He Contrasts Cover-up to Reagan Vow to Reveal All : Crisis Not Like Watergate, Shultz Says

Secretary of State George P. Shultz, hoping to rebuild European trust in American policy, said Wednesday the Iran arms controversy is “an absolutely total contrast” to the Watergate scandal of the last decade because former President Richard M. Nixon tried to cover up Watergate while President Reagan has vowed to reveal all of the facts about the Iran- contras connection.

Shultz, who was Treasury secretary in the Nixon Administration, volunteered the comparison while talking to reporters aboard his airplane on the way to a meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organization foreign ministers.

“It’s an absolutely total contrast with Watergate where the problem was a reluctance to let the facts out,” Shultz said. “In this case, there is the determination on the President’s part to see that everything comes out, is dealt with and we go about our business.”

Deplores Dissident’s Death

Shultz also issued a statement deploring the death in a Soviet prison camp of dissident Anatoly Marchenko. He said Marchenko’s death after a long hunger strike was “part of the continuing tragedy of the Soviet Union failing to live up to its commitments on human rights.”

Shultz scoffed at a Soviet proposal, unveiled last month during a European security conference in Vienna, for a human rights conference in Moscow. He said it would be wrong “to have a conference on the subject in a place where disregard of elemental decency is there for all to see.”

In recent weeks, Shultz has taken every opportunity to divert attention from the Iran-contras controversy. But he seems to be unable to get away from the issue for long.

Shultz said earlier that he hoped to use the trip for “a rebuilding job” on U.S. credibility with the European allies. Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger and Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III have been in Europe this week on similar missions.

Policy Sessions Slated

Shultz and other NATO foreign ministers were scheduled to meet today and Friday to set policy for the alliance.

Lord Carrington, the NATO secretary general, told a press conference Wednesday that the controversy is sure to cause “some difficulties that will affect the Administration and the policies which the Administration pursues.

“I think what the Europeans will wish to hear is some words of reassurance that the Administration will continue to pursue the policies that it has in matters that affect the alliance,” Carrington said.

Shultz met Tuesday and Wednesday with three of the most important of the allies--British Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe, French Minister for External Relations Jean-Bernard Raimond and West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher--at Howe’s Chevening estate outside of London before heading for Brussels.

Describing his talks with his European counterparts, Shultz said: “I just said I imagine you are concerned about it (Iran) and let me tell you what the President is doing.

“I described the President’s strategy, which is to get all of the facts out, to cooperate with the various investigations that are going on and, having done that, go about our business, which we are doing.

“That’s what they (the Europeans) want us to do,” he said.

“They want us to be strong and capable of leadership, and they’re reassured to see how the President is dealing with it,” he said.

Agree on Arms Ban

Shultz said the British, French and West German officials all agreed that the West should not sell arms to Tehran. He said that is again U.S. policy, as well.

“I stated our policy and I stated the reasons for it,” Shultz said. “The President has given his reasons for sending a signal. The rationale for not selling arms is clear.

“They agree with the rationale,” he added. “It isn’t that they are not selling arms because we say we think they shouldn’t; they are not selling arms because they agree with the reason (for not doing so).”

Asked about reports of West German sales to Iran, Shultz said: “They say they are not.”

But he conceded that it is often difficult to monitor clandestine weapons transfers.

Shultz and Weinberger are the only members of the Reagan Cabinet who also served in Nixon’s scandal-racked Cabinet. Shultz was Labor secretary and director of the Office of Management and Budget in addition to being Treasury secretary. Weinberger was secretary of health, education and welfare and also served as OMB director.

In the Treasury post, Shultz angered Nixon by refusing to turn over the income tax records of Administration critics. Nixon was heard on a White House tape calling Shultz “a candy ass” for refusing to cooperate with efforts to attack Administration foes.

Calls Soviets Cruel

In referring to the Marchenko case, Shultz said the Soviets were especially cruel because they implied that the dissident and his Jewish wife would be allowed to emigrate to Israel.

“They gave her an indication that she should be prepared to emigrate . . . and that led all of us to hope that they would allow her and her husband to emigrate, although her husband never said he wanted to leave--he wanted to stay there and say his piece,” Shultz said. “Now he’s dead.”