Missile-Cut Treaty Is Signed, Called Only a Beginning

President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed a historic treaty Tuesday to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles and vowed it was only the beginning of a joint effort to rid the world of all nuclear weapons.

Opening their three-day summit at the White House on a congenial and cooperative note, the two superpower leaders declared that despite the wide differences between their countries, they share a common goal of world peace and must work together on arms reduction to avoid the possibility of a nuclear catastrophe.

“We can only hope that this history-making agreement will not be an end in itself, but a beginning,” Reagan said.

The public treaty-signing ceremony was sandwiched between morning and afternoon sessions in the Oval Office that were dominated by discussions of human rights.

Homeless Americans

Reagan raised the issue of Soviet limits on emigration and the cases of Soviet citizens who are married to Americans and barred from joining their spouses, according to a senior White House official who asked not to be named. Gorbachev responded by referring to homeless Americans and limits on immigration to the United States, the source said.

In their public appearances, the two leaders focused on their most significant agreement: the treaty banning medium- and shorter-range ground-launched nuclear missiles.

For the first time in history, Reagan declared, the new treaty will reduce nuclear weapons, not just limit their growth. The treaty, which still must be ratified by the Senate, requires the destruction during the next three years of all ground-launched Soviet and American missiles with ranges between 300 and 3,000 miles.

Gorbachev said the two countries can be proud of “planting this sapling, which may one day grow into a mighty tree of peace.” He added: “May Dec. 8, 1987, become a date that will be inscribed in the history books, a date that will mark the watershed separating the era of a mounting risk of nuclear war from the era of a demilitarization of human life.”

Earlier, at another ceremony marking his arrival at the White House, Gorbachev asserted: “This will, of course, be the first step down the road leading to a nuclear-free world.” He reiterated his determination to make progress in Washington toward a treaty that would cut in half the superpowers’ mighty arsenals of long-range nuclear weapons.

The two private sessions between Reagan and Gorbachev were described by White Housespokesman Marlin Fitzwater and Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov as generally friendly, frank and wide-ranging. The official spokesmen gave only sketchy details.

Fitzwater’s account of the morning session indicated there had been an exchange of strong opinions, if not some tension, on the issue of human rights. Gorbachev, he said, was “animated” and Reagan was “forceful” in “a very lively session.”

The senior White House official described the two leaders as “more direct” in their private meetings than in their public appearances, although there was no “finger-pointing.” He said Reagan would present Gorbachev later with specific cases of human rights violations involving divided spouses and Soviet Jews who have been denied permission to emigrate.

It was “a fairly general discussion,” he said, “but it ran more toward how governments look at each other. It did go to the heart of differences between a democracy and communism.” He said Reagan sought to emphasize that if Gorbachev “is serious about glasnost (openness) and changing U.S.-Soviet relations, then human rights is an issue that has to be dealt with.”

Reagan and Gorbachev will discuss regional issues, including the Soviets’ eight-year occupation of Afghanistan, during their single meeting scheduled for today, the official said.

From 10:48 a.m. until 11:35 a.m. Tuesday, the two leaders met alone except for two note-takers and one interpreter for each side. Then an expanded meeting involving two top aides for each leader lasted until 12:10 p.m., when Reagan walked Gorbachev back to his armored, Soviet-made Zil limousine to be driven to the Soviet Embassy, four blocks away, for lunch.

Working Group Split Up

The afternoon session, with aides present throughout, lasted from 2:30 p.m. until 3:30 p.m.. Then two working groups that the leaders had formed, one on arms control and one on other summit agenda items--human rights, regional issues and bilateral issues--held meetings of their own.

The arms control group was chaired by Paul H. Nitze, Reagan’s chief arms control adviser, and Marshal Sergei F. Akhromeyev, chief of the Soviet General Staff. The group on other summit issues was headed by Assistant Secretary of State Rozanne L. Ridgway and Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander A. Bessmertnykh.

