Remarks and a
Question-and-Answer Session at a Luncheon With Radio
and Television Journalists
The President. Well, if you don't feel
welcome already, welcome to the White House. There's a story we had in
As
you know, our relationship with the Soviets is like a table. It's built on four
legs: arms reduction, resolving of regional conflicts, improvement of human
rights within the
And
we began building our new relationship with the Soviets 7\1/2\ years ago.
Strengthening
Progress
was stalled for a long time. The Soviets tested our resolve, and that of our
allies, at the bargaining table and in the deployment of INF weapons. They also
went through a series of leaders, none of whom lived long enough to change the
longstanding Brezhnev-era policies. That was one of my problems, my delay in
getting started in dealings with the
I
hope you'll forgive me for saying this, but too often in the past, it's
appeared to me that coverage of summits has been geared more to the hunt for
headlines than to the realities of business. If there wasn't the blockbuster
agreement, a summit was dismissed. In fact, each of my four meetings with Mr.
Gorbachev has produced significant steps forward. Take just one area: reduction
in the level of strategic arms. In
I've
heard repeated many times the old rule that you should never go to a summit
unless everything has been fully scripted in advance. Well, as you might have
guessed, I don't fully accept that. I can't tell you the shock the first time
when they said that we should put out the statement in advance that we were
going to finish the summit with. I believe that if relations between the
Today
we can say, with caution, that we may be entering a new era of
And
now, rather than going on, I know that you have questions that you want to ask
and that I want to answer. Think of what a refreshing change this will be for
me -- to hear someone shout a question and realize it's not Sam Donaldson.
[Laughter]
Yes?
Administration
Transition
Q.
I'm not close to Sam, I'm afraid -- background, at least. I'd like to ask you:
With the administration coming to a close, and in your own mind and the mind of
many others, so much accomplished at the summit, how are you going to prepare
for the transition -- whether it's a Republican or Democratic administration --
so that you can continue what you've started? And I have a followup
I'd like to ask.
The President. Well, I'll be pretty
handicapped if it goes one way. But if it goes the way I'd like it to go --
George Bush, who has been a part of everything that we've accomplished in these
several years -- why, I would want to point out to my successor the things that
we didn't get accomplished that are still needed: the improvement in the whole
budgeting process, the line-item veto and what it means. As a Governor for 8
years, I did 943 line-item vetoes without ever being overridden once, and we left
the State with a surplus, not a deficit. But, no, I'll want to be of help if I
can, but there are a number of things that in these succeeding months we're
still going to try to get forward.
Q.
My followup is: Nothing is going to be accomplished
in terms of an arms agreement without your support, even after you're out of
office. Do you think there should be some kind of formalized relationship
between yourself and the next President and next administration so that you
could be privy to what's being prepared along the way?
The President. Well, let me say, there
is such a situation or arrangement now. Regularly we keep each of the former
Presidents informed in writing with the policies and where we are and things
like the summit and all of that. That goes on regularly, and they're all kept
completely informed. And I think that's all that an ex-President should ask
for.
Strategic
Arms Control
Q.
Mr. President, Paul Linnman, from KATV in
The President. Oh, I wouldn't mind
recalling them for anything. [Laughter] No, the thing is -- let me make clear
that we have refrained from setting deadlines. I think the idea to set down
some line and then you find yourself tempted to agree to something less good
than it could be, but because of the deadline -- so, if it isn't, I'd think it
would be great if the START agreement could be finished, the negotiations go on
between our representatives. If that could be done before I left office and it
could be signed, that would be fine, because then we could move on to some
other things that need dealing with -- conventional weapons and so forth. But
if it isn't, why, we'll just keep on negotiating and then try to impress on
whoever comes in next where we are.
I've
got to come over to this side here sometime.
Presidential
Candidates
Q.
My name is Ted Trulock. I'm with WCTV in
The President. Well!
Q. -- -- in
The President. Well, I hate to give
any suggestions that might be of help to the other side. But there's no
question that he has impressed a great number of followers. And I want to say
-- and without any inference to any racial difference or anything -- I would
have to say that I find myself in great disagreement with policies that he has
proposed, as well as those of the other candidate, Dukakis. But I think that
goes with the game. They obviously have different goals in mind than we have. But
I think he's certainly been a viable candidate all the way.
Q.
Your friend George Bush seems to be having some problems in
The President. Everything I can. I've
had to be neutral for a long time -- until there was a definite candidate --
because in this job you are titular head of the party, so you have to remain
neutral. But as I say, he's been a part of everything that we've accomplished
in this administration.
Soviet
People
Q.
I'm Sharon Crockett, from LAC Radio in
The President. My opinion of the -- --
Q.
The people -- just the plain old everyday working people in the
The President. In
the
Q.
Yes.
