Soviets React Harshly to Reagan’s Softened Tone

The Tass press agency today ignored President Reagan’s conciliatory remarks about the Soviet Union’s human rights record and issued a blistering comment that accused his Administration of waging a massive onslaught on civil liberties at home.

In a speech Wednesday in Chicago, Reagan took an unusually moderate tone toward the Soviet Union and deplored unemployment, homelessness and racial bigotry in his own country.

Billed as Scene-Setter

The speech was billed as a scene-setter for Reagan’s May 29-June 2 summit meeting in Moscow with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, but Tass ignored Reagan’s change of tone and focused on the President’s acknowledgement of problems in his own country.

“Reagan had to admit that the situation is unfavorable in the area of social and economic rights in the U.S.A.,” Tass said. “But the President asserted that these problems ‘belong to an essentially different category from civil and political rights.’ ”

Tass was silent on comments Reagan made about the human rights situation in the Soviet Union, in which he hailed the release of some religious and political activists.

The Soviet press agency cited U.S. sources and statistics in an attempt to rebut Reagan’s claim that “no government may violate” the freedoms of expression and assembly protected by the U.S. Bill of Rights.

“It is precisely under the current Administration that a massive onslaught was launched on all these freedoms,” Tass said.

Reagan contended Americans have the right to free assembly, Tass said. But it said it was recently documented that FBI agents in 1981-85 conducted active surveillance of more than 180 public, religious and anti-war organizations who opposed Administration policy in Central America.

Pretext Alleged

“Under the pretext of ‘combatting terrorism,’ FBI agents were present at meetings, photographed participants in demonstrations, eavesdropped on telephone conversations,” Tass said.

Those FBI activities were made possible by an executive order signed by Reagan in 1981, which “sanctioned large-scale operations for the surveillance of Americans, even if they are not suspected of violating the law,” Tass said.

The First Amendment to the Constitution protects the freedoms of the press and speech, among others.