Flexible on ‘Star Wars’--Reagan : President Indicates Willingness to Compromise on Deployment

President Reagan on Monday indicated a new willingness to compromise on deployment of his space-based Strategic Defense Initiative and held out the possibility that he and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev could reach an agreement in principle on arms reductions at their next summit.

In an Oval Office interview with The Times, the President talked optimistically about eventually reaching an arms reduction agreement. “Whatever way is necessary to get an agreement, we’ll do,” he declared.

When asked if he could agree in principle with the recent Soviet proposal calling for deep reductions in offensive weapons coupled with restraint on deploying his controversial SDI proposal, Reagan said: “Yes, but don’t pin me down on this because . . . we’re still studying this.”

Later, pointing out that SDI research does not violate any treaties, he emphasized that he will proceed with research and development of the system as a way to protect the world from a “madman” who might decide to use nuclear weapons.

But when asked specifically whether deployment--as opposed to research and development--is a negotiating item, he said: “That’s right. Yes.”

The latest Soviet proposal at the Geneva arms talks would combine reductions of about one-third in each side’s long-range offensive weapons with a 15-year extension of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which would forbid the deployment of Reagan’s space-based missile defense system, commonly known as “Star Wars.”

In the past, the President has refused to call SDI a bargaining chip. As recently as June 1, Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger said he opposed “attempts to prevent our doing the kinds of things necessary to see if we can develop and deploy an effective defense against Soviet missiles.”

Cites Botha’s ‘Sincerity’

On other subjects during the 35-minute interview, Reagan:

--Reiterated his opposition to stiffer sanctions against the South African regime and said he still believes in South African President Pieter W. Botha’s “sincerity that he wants to find an answer to his problem.”

--Said he did not ask Judge Antonin Scalia his stand on abortion before deciding to appoint him to the Supreme Court last week.

--Insisted that his Administration is doing “all that we can” to contain the AIDS epidemic.

--Repeated his pledge to remain neutral in the fight for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination, even if his longtime friend, Sen. Paul Laxalt (R-Nev.), should join the field of candidates, which will almost surely include Vice President George Bush.

Reagan, who has recently spoken warmly of Gorbachev and the Soviets’ latest arms proposals, said U.S.-Soviet relations “are on a more solid footing than they’ve been for a long time.”

And although the Soviets have yet to propose a date for a second Reagan-Gorbachev summit that the two leaders agreed would be held this year in the United States, the President expressed confidence that the summit would be held, probably after the Nov. 4 congressional elections.

Whether the Soviets will suggest a date or “whether they’re waiting for us,” he said, “we’ll work that out. We’ll have a summit.”

At the “forthcoming summit,” the President suggested, he and Gorbachev might arrive at a framework for arms control “and then hand it over to one of the negotiators to put it down on paper and work out the details.”

Robust, Forceful

The 75-year-old President, who last Friday had two non-cancerous polyps removed from his colon, looked robust and spoke forcefully during the interview.

He smiled when a reporter mentioned that he obviously was in good health. He said that the doctor who performed the CAT scan in Friday’s physical exam told him the same thing he had told him last year after surgeons removed a two-foot section of the colon in a cancer operation: “Inside I’m 25 years younger than my age.”

Reagan refused to declare the 1979 SALT II arms limitation treaty dead, even though he has announced his intention later this year to deploy more B-52 bombers equipped with cruise missiles than the unratified treaty would permit.

Bargaining Tactic

When pressed on the issue, Reagan, indicating that his threat to exceed SALT II limits may be a bargaining tactic in arms negotiations, said: “I think I know something about negotiations . . . and I just am reluctant to come out with some of the declarations that many of you want to hear, either way, because in a way you commit yourself in advance to things that may become issues in a negotiation.”

He emphasized, however, that the United States would not continue to abide by the SALT II limits unilaterally if the Soviets continued to violate it.

Although he declined to say whether he thought the Soviets could “afford” to engage in an arms race, Reagan said: “I think they’ve got some very real economic problems. And this . . . is one of the reasons why I’m hopeful about getting together.” They have problems, he said, that “might take precedence over a continued arms buildup at the rate they’ve been doing it in the past.”

Negotiated Settlement

On the recent violence in South Africa, Reagan said he “made it plain” to Botha that he opposes the current state of emergency in that country. But he said he still believes in Botha’s “sincerity” in attempting to reach a negotiated settlement to bring apartheid to an eventual end.

He praised Botha for the limited steps he has taken in recent months. Any application of U.S. sanctions against the South African government, he said, would “punish the very people we’re trying to help” and relegate the United States to an outsider’s role in trying to reform the regime.

“What we think would be truly counterproductive and disastrous is for us out of clear pique or anger to just remove ourselves and lose all contact with that government,” the President said.

He added that he thinks the answer to apartheid must grow out of negotiations between the government and recognized black leaders in South Africa. He placed the blame for what he called “the big setback” in moving toward those negotiations on “the literally civil war in the black community where they’re now fighting each other.”

Sympathy for Botha

At the same time, he expressed sympathy for Botha as he battles political factions in his country over even the most modest steps toward ending apartheid. “He is faced, as anyone in this position is--as I am here in our government--with a faction in his own government that disagrees and doesn’t go along with what he’s trying to accomplish,” Reagan said.

When asked what he intends to do next to persuade the South African government to moderate its stance, Reagan pointed to his public statements and those of Secretary of State George P. Shultz calling apartheid “repugnant.” Such rhetorical condemnations, he said, are “a part of negotiations.”

On his recent nominations to the Supreme Court, Reagan said his main criterion in making the selections was to find judges who “will interpret the law and not write the law.” Although he said he felt “very strongly” about social issues such as abortion and school prayer, he insisted he has “never given a litmus test to anyone that I have appointed to the bench, nor did I in this instance.”

Reagan maintained that there have been “too many instances” in recent years of judges “actually legislating by legal decree what they think the law should be, and that I don’t go for.” He said he was convinced that Scalia and Justice William H. Rehnquist, whom he has nominated as chief justice, are “interpreters of the Constitution.”

Money Spent on AIDS

When asked about the growing menace of AIDS, Reagan said the Administration has been spending “a tremendous amount of money” on research despite budgetary constraints. “I don’t know how much more leeway there is for us,” he said, “but we’ve been doing all that we can do because of the threat this represents.”

Reagan offered what he called “a practical answer” to one aspect of the AIDs threat--the danger of contracting AIDS from a blood transfusion. “Why don’t healthy and well people give blood for themselves?” he wondered, explaining that the blood could then be kept in the event they ever needed it. “They can get a transfusion of their own blood, and they don’t have to gamble.”

Reagan indicated that he has no hard information about reports that Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi was losing his grip on his country in the wake of the U.S. bombing raids on suspected terrorist outposts in Tripoli and Benghazi in April. When asked if he thinks the bombings were responsible for a fall-off in international terrorism in the last two months, Reagan said:

“I’m almost afraid to answer that. If I answer it, it might challenge somebody to perform some acts just to prove me wrong.”

Text of interview, Page 18.