Reagan Urged to Uphold Sanctions : Sen. Lugar Predicts That Congress Would Override Veto

President Reagan will be passing up a chance to be “on the right side of history” if, as expected, he vetoes legislation imposing additional sanctions on South Africa, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Tuesday.

Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), a longtime Reagan loyalist whose leadership on the sanctions issue has put him at odds with the White House, told reporters that he expects the President to veto the bill later this week, and he predicted that Congress would override the veto.

He said he expects Reagan’s veto message to be accompanied by other measures designed to defeat the override effort: appointment of a black U.S. ambassador to Pretoria, an offer of increased U.S. aid to the black-ruled states bordering South Africa and perhaps an executive order imposing weaker sanctions than those passed by Congress.

‘Tough, Uphill Battle’

At the White House, Deputy Press Secretary Larry Speakes said the bill probably will be vetoed Friday, but he added that there is not likely to be a decision on additional measures until next week. He acknowledged that the President faces “a tough uphill battle” to persuade Congress to uphold his veto.

Lugar said a veto would be viewed by the black majority in South Africa as an expression of U.S. support for the white minority-led government there, and he predicted that the United States will come to regret it if, as expected, blacks eventually come to power in that country.

“We really need to be on the right side of history on this issue,” Lugar said. “It’s an opportunity that we really can’t miss historically. . . . If the bill is vetoed and (the veto) is sustained, the United States will be seen as an ally of the (President Pieter W.) Botha government, no matter how much we protest. We will be seen as the apologist of apartheid.”

Long-Term Effects

Lugar suggested that the President has failed to consider the long-term implications of his decision to veto the sanctions bill.

“I don’t think he’s focused on the thought that there would be a black majority government,” he said.

He said Western nations have had a “window of opportunity” in recent weeks to act in concert by imposing sanctions that would express their opposition to apartheid. Without such action, he said, he expects “racial warfare on a fairly large scale” in South Africa.

Although he regrets that a veto and a congressional override would send a “diffuse message” to the Pretoria government, Lugar said, he hopes this can be overcome during the upcoming visit of Secretary of State George P. Shultz to southern Africa.

Restricts Imports, Exports

The sanctions bill would impose a virtual ban on new investment and loans to South Africa, block American exports of crude oil and petroleum products, halt imports of South African uranium, coal, textiles, steel, arms and agricultural products and deny landing rights in the United States to South African aircraft.

An executive order, signed by Reagan last year, bans imports of South Africa’s gold Krugerrand coins, prohibits bank loans to government agencies and restricts sale of computers and nuclear technology.

Meanwhile, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who called a press conference Tuesday to denounce the President’s expected sanctions veto, accused the Reagan Administration of lobbying the leaders of other Western nations to persuade them not to adopt sanctions similar to those contained in the legislation passed by Congress.

Friday Deadline

Reagan has until midnight Friday to sign or veto the sanctions bill. If he fails to act, the bill automatically becomes law. It takes a two-thirds vote of both chambers of Congress to override a presidential veto; both passed the bill by margins far exceeding two-thirds.

Lugar, who met with Reagan last Friday to discuss the sanctions, said the President suggested at that meeting that he might be willing to sign an executive order imposing weaker sanctions than Congress approved in order to defuse the override effort. The senator said he told the President that he could not support such a move and would, instead, lead the veto-override drive in the GOP-controlled Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) has been polling members of the Senate to determine whether such an executive order would persuade them to uphold Reagan’s veto. So far, according to an aide, most Republicans have told Dole that it would not.

Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-Kan.), who chairs the Foreign Relations subcommittee on Africa, said she was asked by White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan at a meeting Tuesday if she would support the President’s veto, and she told him she would not.

“I’m supportive of Sen. Lugar on this,” she said. “The votes are there to override a veto.”

She said that an executive order currently under consideration at the White House is simply too weak to satisfy Senate Republicans who voted for the sanctions bill.