anxious to surrender their edge, they acknowledged. In addition, the proposal encountered substantial opposition on Capitol Hill, making it an unattractive proposition for Reagan as well.

At this year’s summit, Reagan first will be host to Gorbachev in Washington and then will accompany him to California to show off the terrain he loves best. One official said that Reagan already is contemplating taking the Soviet leader on a helicopter ride to show him how well Americans live.