Summit Ends in Failure After Deadlock on ‘Star Wars’ Issue : Impasse Halts Progress on Arms Control

President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev came close Sunday to reaching a historic agreement to eliminate all offensive nuclear weapons in both superpower arsenals, but their two-day meeting ended in failure when they deadlocked over the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative.

Reagan, looking tired and disappointed, told U.S. troops at an air base in Iceland before he left for Washington that the negotiations had broken down over Gorbachev’s insistence that the United States limit the testing of SDI, his space-based missile defense program, to the laboratory.

‘This We Could Not Do’

“The Soviet Union insisted that we sign an agreement that would deny to me and future Presidents for 10 years the right to develop, test and deploy defenses against nuclear missiles for the people of the Free World,” Reagan declared. “This we could not and will not do.

“We came to Iceland to advance the cause of peace, and though we put on the table the most far-reaching arms control proposal in history, the general secretary rejected it,” Reagan said at the U.S.-run North Atlantic Treaty Organization naval air base at Keflavik, 30 miles from Reykjavik.

The two-day summit wound up on such a disappointing note that Gorbachev indicated in a news conference that a formal summit later this year in Washington would be pointless. No date was set for the next meeting between the two leaders, though Gorbachev had promised at the end of his first summit with Reagan last November in Geneva that he would visit Washington this year.

Deep Disappointment

In a news conference, Gorbachev also expressed his deep disappointment at the summit’s failure but blamed Reagan’s stubbornness in refusing to give ground on SDI, commonly called “Star Wars.” He said there was a “rupture” over U.S. insistence on testing space weapons outside the laboratory.

“Who was going to accept that?” the Soviet leader said. “It would take a madman to accept that, and madmen are mainly in hospitals.

“I said to the President, ‘We are missing a historic opportunity,’ ” Gorbachev told a news conference that lasted 90 minutes. “Never had our positions been so close together. . . .

“This has been a failure and a failure when we were very close to dramatic results,” the Soviet leader continued. “We have made concessions that are unprecedented, and still they were not accepted.”

Despite this disappointment, Gorbachev maintained some show of optimism. He said both sides had made proposals that would advance “a difficult dialogue.”

“Both the President of the United States and ourselves should reflect . . . and once again come back and try to step over the differences that separate us,” Gorbachev said. “Let Americans think. We are waiting. We are not withdrawing the proposals that we have put forward.”

Yet, even though Gorbachev also said that “we can continue to deal with President Reagan,” his optimistic words were not echoed in the American camp, where a somber mood prevailed.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz said the two leaders had orally agreed to slash long-range missile and bomber arsenals in half in five years and eliminate such weapons by 1996. In addition, they were prepared to eliminate all but 100 medium-range missiles on each side--all those currently deployed in Europe would be withdrawn--during the first five-year phase and get rid of the rest--deployed in the Soviet Far East and in the United States--by 1996.

Insisting on a Change

But, the secretary went on, Gorbachev insisted on a change in the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that would have confined testing of “Star Wars” technology to the laboratory for 10 years.

Shultz said the President was ready to forgo for 10 years the deployment of the SDI system but insisted that the United States would have to be allowed to continue research, development and full-scale testing now permitted by the treaty.

Shultz justified the U.S. position by saying that because the two leaders had reached a preliminary agreement to eliminate offensive missiles, deployment of a missile-defense system at the end of that 10-year period would have provided an “insurance policy” and a shield for the West if the Soviets should cheat by retaining some offensive weapons.

Shultz also declared that Reagan and his advisers believe that SDI is “a key reason” that the Soviets have been willing to negotiate cuts in offensive weapons. The program’s continued existence, he said, is necessary to ensure that the Soviet Union would live up to any agreement reached.

‘With Great Reluctance’

“So in the end,” Shultz said, “with great reluctance the President, having worked so hard, . . . simply had to refuse to compromise the security of the United States and our allies by abandoning the shield that’s held in front of the Free World.”

“A tremendous amount of headway was made,” Shultz said, “but in the end we couldn’t make it.”

Reagan, in his only public remarks after the summit broke up, told the cheering American military personnel and their dependents that he and Gorbachev had made more progress than anticipated in several critical areas. Their talks, he said, “were hard and tough and yet, I have to say, extremely useful. . . . We were frank about our differences.”

“We moved toward agreement on reducing intermediate-range nuclear missiles in both Europe and Asia,” he said.

“We approached agreement on sharply reduced strategic arsenals for both our countries. We made progress in the area of nuclear testing,” he said, without giving details.

“But,” he added, “there remained at the end of our talks one area of disagreement”--SDI.

The stunning failure of a summit that went into overtime--the sessions lasted 11 1/2 hours, nearly twice their scheduled length--left a dark cloud of uncertainty over future U.S.-Soviet relations. Administration officials would not even address the question of a 1987 summit in Moscow that Reagan had agreed to attend.

No Damage Assessment

In his emotional press conference, Shultz declined to assess the damage to U.S.-Soviet relations. He noted that American negotiators would return to arms control talks in Geneva, and he said he assumed that Soviet negotiators would show up as well. The President, too, said, “We made great strides in resolving most of our differences, and we are going to continue the effort.”

