Soviet Union & Foreign Affairs ⚔️ Q&A 25th Press Conference (Excerpt) Ronald Reagan 1984 * PITD

Soviet Union & Foreign Affairs ⚔️ Q&A 25th Press Conference (Excerpt) #RonaldReagan 1984 * #PITD
June 14, 1984
Q. Mr. President, you've said tonight that you're ready and willing to talk to the Soviets. But Mr. Chernenko has proposed negotiating a ban on antisatellite weapons and other space weapons. Can you tell us why, beyond the fact that you believe there can't be verification, as you said last weekend, why can't verification be negotiated once you sit down with the Soviets to discuss those weapons?

The President. Well, there are a number of things, and we are studying that. We don't have a flat ``no'' on that yet. We're studying that whole situation.

The Soviets are way ahead of us in that field. They've been at this for about 10 years or more. And we are just in the field of beginning research. And I think we've got some definite reasons there for wanting to know our way before we talk. But we haven't slammed the door on that at all.

Q. Well, can you also confirm reports about the verification issue, that there has been significant Soviet violations of all of the treaties going back to 1958?

The President. We turned over a 200-page report to the Congress that was classified. We made public a summary of that, declassified in a summary. The other lengthy report is still classified because of the risk of exposing sources. But it was a report on outright violations of many of the treaties in the past, and also some ambiguities in which -- maybe based on language differences or not -- they claim a different interpretation of the treaty and that, therefore, they're not violating it. They have this -- they're doing what they think the treaty prescribes.

But between those two things, yes, there have been those violations.

Q. Mr. President, before you came along, in recent years, the talk had been between the two governments of Parity in Force between the United States and the #SovietUnion. Your supporters who wrote the 1980 Republican platform called for military superiority over the Soviet Union. It's been a little bit fuzzy since, although you, in a couple of speeches, I think, starting with the #StarWars speech, have gone back to using the parlance of parity. How do you feel the Republican platform this year would handle that issue? And between those two key words, ``superiority'' and "parity,'' where should that platform go and your administration go?

The President. My own view is that we should maintain the strength and deterrent that is necessary to assure, as much as you can have such assurance, that there won't be a confrontation, because the price would be too high, but, at the same time, emphasizing that we want more than anything else to join with them in reducing the number of weapons.

We've had #ArmsLimitation dealings and treaties and so forth, even such as the #SALTTreaties. All of those simply legalized an #ArmsRace. They were limitations or rules and regulations as to how many more weapons you could have. As a matter of fact, the Soviet Union added almost 4,000 warheads after the two sides had signed the #SALTIIAgreement. That's not my idea of what we really need if we're to reduce the tensions in the world. What we need is to reduce, and, hopefully, to eliminate, the #StrategicNuclearWeapons.

Q. If I may follow up, you're on record, and I think at least twice, of saying that we do not seek anything more than parity in the long run. Would not a platform that goes further than that and repeats the call for superiority give a wrong signal to the Soviet Union?

The President. I would prefer that we not ask for superiority now that we've entered into and started this whole area. We are negotiating with them with other countries in two negotiations that are going on that they did not leave or walk away from. And, yes, I believe that it could be counterproductive now to ask for that.
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Full Transcript:
https://[a]www.reaganlibrary.gov%2Farchives%2Fspeech%2Fpresidents-news-conference-36[/a]
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