THE MOSCOW SUMMIT : Russian, U.S. Collegians Much Alike, President Tells Students

Following are excerpts of President Reagan’s exchange Tuesday with students at Moscow State University:

Question. (Moderator) The student wonders how the youths have changed since the days when you were a student, up till now.

Answer. Well, I know there was a period in our country when there was a very great change for the worst. When I was governor of California, I could start a riot just by going to a campus. But that has all changed, and I could be looking out at an American student body as well as I’m looking out here and would not be able to tell the difference between you.

I did happen to go to school and get my college education in a unique time. It was the time of the Great Depression, when, in a country like our own, there was 25% unemployment and the bottom seemed to fall out of everything.

I think what maybe I should be telling you, from my point here, because I graduated in 1932, that . . . you know an awful lot more about being young than you do about being old. And I think there is a seriousness, I think there’s a sense of responsibility that young people have, and I think that there’s an awareness on the part of most of you about what you want. . . .

Q. The realization of the unalienable right of citizens guaranteed by the Constitution faces certain problems. For example, the right of people to have arms. Or, for example . . . whether a spread of pornography or narcotics is compatible with these rights. Do you believe that these problems just are unavoidable problems connected with democracies or they could be avoided?

A. If I understand you correctly . . . does that include the right to do criminal acts and, for example, in the use of drugs and so forth? No. (Laughter, applause.)

No. We have a set of laws. . . . Our Constitution is a document in which “we the people” tell the government what its powers are. . . . But very carefully, at the same time, the people give the government the power with regard to those things which they think would be destructive to society. . . . The government can enforce the laws, but that has all been dictated by the people.

Q. Since your term of office is coming to an end, what sentiment do you experience and whether you feel like if, hypothetically, you can just stay for another term?

A. There has kind of grown a tradition in our country about two terms. . . . It was just a tradition, and then (Franklin D.) Roosevelt ran the four times, died very early in his fourth term. And suddenly, in the atmosphere at that time, they added an amendment to the Constitution that Presidents could only serve two terms.

When I get out of office I’m going to travel around . . . and try to convince the people of our country that they should wipe out that amendment to the Constitution because it was an interference with the democratic rights of the people. The people should be allowed to vote for who they wanted to vote for as many times as they want to vote for them, and that it is they who are being denied a right. (Applause.)

Q. I heard that a group of American Indians have come here because they couldn’t meet you in the United States of America. If you fail to meet them here, will you be able to . . . correct it and to meet them back in the United States?

A. I didn’t know that they had asked to see me. . . . I’d be very happy to see them.

They from the beginning announced that they wanted to maintain their way of life. . . . And we set up these reservations so they could, and have a Bureau of Indian Affairs to help take care of them. At the same time, we provide . . . schools on the reservations. And they’re free also to leave the reservations and be American citizens among the rest of us, and many do. Some still prefer, however, that . . . early way of life.

Maybe we made a mistake. Maybe we should not have humored them in that wanting to stay in that kind of primitive life style. Maybe we should have said, “No, come join us. Be citizens along with the rest of us.”

I’m very pleased to meet with them, talk with them at any time, and see what their grievances are or what they feel they might be. And you’d be surprised, some of them became very wealthy because some of those reservations were overlaying great pools of oil. And you can get very rich pumping oil. And so I don’t know what their complaint might be.

Q. Why did you receive yesterday . . . just refuseniks or dissidents? Just what are your impressions from Soviet people?

A. You have to realize that we are a people that are made up of every strain, nationality and race of the world. And the result is that when people in our country think someone is being mistreated or treated unjustly in another country, these are people who still feel that kinship to that country because that is their heritage.