ABM Treaty Negotiators Misled Senate, Perle Asserts

A high Administration official charged Thursday that U.S. negotiators on the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty--unwilling or unable to admit failure--erroneously told the Senate during ratification proceedings in 1972 that the Soviets had agreed to ban testing and development of a defense system like the Administration’s “Star Wars” program.

Assistant Defense Secretary Richard N. Perle contended at a Senate hearing Thursday that the classified negotiating record supports a broad interpretation of the treaty, one that permits expansion of President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, as the “Star Wars” program is formally known.

Asked why U.S. officials gave a narrow reading of the treaty during Senate proceedings 15 years ago, Perle speculated: “If one gets caught up in negotiations, there is a strong desire to believe one has prevailed. This is not always true when you take a cool and reflective look at the record itself.”

Perle, who is leaving the Administration soon, added that he was “not suggesting bad faith” on the part of U.S. negotiators during the Richard M. Nixon Administration. But sometimes, he said, an unsuccessful negotiator “remembers selectively . . . likes to believe he has succeeded.”

Angry Response

Perle’s charge, made at a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees, provoked an angry response by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who supports deep cuts in funding for the “Star Wars” space-based missile defense program.

“I find your characterization of the negotiators to be very arrogant and self-serving,” Kennedy said. “Those involved in the negotiations--their history and record and dedication and professionalism will speak for itself. But to come here and suggest, as you have this morning, that somehow these individuals are so insecure in their achievements that they had to rely upon boasting and misrepresenting, that they willfully and knowingly misled the Senate. . . .”

“Those are not my words,” Perle interrupted, but Kennedy cut him off, saying, “The record will stand about what you’ve stated. . . . “

Perle strongly opposes legislation, introduced by Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) and backed by many Democrats, that would formally embrace a narrow interpretation of the treaty, thereby restricting the “Star Wars” program essentially to laboratory research.

Perle, a well-known Administration hard-liner, protested that adherence to a narrow reading would severely curtail the program and undercut U.S. bargaining strength in arms control talks with the Soviets in Geneva.

The ABM treaty, which was ratified by the Senate in 1972 and remains in effect, allows only 100 ABM missiles on each side and restricts further non-nuclear defenses to research.

In 1985, Administration officials said that reviews of the treaty justified a broadening of its traditional interpretation. But, in January, the President said he would continue to keep his “Star Wars” project within the bounds of a narrow definition until the Administration completes further legal studies on the issue this spring.