The President. There are several
people at my table here that are going to have to listen again. One of the most
exciting things -- I couldn't believe it, after all the years of propaganda
that we're all villains on this side of the ocean and everything. The Soviet
people were the warmest, friendliest, nicest people you could ever meet. Every
place we went, whether it was night or day, the streets would be lined with
thousands of them, as if there was going to be a parade -- and their friendly
waves. And then in the opportunities when we did have a chance to get out in
the street and come in contact with them, and they all wanted to shake hands
and visit. They were really wonderful. And I'm going to add something in there
that you didn't ask, but that I had said once before up here. I voiced this a
few times when I had a chance publicly in the Soviet Union: that not only were
they all so wonderful and friendly, but I think the women of the Soviet Union
are the biggest and most powerful stabilizing force in that society. They're
just wonderful.
Soviet-U.S.
Relations
Q.
Mr. President, my name is Cameron Harper. I'm from KTVK Television in
The President. No, and I think he's
being as careful as we all must be. It's all right to be optimistic and all of
that, but I -- I'm not a linguist, but I learned a Russian proverb, and
Gorbachev wishes to hell I hadn't. [Laughter] It is: Dovorey
no provorey. It means trust, but verify. And we have
the greatest verification worked out in the INF treaty that's ever taken place.
There will be, I think, sixty-some Americans permanently stationed in the
There's
a young lady there. Yes?
General
Secretary Gorbachev
Q.
Mr. President, you know Mikhail Gorbachev probably better than any American,
have had four summits with him, spent many hours one-on-one with him. If he has
the good fortune to have your good health and stamina, he could conceivably be
the Secretary General for 20 to 25 years. I'd like first your impressions of
the man and any advice you might offer to the next President on going
toe-to-toe with Mikhail Gorbachev.
The President. Well, I have known a
number of their leaders and met with a number of their leaders before, and I
must say this: He is different. And this doesn't mean I mean that you lower
your guard precipitantly at all, but he definitely --
his perestroika -- and I read his book -- and glasnost -- he definitely wants
changes in the social structure there. And he's faced with a great economic
problem, literally a basket case. And he has plans, and these other things I've
just mentioned are part of his plan for trying to build up the economy and make
it more viable than it presently is. And I have to say that I think the Russian
people have taken to both of these, glasnost and perestroika, and have a far
better feeling about their system. I didn't run into the kind of cynicism that
I've seen so often in the past among them. And I think that Margaret Thatcher
was right when she said, ``He's someone you can do business with.''
Meetings
With the Press
Q.
Mr. President, Howard Caldwell, from
The President. No, let me tell you.
We've gone too long without people like you being here. I started in the
beginning having, several times a year, people like yourselves from all over
the country here in this same room and doing what we're doing right now,
because I recognize that your only sources of information were coming from
certain elements of the press within the beltway and in the East here. And I
sometimes have found some of those sources biased. And I thought that you had a
right to be able to ask, and you ask good questions, too.
This
young lady here, and then I'll get you.
Presidential
Candidates
Q.
This is to play off the question that was asked to you earlier. I'm Nancy
Chandler, from WITI - TV in
The President. No, I think he's been
very careful to not ever get into that subject, and he's never brought that up
or not. But I've made it plain to him that I'm going to do everything I can to
impress upon my successor where we are and what the goals should continue to
be.
Now, that young man.
American
Indians
Q.
Mr. President, some remarks you made in
The President. Well, I don't know
whether I can, whether the schedule will permit -- I'm still trying to find the
fellow that tells me where -- I'm going to be doing every 15 minutes every day.
But, no, I don't regret that, and I do think that there were mistakes made back
in the very beginning of our country with regard to the Indians and the manner
of handling them. But the question that I was answering was in effect -- was that
somehow I had refused to meet with them. I've never refused to meet with any
Americans and certainly haven't refused to meet with them and have on a number
of occasions. And I don't know just what the specific complaint is, but I know
that we've been doing for a long time our utmost to provide education for those
who wanted to maintain Indian life as it was on the reservation, in contrast to
those who leave and come out and join the rest of us and become more like us.
I've
got to turn back this way again. May I go back here once, and then I'll come to
you.
Soviet-U.S.
Cooperation in Space
Q.
Mr. Reagan, Steve Rondinaro, WESH Television,
The President. Yes, there's no
question but that the Challenger tragedy has put us behind, and we are back of
where our schedule called for -- because we wanted to be underway on a space
station by this time. With regard to the Mars trip -- incidentally, we've
already sent a craft to Mars, as you know, in the past -- taken some pictures
that make you wonder why anyone would want to go there. [Laughter] But they've
specified theirs would be unmanned, also. I have turned that over to our people
in that field because I don't know just exactly what the scheduling problems
are for getting us back into operation again and whether that would set us
back. But I'm going to wait for their reporting before making a decision on
whether we do something jointly.
