Reagan gives Gorbachev ‘benefit of doubt’

Press, 6 May 1988, Page 10

Reagan gives Gorbachev ‘benefit of doubt’

NZPA-Reuter Washington President Reagan, taking a conciliatory stance on a thorny summit issue, has commended the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, for humanrights advances and said he was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt.

In a remarkably nonconfrontational speech on Wednesday that was a far cry from one he gave two weeks ago, the United States leader said he will urge greater freedoms for Soviet citizens when he visits Moscow later this month but is not out to embarrass Mr Gorbachev.

“I give him the benefit of the doubt that faced with the economic problems he has, glasnost ("openness”) — he really is attempting to get that,” Mr Reagan told a Chicago audience.

“So I would hope that in our discussions that maybe we could be helpful to him in suggestions on how he might better bring that about. “That, I think, is preferable to staging a kind of contest with him so that someone looks like a winner or loser,” the President said.

Mr Reagan coupled his comments on human rights with an admission that the Soviet leaders have grounds to criticise the United States for economic and social problems like unemployment,

homelessness and racial discrimination.

“The problems ... are serious — no one would seek to deny that. Yet in freedom, we are constantly confronting them, criticising ourselves, seeking to do better ... in full view for all to see,” he said.

Two weeks ago in Springfield, Massachusetts, Mr Reagan angered the Soviet Union by suggesting it might not be serious about getting out of Afghanistan despite an international commitment to do so. Moscow was further angered by his suggestion that it had been forced into positive developments in United States-Soviet relations by America’s growing military and political strength. Mr Reagan refrained from what is known at the White House as “Sovietbashing” in Wednesday’s address, which focused entirely on human rights. He suggested the Soviet Union would profit by following the American example of discussing problems openly and noted that in some cases, they appear to be doing so.

“Soviet economists have published articles about Soviet shortages ... The Soviet press now carries stories about the need for progress,” he said, calling this “a development of tremendous significance.”