U.S. Media ‘Sow Hatred’ of Soviets, Gorbachev Says

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, at a meeting with former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and other prominent Americans, complained Wednesday that the “high-powered information media in the United States” are being used by some to “sow hatred toward the Soviet Union.”

But he added that there is no alternative to peaceful coexistence, and he urged that Washington and Moscow seek agreement on arms control without wasting time and in a spirit of give and take.

The Soviet news agency Tass said Gorbachev told the Americans that agreements on disarmament are possible if they are based on the talks he had with President Reagan at their meeting last October in Iceland.

Tass said Gorbachev’s meeting with the American group took place in an “informal and frank atmosphere” and covered a wide range of subjects.

With Kissinger in the group were Cyrus R. Vance, former secretary of state; Harold Brown, former secretary of defense, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, former ambassador to the United Nations, and Peter Peterson, former secretary of commerce.

Their trip is being sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, a private organization based in New York that is said to represent the American foreign policy establishment.

Members of the American group were not available for comment. A spokesman said they will decide today whether to meet with reporters. They are to meet tonight with Andrei D. Sakharov, the dissident Soviet physicist.

Three-Hour Meeting

Tass quoted Gorbachev as telling the Americans in the course of their three-hour meeting that “nobody can foist anything on anybody.”

Tass said he declared that historians will conclude that Soviet-American relations in the past have been unworthy of two great nations and that the joint task now is to find the right path for the future.

“The Soviet-U.S. relationship is still at the crossroads,” he said. “There is no alternative to coexistence. This is not a question of whether we like each other or not. No matter how difficult it is, let’s move toward each other on the basis of an objective analysis of reality and common sense.”

He said the Soviet Union does not lay claim to “ultimate truth” in its foreign policy proposals and is open to constructive suggestions.

“In America, by contrast--and this cannot be denied--there are forces to which hostility is profitable . . . which use high-powered information media to sow hatred toward the Soviet Union,” he was quoted as saying.

Tass said he told the Americans that the Soviet Union proceeds on the basis that nuclear war would be a catastrophe for everyone. In an apparent reference to the Reagan Administration’s Strategic Defense Initiative for space-based defenses, Gorbachev said that putting arms in space would make it impossible to control nuclear weapons.