Q.
They have a space station up already. I know you wanted to have ours up there
by 1990, originally.
The President. Yes.
Q.
Do you have a money battle to make that happen? Will that become reality?
The President. Well, as I say, we were
set back by that tragedy and then the extensive research and all that went on
so that we wouldn't have a repeat. And so, we're behind. There's no question,
we're behind schedule in all of our space activity other than the things that
we put aloft, such as the satellites that can give us the weather and that can
photograph the Earth as if they were -- [laughter] -- just on the second floor
and so forth, that type of thing. But generally we are behind schedule, and
right now, as I understand, we're having a little problem -- since the
explosion in one of our rocket fuel plants -- we're having trouble.
Q.
Mr. President, Bill Bayer, from
The President. Yes.
Q.
Okay. What is your answer to this? Of course, betrayal is a very provocative
word, but nonetheless it's bounced around the headlines all over the country.
What would you answer them? And then I have a followup.
The President. I would answer that
they're misinformed. We certainly haven't betrayed them, nor is there anything
to this idea that we've softened up our relationship with Castro. As you know,
we were instrumental -- in fact I would think that we were the ones that got
the United Nations to authorize a team to go to Castro -- or to
Regional
Conflicts
Q.
Mr. President, did the subject of the backyard, the
The President. We always bring that up
in connection with that one thing about regional activities and regional
developments. You don't get definite and specific yes and no answers to things.
We think that there is a big improvement -- the
Ms.
Board. We have time for one more question.
Q.
Mr. President, Ray Briem, of ABC,
The President. Thank you.
Strategic
Defense Initiative
Q.
Regarding SDI, a few months ago you said that the Soviets may be preparing to
break out of the ABM treaty and deploy a nationwide ABM system. Did you talk
that over with Mr. Gorbachev? And what was his answer?
The President. Oh, we have told him
that we believe that they're in violation. We know they're in violation of the
ABM treaty, particularly with
We
know that they have been spending far more on defensive programs than we have
with SDI. But evidently their technology must not have kept pace with ours,
because our system is one that I think, in spite of some of the pessimists who
claim otherwise, that it is a research program aimed at a target. And the
research has -- there have been a number of breakthroughs that has made most of
our scientists optimistic that it is a system that can work. And if it can, I
have often said -- and have said to General Secretary Gorbachev -- that this
could be the answer to the dream of no more nuclear weapons if we could make
them obsolete with this kind of defensive system. And I have said that I would
be pleased to share it with the world if we had such a thing because someday --
you know, we know how to make those nuclear missiles, and someday there could
be a madman come along, another Hitler or something, and try to blackmail the
Earth. But not if we all had a protective system against them
that was almost invulnerable. And we're very optimistic about it.
There's
-- did you mean that one or that -- there was one that I was going to take
right back there with his hand up.
Vice
President Bush
Q.
Mr. President, Wayne Weinberg, with WDVO Radio in
The President. I'd say, George, wait
till you and I get out there on the trail and start pinning him down on the
things he claims which we know are not true. And then we would say such things
as some of our own accomplishments. You know, if I listened to him long enough,
I would be convinced that we're in an economic downturn and that people are
homeless and people are going without food and medical attention and that we've
got to do something about the unemployed. Do you know what the potential pool
of employment is in the
There
were other things we wanted to do. We wanted to get the Government to act a
little bit more like business and do things more effectively and efficiently
than it can. I put George Bush in charge of a task force to see how many
Federal regulations could be eliminated. The book containing those regulations
now is only half as big as it was when we came. And our estimate is that the
people, the communities, the States, and businesses have now been able to
reduce the amount of time spent on government-required paperwork by 600 million
man-hours a year.
And
there are other little items, like just the other day some figures came in:
that it used to take 43 days to get a passport; it only takes 10 now. And
there's one that used to take 100 days to get an urban renewal loan set in motion.
And it doesn't take 100 days anymore; it takes about 16. I may be getting some
of these figures inaccurate, but that's how much the improvement has come in
businesslike ways and things that we've done to imitate business instead of
attack business.
Now,
I know that I'm way past my schedule, and Elizabeth isn't -- she could hit me
over the head if I don't say -- there's one thing that's typical of this, as
well as the regular press conferences. And that is that, darn it, I always have to walk away with about 30 hands that have been waving
that I haven't been able to get to. I just try to point in directions here and
not play any favorites. And since you're all new to me, I couldn't play any
favorites, but I'm grateful for your being here. And maybe if you feel like
writing some questions and handing them to our people, we can send you back
some answers if we didn't get to them at all. But I have to get back to the
office now. Thank you all very much.
Note: The President
spoke at