U.S. Officials View Speech as Propaganda

White House and State Department officials reacted mildly to Wednesday’s televised speech by Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, calling it a domestic propaganda move to reassure the Soviet people and not a serious invitation to discuss arms control.

They immediately dismissed Gorbachev’s suggestion that President Reagan meet with him at a European capital, or in Hiroshima, to discuss a ban on nuclear testing.

A State Department official said that including Hiroshima as a possible summit site was “where he really falls back on cheap shots.” Otherwise, this official said, Gorbachev’s remarks contained “predictable venom against the United States.”

The relatively restrained reaction from Administration officials reflected their feeling that Gorbachev is understandably trying to reassure the Soviet people and rally public opinion after the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in the Ukraine.

“We’re willing to let them have a little propaganda,” the official said.

By the same token, the Administration did not treat Gorbachev’s offer to discuss a nuclear test ban as anything that warranted a serious response.

The Soviet leader made the same proposal in March, while Reagan was vacationing over Easter in Santa Barbara. Officials traveling with Reagan then called it “a propaganda ploy.”

A statement released late Wednesday afternoon by White House spokesman Larry Speakes said essentially the same thing, but in more diplomatic language:

“It is difficult to understand the rationale for a meeting of our leaders confined to the nuclear testing issue, when the Soviet Union has up to now been unwilling to authorize a discussion at the expert level.”

The Administration had not yet received a response to its suggestion several months ago that Soviet and U.S. experts meet to discuss nuclear test ban verification procedures. Reagan also offered in April to allow Soviet specialists to inspect the U.S. nuclear test site in Nevada. The Soviets have not replied to that invitation either, the statement reported.

Safety Efforts

Nevertheless, the Administration sought to put Gorbachev’s speech in as favorable a light as possible. Officials said they were encouraged by Gorbachev’s specific proposals to further internationalize safety efforts at nuclear power plants.

And the White House statement expressed sympathy and concern for the plight of the Soviet citizenry after the Chernobyl accident.

“We are comforted by Mr. Gorbachev’s assurances that ‘the worst is behind us’ in dealing with the Chernobyl reactor tragedy,” it said. “Our immediate concern . . . was primarily for the well-being of the people in the area. This is why we offered our assistance. Our offer stands.”

‘Unfounded Charges’

The statement was particularly mild in its handling of Gorbachev’s charge that the United States and its principal trading partners, meeting in Tokyo last week, had exploited the Soviet accident for political purposes. “We are distressed,” it said, “that Mr. Gorbachev used the occasion of his otherwise reassuring presentation to make unfounded charges.”

Privately, Administration officials believe that Gorbachev’s remarks on Chernobyl and his flirtation with an interim summit in Europe have little bearing on the possibility of a summit meeting with Reagan in Washington later this year, possibly in mid-November.

In fact, they believe that Soviet embarrassment over the handling of Chernobyl may prod Gorbachev to seek the meeting with Reagan as a way to recoup his image on the world stage. “There will be a summit, period,” a senior White House official told reporters in Tokyo at the height of the U.S.-Soviet clash over Chernobyl.