Shultz Defends U.S. Testimony on Missile Pact

The Reagan Administration wound up its case Monday for ratification of the U.S.-Soviet treaty to eliminate land-based medium-range missiles, with Secretary of State George P. Shultz rejecting a claim that there are conflicts between officials’ public and secret testimony.

Appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Shultz bristled at the assertion by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) that “there is a wide gap between the Administration’s public representations about the treaty and the information which we have received in closed session.”

“I can handle it fine if people say they don’t agree with me,” Shultz replied, denying Helms’ charge. “But if they say I’m misrepresenting, then I really have a lot of trouble with that.”

Shultz was scheduled to be the Administration’s last public witness on behalf of the treaty. The committee will hear from officials of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency in executive session later this week and will conclude its hearings by receiving a report from the Intelligence Committee and the Armed Services Committee.

Full Senate to Get Treaty

The treaty is expected to be approved by the Foreign Relations Committee and sent to the full Senate next week.

From the outset of the hearings, Helms has waged a lonely battle against the treaty, and he renewed his allegations Monday. He charged that the treaty’s verification provisions are inadequate, that the Soviets may have far more intermediate-range weapons than has been acknowledged and that the Administration has given a misleading impression that the agreement requires the destruction of warheads as well as missiles.

He also resurrected a claim, carried into the Republican presidential primaries by candidate Pat Robinson, that missiles banned under the treaty could have been hidden in Cuba.

Several members of the committee, including its chairman, Sen. Claiborne Pell (D-R.I), and Sen. Brock Adams (D-Wash.) and Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), quickly sided with Shultz, disputing Helms’ charge that secret testimony gives a picture different from what the Administration has publicly put forward.

The treaty, signed by President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev at their meeting last December in Washington, requires each side to dismantle all ground-launched missiles with ranges between 300 and 3,400 miles.