Gorbachev Wins Reagan’s Endorsement on Reforms : President Tours Red Sq., Says ‘Evil Empire’ Is Over

Mikhail S. Gorbachev won a fresh endorsement today from President Reagan for his Soviet reform program, but the leaders only inched forward during ticklish arms negotiations and Gorbachev suggested it may be “time to bang our fists on the table” to end the impasse.

Reagan, meeting over lunch with artists, film makers and writers, praised the Soviet leader’s reform efforts, saying, “I’ve found that Mr. Gorbachev has the ability to grasp and hold a vision, and I respect him for that.”

On their third day of talks, Reagan and Gorbachev met in the Soviet leader’s Kremlin office, sitting beneath a portrait of Karl Marx and holding what presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater called a largely “philosophical” discussion on perestroika --Gorbachev’s economic reform effort--that ran more than an hour.

‘Guarantees on Reform’

In giving his blessing to Gorbachev’s reform efforts, Reagan said that in his talks with the Soviet leader, “I have spoken of how important it is to institutionalize change--to put guarantees on reform.

“Reform that is not institutionalized will always be insecure,” the President said today in a speech to Moscow State University students.

Reagan told the students that they are living “in one of the most exciting, hopeful times in Soviet history. It is a time when the first breath of freedom stirs the air and the heart beats to the accelerated rhythm of hope, when the accumulated spiritual energies of a long silence yearn to break free.

“We do not know what will be the conclusion of this journey, but we are hopeful that the promise of reform will be fulfilled.”

Following the day’s only summit session, Gorbachev steered Reagan through Red Square, a stroll that delighted and surprised visitors.

During an encounter with reporters, Reagan was asked if he still believed the Soviet Union was an “evil empire” as he described it in March, 1983.

Standing next to his host, Reagan said, “I was talking about another time, another era.

“What we’ve decided to do is talk to each other instead of about each other. . . . Everything’s just fine.”

‘Difficult Night’s Sleep’

Several reporters permitted access to Reagan for a few minutes described him as looking tired and possibly limping. Fitzwater said that “there is no problem with the President’s health” but that “he did have a difficult night’s sleep.”

“We are all a little tired, and that’s reflected in all our delegation,” he said. But Nancy Reagan, during her trip to Leningrad, was asked about the President and said, “He sleeps fine.”

On the arms issue, a U.S. official said the leaders were likely to sign a joint statement during Wednesday’s summit finale spelling out progress on two of the main obstacles to a strategic missile reduction treaty in an upbeat overview of the U.S.-Soviet relationship.

The movement on arms control came on a U.S. proposal to verify limits on mobile missiles and on counting nuclear-tipped cruise missiles aboard warplanes, said the official, who spoke on condition he not be further identified.

There was no progress on the thorniest obstacle of all, and Reagan said his “Star Wars” program was not even discussed.

Pesky verification problems also stood in the way of an agreement.

‘Originate Fresh Ideas’

“We would like the American delegation to originate fresh ideas,” Soviet spokesman Gennady Gerasimov said later.

Gorbachev today recalled that in 1985 at their first summit in Geneva the two leaders had reached an impasse at one point. He said the President told him, “ ‘Well, let’s stamp our fists on the table,’ and I said all right.

“Maybe now it is again a time to bang our fists on the table once again.”

Asked by a reporter if he agreed, Reagan said, “I’ll do anything that works.”

During a question-and-answer session with students at Moscow State University, Reagan, asked about the prospects for an arms treaty, said: “We are hopeful that it can be finished before I leave office. But I assure you, if it isn’t . . . I will have impressed upon my successor that we must carry on until it is signed.”

Reagan and Gorbachev today also watched and joined in the applause as Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze signed several secondary agreements, including a pair of arms accords.

Under one pact, the superpowers will notify each other at least 24 hours in advance of the time, place and intended target of intercontinental-range missiles tests. The other sets up joint experiments this summer in Nevada and Semipalatinsk of devices to measure underground nuclear test explosions.