Sakharov Tells Concerns on ‘Star Wars’ : Reagan, in Oval Office Session, Says System Includes ‘Insurance’

Andrei D. Sakharov told President Reagan at the White House today that he is concerned about “Star Wars” and the Strategic Defense Initiative’s effect on superpower arms negotiations. Reagan defended his ambitious missile defense system, saying it has a built-in “insurance policy.”

Welcoming the father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb to the Oval Office, Reagan said human rights will remain an irritant in U.S.-Soviet relations until all political prisoners are released.

“We’ve had great success,” Reagan said as he praised Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev as more cooperative than any Kremlin leader before him.

But, Reagan said, “we can only wait and see” whether Gorbachev makes good on a promise to release all political prisoners.

Sakharov told the President as they posed for pictures that “there are only individuals” left in jails. The Nobel laureate and human rights activist spoke through an American interpreter.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said that during their meeting, Sakharov “was very thankful” to Reagan “for what he had done on behalf of human rights and for him and his wife.”

Sakharov, however, also voiced concern about the impact that Reagan’s “Star Wars” program would have on efforts by the superpowers to negotiate a cut in long-range nuclear missile stockpiles.

These statements led Reagan to talk about the “insurance policy” concept behind development of the Strategic Defense Initiative, according to Fitzwater, who also said the President told Sakharov that while there is a treaty to ban chemical weapons, “we still keep our gas masks.”

Sakharov, 67, was sent to internal exile in the Soviet city of Gorky in 1980 after criticizing the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the immigration policies of his country. Gorbachev freed him two years ago.

Sakharov is in Washington to attend the first meeting of the International Foundation for the Survival and Development of Humanity. The foundation was organized by U.S. and Soviet scientists to address social and scientific problems that affect mankind.