Washington Won’t Release Records of Summit Talks

The White House refused today to release U.S. records of what President Reagan told Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev at the Iceland summit and accused the Soviets of deliberately misinterpreting Reagan’s position on nuclear disarmament.

The Soviets contend that Reagan tentatively agreed to the elimination of all offensive nuclear weapons in 10 years.

In the hours immediately after the conclusion of the summit in Reykjavik on Oct. 12, U.S. government spokesmen indicated that the all-out elimination of nuclear weapons was the Administration position. Now, they maintain that although Reagan discussed elimination of all nuclear arms, he never proposed more than destruction of all ballistic, or long-range guided missiles, in two five-year phases.

The distinction is a strategically important one because the U.S. position as now stated would leave both sides with substantial arsenals of cruise missiles, nuclear bombs and tactical nuclear weapons fired from conventional artillery pieces.

Presidential spokesman Larry Speakes insisted today that he had seen written notes from the two-day meeting, and he did not challenge a Reagan quote disclosed by the Soviets over the weekend.

The Soviets quoted Reagan as telling Gorbachev at the summit, “If we agree that by the end of the 10-year period, all nuclear arms are to be eliminated, we can refer this to our delegations in Geneva to prepare an agreement which you could sign during your visit to the United States.”

Speakes said today: “There was discussion of the ultimate goal of elimination of all nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth, which has been the President’s goal and dream for many years. However, in the formal presentation and exchange of proposals between the United States and the Soviet Union, the Soviets proposed ‘all strategic,’ and the United States took the paper and scratched through ‘strategic’ and put ‘ballistic.”’

Asked if the White House would release its own notes of the meeting taken by an official note taker and an interpreter during the talks Oct. 11 and 12, Speakes replied, “No.”

Asked why, he replied, “We just don’t.”