U.S. Perils ABM Pact: Gorbachev : ‘Star Wars’ Move Would ‘Bust’ Arms Treaty, He Charges

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev charged Monday that the United States is out to “bust” the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty by planning early deployment of its Strategic Defense Initiative.

He accused President Reagan of showing scorn for a 1985 Soviet pledge made during a Geneva summit meeting to prevent an arms race in space and enhance strategic stability.

In an hourlong speech delivered at the close of a three-day Moscow peace forum, Gorbachev called for elimination of nuclear weapons and cutbacks in conventional arms to a “bare essential.”

Openness ‘for All to See’

He also touched on his policy of glasnost, or openness, commenting that his country’s new approach to human rights “is there for all to see.” He denied, however, that this is in response to pressure from the West.

In the audience, dissident physicist Andrei D. Sakharov, once regarded as an enemy by the Kremlin before it freed him from his seven-year internal exile, joined in standing applause for the Soviet leader. “Good ideas, but . . . not new,” Sakharov said afterward at a reception given by Gorbachev for the delegates.

Contrary to expectations in Washington and elsewhere, the Kremlin chief made no new arms control proposals in his address, delivered to more than 900 delegates from 80 countries.

Rather, he stressed Soviet proposals made at the U.S.-Soviet summit meeting in Iceland last October and a plan he announced a year ago for eliminating nuclear weapons by the year 2000.

‘Step-by-Step’ Approach

He advocated a “step-by-step” approach to disarmament as a way to build greater confidence between the superpowers.

“So let us take the first big step: cut nuclear arsenals and keep space free,” he told the delegates to the international forum in the Kremlin’s Grand Palace.

While generally taking a conciliatory approach, Gorbachev was sharply critical of those Americans who advocate deploying a first phase of the Strategic Defense Initiative, Reagan’s proposed space-based missile defense system known as “Star Wars.”

Even while debates are going on between Washington and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies over the issue, Gorbachev said, the U.S. government has asked Soviet negotiators at the Geneva arms talks to approve a “broad interpretation” of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

“Whatever the pretexts used to justify this, the aim is clearly to bust the treaty,” he told the gathering, and added this warning: “If the treaty is annulled, the nuclear missile race will acquire new dimensions and will be complemented by the arms race in outer space.”

‘No Second Noah’s Ark’

There will be “no second Noah’s Ark for a nuclear deluge,” he warned. “We (have) rejected any right for leaders of a country, be it the U.S.S.R., the U.S. or another, to pass a death sentence on mankind.

“We are not judges, and the billions of people are not criminals to be punished, so the nuclear guillotine must be broken.”

The audience included religious leaders, American film stars, celebrated writers, business executives, doctors and scientists concerned with arms control.

Novelists Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal, once at odds, sat peacefully side by side. Yoko Ono, widow of John Lennon of the Beatles, attended, along with British writer Graham Greene and economist John Kenneth Galbraith.

Sakharov, who helped build the Soviet hydrogen bomb but later fell into disfavor for championing human rights, was credited from the podium with making a valuable contribution to the forum in a Saturday speech.

Sakharov’s Views

Frank van Hippel, a Princeton University professor, said Sakharov, winner of the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize, stressed the importance of openness and democratization in the Soviet Union as a step toward building trust.

“Mr. General Secretary, we believe this could be your greatest contribution to ending the arms race,” Von Hippel told Gorbachev in his report on a scientific panel’s work.

In another panel, Egon Bahr, a senior official of the opposition West German Social Democratic Party, said, “All of us were convinced that it’s better to test Gorbachev than to test new bombs.”

The panel favored a separate agreement on elimination of intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe, Bahr said, adding: “It’s difficult to understand why Europe should be burdened because the superpowers can’t solve their global problem.”

Metropolitan Paulos Mar Gregorios of India, speaking on behalf of more than 200 Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Shinto clergy, had a simple message.

Nuclear Weapons ‘Immoral’

“Nuclear weapons are immoral,” the black-robed cleric declared. “To acquire, produce, stockpile on one’s territory and use nuclear weapons is immoral. All nuclear weapons should be destroyed and outlawed.”

Gorbachev, while concentrating on his call for a nuclear-free world, discussed his domestic policy as well.

“You have arrived in the Soviet Union at a time when essentially revolutionary changes are under way here,” he told the delegates. “I state with full responsibility that our international policy is more than ever determined by domestic policy. This is where we want to direct our resources. . . . On this we intend to spend the intellectual energy of our society.”

The Soviet leader did not address human rights in detail, but said, “our new approach to the humanitarian problems . . . is there for all to see. And I must disappoint those who think that this has been the result of pressure on us from the West, that we want to gain somebody’s fancy in pursuit of some ulterior motive. No, we do not.”

About 140 dissidents have been freed from prisons or labor camps in the last two weeks, and the Kremlin has said at least 140 more cases are under consideration.