Bush Challenges Soviets to Cut Chemical Arms by 80% : ‘Let Us Act to Rid Earth of Scourge’

Declaring the world “has lived too long in the shadow of chemical warfare,” President Bush offered today to slash U.S. stocks of such weapons more than 80%, provided the Soviet Union reduces to an equal level.

Bush’s proposal, in his first speech to the U.N. General Assembly as President, was designed to spur a 40-nation conference in Geneva to ban chemical weapons entirely within 10 years.

He also used his appearance to salute “freedom’s march” around the world--in Hungary, Poland, Latin America and Africa--and to praise the Soviet Union for removing “a number of obstacles” in the way of treaties to reduce long-range nuclear weapons, and troops and tanks in Europe.

Bush noted progress on those issues and agreement on a U.S.-Soviet summit meeting during talks last weekend between Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze.

In his remarks on chemical weapons, Bush said, “Let us act together--beginning today--to rid the Earth of this scourge.”

Shevardnadze said after the speech that the Soviets had “a positive view” of the plan but that it and other Bush proposals “will have to be studied additionally.”

Deeper Cuts Required

To get down to the equal stocks that Bush proposed, the Soviets would have to make deeper cuts since they are thought to have more chemical weapons on hand. Only the two superpowers acknowledge having poison gas, but Bush said more than 20 nations either possess poison gas or are capable of producing it.

Bush’s chemical weapons proposal has three key elements:

--The United States is “ready to begin now” by eliminating more than 80% of its stockpile while working on a treaty, provided the Soviets also make their cuts.

--In the first eight years of a 40-nation treaty the United States would destroy nearly all--98%--of its chemical weapons if the Soviet Union joins the ban.

--All U.S. chemical weapons--”100%, every one”--would be destroyed within 10 years, once all nations capable of building such weapons signed a total ban treaty.

Bush said chemical weapons are finding their way into regional conflicts. “This is unacceptable,” he said.

He referred to the use of poison gas by Iran and Iraq in their Persian Gulf War. The threat is considered potentially explosive in the Middle East where Syria is feared to have chemical weapons that could be placed on the tip of missiles and fired at Israel.

Mute on Verification

The President provided no formula for verifying destruction of the weapons, which can be produced in a small room and sometimes are no bigger than a package of cigarettes.

Bush, who served as U.S. permanent representative at the United Nations in 1971 and 1972, described his visit and speech as a homecoming. The delegates interrupted him twice with applause--when he proposed the chemical weapons reductions and when he reported progress in U.S.-Soviet relations.

At one point, he also mourned the slaying of Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, who was taken hostage on a U.N. mission in Lebanon in February, 1988, and subsequently slain. He called Higgins “a man of unquestioned bravery and unswerving dedication to the U.N. ideal.”