Gerasimov told reporters after the series of meetings: “It was a busy day at the summit. It was an historic day. Maybe it was a day to remember as a day of fame and history.” He said he spoke with his wife in Moscow, where television coverage of the summit is being closely watched, and she reported that “everybody was moved” by the day’s events in Washington.

Caution From Both Sides

Despite the aura of good will that prevailed as the talks opened, both leaders cautioned at their public appearances that vexing problems must be addressed before they can hope to reach agreement on another treaty that would slash by 50% their arsenals of long-range, strategic weapons capable of striking each other’s territory.

Reagan, 76, who has only 13 months remaining in office, warned that solutions to human rights issues and regional conflicts also must be sought. “With time, patience and willpower, I believe we will resolve these issues,” he said.

The 56-year-old Gorbachev, who has held power for less than three years and could keep it through the terms of several more presidents, raised another sticking point when he called for preserving the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The Soviets interpret that treaty as barring testing and deployment of President Reagan’s space-based Strategic Defense Initiative, popularly known as “Star Wars,” while the Administration view is that it is free to proceed with testing.

“Most important of all,” Gorbachev said, “is to translate into reality as early as possible agreements on radical cuts in strategic offensive arms subject to preserving the ABM treaty.” People, he said, “want to live in a world in which American and Soviet spacecraft would come together for docking and joint voyages, not for ‘Star Wars.’ ”

The Soviet leader also called for eliminating chemical weapons and reducing conventional armament.

Used Lincoln’s Table

Reagan and Gorbachev signed the medium-range missile treaty in the East Room of the White House at a heavy wooden table covered with black leather that once served as Lincoln’s Cabinet table. It was brought in for the occasion from the Treaty Room on the second floor of the Executive Mansion.

About 250 invited guests--the Soviets sitting to the right of the table and the Americans to the left--witnessed the signing. First Lady Nancy Reagan and Raisa Gorbachev, the wife of the Kremlin chief, flanked by Vice President George Bush and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, sat in the front row.

The Americans included the entire Cabinet, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, former Secretaries of State William P. Rogers and Edmund S. Muskie and senior members of Congress.

The treaties were contained in two binders--one slate blue and the other burgundy, each about three inches thick. One was in Russian, the other in English.

Eight times the two leaders affixed their signatures to different sections of the 56-page treaty and protocols, and then traded documents for the other to sign. At the end, the two leaders traded the pens each had used to sign the treaty.

Reagan, who early in his presidency referred to the Soviet Union as an “evil empire” but has moderated his views since Gorbachev came to power, stressed the common goals and bonds between the United States and the Soviets in short speeches before and after the treaty-signing ceremony.

‘Wrong Set of Notes’

The President, who usually speaks from notes on index cards, hesitated before beginning his second speech after apparently pulling out the wrong batch of cards. “I think that maybe I got out the wrong set of notes here,” he said.

Recovering, he said that “many so-called wise men once predicted that this agreement would be impossible to achieve; too many forces and factors stood against it.”

In some of the “bleakest times,” Reagan said, “when it did truly seem that an agreement would prove impossible, I bucked myself up with the words of a great Russian, Leo Tolstoy, who wrote, ‘The strongest of all warriors are those two, time and patience.’

“In the next few days, we will discuss further arms reductions and other issues. And again, it will take time and patience to reach agreements.”

Perception Breakthrough

Gorbachev said his first summit with Reagan in Geneva in 1985 enabled them to take the first step toward a common goal of nuclear disarmament. He said last year’s second meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, resulted in a fundamental breakthrough in their perception of the process of nuclear disarmament.

“That is what made possible both this treaty and a substantive consideration of other issues related to the nuclear confrontation,” he said.

The Reykjavik summit talks collapsed when Gorbachev declared the Strategic Defense Initiative an insurmountable obstacle to achieving nuclear disarmament and demanded restrictions on its development that Reagan declared unacceptable.