Reagan-Gorbachev TV Message Swap Appears to Be Set

The White House appeared Wednesday to have won commitments by three of the four major television networks to broadcast a New Year’s message by Soviet Leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, smoothing the way for a similar message by President Reagan to be broadcast in the Soviet Union.

ABC, CNN and NBC each said they would carry Gorbachev’s remarks in their entirety, but a CBS spokesman said the network would carry only excerpts from the two leaders’ remarks on its regularly scheduled news shows on New Year’s Day.

The White House in recent days had made it clear that it was irked by the refusal of the networks to commit themselves to carrying the Soviet leader’s remarks.

Reagan and Gorbachev have each taped comments--Reagan’s was described by White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater as “a greeting to the Soviet people”--and the tapes have been exchanged.

The Soviets, Fitzwater said Wednesday, “will play the President’s tape on the state television if (Gorbachev) appears on U.S. networks. We have told the Soviets that we have provided the tape to American networks . . . but we can’t give them a commitment whether or not they’ll use it.”

The tapes run approximately 5 1/2 minutes.

Originally, the messages were to be embargoed for use at 9 a.m. Friday. But, according to Fitzwater, a request was made to advance the release time by one hour to avoid a conflict with broadcasts of the Tournament of Roses Parade. The request was granted by the United States and the Soviet Union, the White House spokesman said.

The apparent resolution of the issue is in contrast with the effort Reagan made last year to reach the Soviet people with a similar New Year’s greeting. His comments, broadcast on Jan. 1 by Voice of America, were interrupted in some parts of the Soviet bloc by electronic jamming.

In another development, the White House sought to play down the impact of a letter written by Lt. Gen. Colin L. Powell, Reagan’s national security adviser, stemming from Reagan’s summit conference Dec. 7-10 with Gorbachev.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that Powell wrote to Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), in response to a question from the senator, that if the United States tests in space components of the President’s space-based Strategic Defense Initiative, the Soviets reserved the right to break out of a strategic weapons agreement the superpowers are trying to reach.

Powell’s comments appeared in contrast with statements he and other Administration officials made as the summit ended, indicating no firm understanding had been reached about what impact such tests would have.

Fitzwater sought to equate Powell’s letter to comments Reagan made two days after the summit ended. At that time, Reagan stated: “This START treaty could be another historic achievement provided the Soviets don’t try to hold it hostage to restrictions on SDI.”

START is the acronym for the strategic arms reduction talks.

“They are both consistent,” Fitzwater said, referring to Reagan comments on Dec. 12 and Powell’s remarks in his letter to Levin.

“What we are saying is that there was nothing in there (the summit negotiations) that prohibited progress on the START or tied the two (SDI and START) together,” he said.

Asked whether Reagan would sign an agreement limiting the superpowers’ long-range, or strategic, weapons if the Soviets would abandon such a pact in the wake of testing on the missile defense program, which is known as “Star Wars,” Fitzwater replied: “No way to know that unless they tell us, and they haven’t told us that.”

Fitzwater spoke with reporters in Palm Springs, near Rancho Mirage, where the President is spending the New Year’s holiday at the desert estate of former ambassador Walter H. Annenberg. Reagan arrived in Palm Springs Tuesday and is expected to return to Washington on Sunday.

His agenda Wednesday included a round of golf and a private dinner at the El Dorado Country Club.