European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 14, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 18 the stars and stripes Friday february 14,1986 columns conversation with George Shultz by James Pestonit s not easy la get into the state department these Days. At the Entrance on c Street they have erected a line of formidable Cement anti terrorist barriers that will probably be planted with petunias in the Spring. And on the seventh door where George p. Shultz hangs out they re creating a series of Beautiful rooms full of 18th Century furniture and paintings with intimidating Strong doors surrounded by cops and electronic Security devices. Nevertheless with the right passes you can get in and there is the Secretary of state in his shirtsleeves silting before a cheerful fire. He lakes a break from Hii Busy schedule to talk about his future and disarmament and other affairs of state including who is keeping the history of the Reagan administration and How it is being done. Excerpts from the conversation follow. A it s ill Over town Ihil you re sore or want logo Home. What s the pitch. A. 1 Don t want to go Home. I have settled in Here Well. I get along with the president just Fine. We have a very impressive High Quality group of people at the state department to work with. I Don t need any Money. On the other hand whenever you All in enough of me i go Back to California. I m easy to gel rid of in thai . Is the u orderly coherent record being kept in this administration is whole a. I do have that sense. I think the president is quite conscious of it. Of course he s appointed Edmund mor Ris As while House historian. And Morris is spending tots of time around. For instance at Geneva he Wai sort of Here and there and elsewhere All the time in All of the meetings where we discussed what happened this morn ing and what should we do this afternoon and so . Does the president keep diary a i can t say on that. I know on occasion i be been asked to come and see him in his residence and 1 can remember a few times coming in. He was silting at a desk and so 1 waited there and he was writing away in longhand. When he finally realized i was there he stopped and said of i was just recording my impressions of the so i be seen him doing thai but i Don t know How systematic that is. Q. A you keep diary or a journal a. I do have a Way of keeping some sort of a track. My papers from the last Lime i was in government i gave to the Hoover institution which has a very Good archiving setup and that s what i have said i would do this time although this time since the Reagan Library will be there they will be part of that general collection. The president has requested that of All Cabinet officers and i think it s a very Good . The recent Summit meeting in Geneva and the historical record will there be a record when Hbl Ori ins come to you after you re Long ret red and ask Whit about this Point or that Point a. Yes. A very Good record. We had meetings Between the president and Gorba Chev and in those meetings each Side had an interpreter. Our interpreter made full notes and we have those notes. In the plenary sessions once again in those ses Sions we had Pur interpreter s notes. We also had two russian speaking note takers who did t have to depend on the translation which of course was done by the soviet translator. Then there were conversations sort of on the Side. That is when Gorbachev and the president were meet ing they met a lot longer than it said on the Shevardnadze and i and various others would sit around and our discussions went through various areas. Actually in preparing Tor it i made up a Little Check list of things that i Felt should be covered and i kept checking made a Point of going through the items and then reporting. Q. What do Yon answer when the lilies say if we read Gorbachev correctly you can relieve n from hat ing to face thousand missiles and one of the things that is clicking b your Pooch of sdi."? a. They re not saying that i think there is a growing sense among our allies that the Impact of ski is the other Way around thai it is one of the primary reason Why the soviets Are making the offers for reductions that they arc. And so rather than be a problem it is an asset. Q. But then after you have got them to the table Aren t you stuck with their insistence there will be no agreement on these vast reductions of missiles unless you abandon ski a. In the january Gorbachev proposal from the Sovi ets they talked about eliminating intermediate Range weapons in Europe. They put some conditions on it which we Don t accept at All. But that was some move ment. There s a lot to be negotiated. Now in the Start of discussions the Gorbachev proposal really did t take up counterproposal in any Strong Way but there Are various aspects of ski and How it would work that Are quite reasonable to discuss. We have to remember that the soviets have always been defense oriented and very Good at it that they have deployed an abm system around Moscow an they be modernized it. We also know that they have been doing the kind of research that we Are emphasizing in ski for some time. So they Are quite familiar with the concepts. They have an interest in this subject for their own Sake. So the concept of ski assuming tha you put it into effect not unilaterally but on some kind of agreed basis has a lot of potential Appeal. Q. Is there possibility that Down the line since we Hare i common interest in the ski that we could work together with them on that subject a. If we can get to the Point where we re ready to talk about a concept of deterrence that has greater defense elements in it and the importance of a transition to such a concept then you Lay the groundwork for a fruitful discussion about How you might do it and How is not an easy problem. We made the suggestion of open laboratories that we will allow soviet scientists to come to our labs and get some sense of what we re doing on the Assumption that they will do likewise. Q. Are there Points in the last Gorbachev proposal that Are different and hopeful for example on the question of in site inspection a. There Are two definite things. One is the language about verification and Here it is up to us to take that up with them and explore it and build it into anything that s agreed upon. Conceptually the president has been saying that his dream is to see a situation where we could eliminate nuclear weapons entirely and in Gorbachev s proposal he deals with thai. The president s vision has made a Impact. Q. If you had agreement on a non nuclear world then would t you have to have agreement on conventional weapons a. It raises a question of the conventional balance. It raises a question about such things As chemical biological weapons. It raises questions about verification. It raise questions about the behaviour of the soviet Union around the world creating so Many regional tensions. So there Are lots of problems and you Don t solve them by just saying non nuclear you have to get at them. Q. Do you have any sense of the Calendar pushing you on this you be got three years left. A. We should work at it very hard. We should be ready to decide things if we can find things that we feel Are clearly in our interests and we should t get ourselves in a position where we feel somehow time is running out. Shultz responded forcefully to Many other comments included these on Jonas Sav Imbi the angolan rebel Leader Shultz said that he has wide support and we have to figure out Way to provide him with effective help. On economic relations with the soviet Union Shultz said opportunities for Trade with the russians surely increased following the Summit conference i Geneva Between Reagan and Gorbachev. On South Africa Shultz said the administration had not equivocate in its opposition to apartheid but we think it very undesirable to think that the right Way to change it is through some sort of blood in new York Tunn today s crossword by Eugene Sheffer 2-14 Ana. To yesterday s Piile 2-14 Hubert