Other members of the Soviet delegation were far less conciliatory than Gorbachev. “This is the dead end to which they have driven the whole issue of arms control,” complained Georgy A. Arbatov, a top Soviet adviser on East-West relations.

Asked whether there would be another summit meeting between Reagan and Gorbachev, Arbatov said, “If the Americans do not change their position on this basic issue, (SDI) I am afraid not.”

Although SDI is still in the early stages of research and development and many scientists have called it an impractical venture, Administration officials have insisted that significant progress has been made on the program. Eventually, the President has said, a system to destroy incoming missiles could rid the world of the terror of nuclear war. The Soviets say they fear the United States could attack with impunity from behind such a shield.

Extended Their Meeting

As the two leaders struggled to reach some common ground on their differences Sunday, they extended their two-hour morning meeting, which was to have been their last, for an extra 90 minutes. Then they broke for lunch and, surprising some White House aides who had already left for the airport, held an unscheduled session that went on for almost four hours.

The extra session sent hopes soaring here that a breakthrough might be in sight, particularly as first Soviet and then U.S. officials dropped hints about the proposals that were being exchanged.

But when Reagan, escorted by Gorbachev, finally emerged from Hofdi House, the two-story, white clapboard structure where the summit was held, it was obvious that the hopes had been dashed. It was 6:55 p.m., Iceland time, and the skies were shrouded by dark clouds as a grim-faced Reagan walked stiffly to his limousine.

Leaders’ Smiles Gone

Gone were the smiles that marked the two leaders’ previous public encounters here. Gorbachev shook Reagan’s hand before the President entered his limousine, then turned and walked briskly back into Hofdi House.

At the end of Saturday’s two sessions, Reagan and Gorbachev appointed two working groups of six Americans and six Soviets each to try to identify potential areas of agreement on key issues. The move was generally interpreted as a sign that the two sides were nearing agreement on some matters.

Until the last minute, the mood throughout the summit had been upbeat. Reagan and Gorbachev had greeted each other often with smiles and warm handshakes and small talk about Iceland’s gray and blustery weather. “It’s always a good sign when they talk about the weather,” Speakes said.

During the final sessions Sunday, members of the two working groups--one on arms control and the other on human rights and other issues--conferred with their leaders part of the time, shuttling from one floor to another in Hofdi House.

Officials did not disclose how much time Reagan and Gorbachev spent in one-on-one sessions, but the two apparently spent more time together accompanied by aides here than they did in Geneva.

The pall cast over the American delegation by the meeting’s collapse was obvious throughout Shultz’s news conference. Red-eyed and showing fatigue, he began with a long, tortuous explanation of how hard the President had worked to reach agreements on arms control, human rights and other issues. Other aides looked on grimly, and chief arms negotiator Max M. Kampelman appeared to be near tears.

Hint of Breakthrough

At first, as Shultz talked about “potential agreements,” it appeared to some listeners that perhaps there had been some kind of breakthrough. But as he explained Reagan’s refusal to budge on SDI, it quickly became apparent that the summit had produced no agreements.

A reporter asked if Reagan had not had “within his grasp” an agreement to eliminate all offensive nuclear missiles if he had been willing to compromise on SDI.

“That is not the way I think we must think about it,” replied Shultz.

Asked if the impasse on SDI did not effectively end Reagan’s chances of achieving an arms control treaty in his presidency, Shultz said, “I hope it doesn’t, but I can’t say for sure about that.”

En route back to Washington, Speakes offered reporters aboard Air Force One a football metaphor to describe the “long and hard” negotiations at Reykjavik.

“The President stayed for overtime,” Speakes said. “He went 99 yards but didn’t get across the goal line.”

Reagan’s national security adviser, Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, told the press pool that the Soviet position on the Strategic Defense Initiative had remained static throughout, and it was clear they would not allow any agreement permitting the United States to continue work on SDI. The Soviets maintained this position, he said, even though it appeared as early as Saturday night that negotiators were very close to an agreement limiting intermediate nuclear forces in Europe.

A senior Administration official on the plane who asked not to be quoted by name suggested to the reporters that Gorbachev might possibly have found it impossible to make the cuts in offensive weapons called for by the negotiations and therefore had chosen to avoid an agreement by refusing to budge on strategic defenses. The official further suggested that Gorbachev may have taken his stand for domestic political reasons.

When the President’s silver-and-blue plane touched down at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington at 10:22 p.m. EDT, Nancy Reagan was waiting at the foot of the ramp wearing a red wool suit.

After a warm embrace, the President and Mrs. Reagan walked toward a waiting helicopter, apparently oblivious to a knot of newsmen on the airstrip. After a 10-minute flight, the helicopter landed on the White House lawn, where Vice President George Bush and the President’s daughter Maureen headed a group of well-wishers welcoming the smiling President home.

Heading into the White House, Reagan turned aside shouted queries from reporters with a quick reminder that he plans a televised report to the nation for tonight.

“Tune in tomorrow night,” he said as he strode into the White House.

Times staff writers Stanley Meisler, William J. Eaton and Robert C. Toth in Iceland and Don Irwin in Washington contributed to this story.