Reagan Gets Mostly Praise in Congress

Except for conservatives, members of Congress generally commended President Reagan on Tuesday for securing the release of U.S. journalist Nicholas Daniloff and for moving toward a meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Cautious bipartisan optimism was expressed by Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and from Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Bill Bradley (D-N.J.).

But Sen. Malcolm Wallop (R-Wyo.) charged that Reagan paid “ransom” for Daniloff and has not been truthful about it.

“The President, having said that ransom is unacceptable, has proceeded to pay ransom,” Wallop told a Capitol Hill news briefing. “It has diminished our standing in relation to the summit.”

Deal Called Necessary

Kennedy and Leahy said they regret that the Administration had to link Daniloff’s release to a bargain that allowed accused Soviet spy Gennady F. Zakharov to plead no contest to espionage charges and return to the Soviet Union. But they said such a deal was necessary to clear the air for a summit.

“The President did the right thing,” Leahy said. “In an absolutely perfect world, Nick Daniloff comes home and the Soviets get nothing. But it’s not a perfect world.”

Said Kennedy: “The Soviets miscalculated the sense of outrage among the American people (over Daniloff’s seizure). But there’s a sense of hope that perhaps now we can make progress on some of the outstanding issues that divide our countries.”

Dole hailed Tuesday’s announcement of a meeting between Reagan and Gorbachev in Iceland on Oct. 11-12 but said the session ought not to be dominated solely by the issue of arms control.

“Holding a pre-summit opens the opportunity for agreement on any number of substantive issues,” Dole said. “But just meeting guarantees agreement or progress on nothing. The proof will be in the pudding--if we get carried away by inflated expectations, we risk a big disappointment.”

Human Rights Concerns

Dole said that the United States must keep human rights violations by the Soviets at the forefront and added that the release of Daniloff “doesn’t end our concerns about their often reckless and inhuman treatment of human beings.”

Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.), while expressing gratification at the release of Daniloff and the Soviets’ agreement to free dissident Yuri Orlov, said he is “troubled by the transparency of trading human lives for Soviet spies. It’s a terrible precedent.

“I’m afraid the Soviets believe they won this round, and that’s the wrong kind of environment going into a critical high-level meeting next week,” Kemp said.

Bradley, however, said he hopes that Washington’s demonstration of concern for Daniloff demonstrates to the Soviets “the importance Americans attach to individual liberty and our unwillingness to subordinate individual rights to the interests of the state.”

Experts differed on the political impact of the exchange and the summit.

Richard A. Viguerie, a conservative fund-raising specialist, said that Reagan’s desire for a summit conference “is only adding to the division between this Administration and conservatives outside it.” He said that Reagan is approaching the summit “in a position of significant weakness” because the Soviets recognize that he wants an arms control agreement.

Some Republicans said the meetings in Iceland would help Republican chances in the Nov. 4 election because it will make Americans feel better about things in general--and therefore less likely to vote against incumbents.