Word: gromyko
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...Gromyko assailed the U.S. negotiating position on three specific points. First, he noted, the President demands that the 162 British and French nuclear missiles be left out of any calculations on how many warheads would be permitted on each side under an interim agreement. Also, he said, Reagan's proposal "does not take into account hundreds and hundreds of U.S. nuclear-delivery aircraft based in Western Europe and on aircraft carriers." Finally, he objected strenuously to Reagan's demand that any reduction of missile totals be "global," which means that it must apply...
...Gromyko's statement was by no means a surprise. As he noted, wryly and accurately, "We do not believe that Washington counted on any other reaction on our part." But unwilling to let the Soviets monopolize European attention even for 24 hours, the U.S. State Department began composing a point-by-point rebuttal as telex machines were still chattering out the transcript of Gromyko's press conference. Spokesman Alan Romberg handed out the official American response at midday Saturday, in time for it to share evening TV news programs in Western Europe with tapes of the Soviet Foreign...
British and French missiles should be left out of Geneva bargaining, the statement asserted, because "these forces are national strategic deterrents designed to defend France and Britain," not the other West European countries menaced by the SS-20s. "To include aircraft [in the missile bargaining], as Mr. Gromyko suggests, would divert attention from the most threatening and destabilizing systems and complicate the negotiations." And SS-20s stationed in Asia must be included because these highly mobile missiles could easily be shifted westward and retargeted on Western Europe in a crisis. The statement concluded: "The Soviet Union owes the world...
...enough to arouse feelings of déjà vu. The Kremlin apparently wanted to make the maximum publicity splash for its official reply to President Reagan's Euromissile proposals. So the Soviet foreign ministry began notifying reporters on Wednesday, hours after Reagan had stopped speaking, that Andrei Gromyko, the U.S.S.R.'s Foreign Minister, would meet with them at 11 a.m. Saturday, Moscow time. The timing presumably was calculated to win big headlines in U.S. and European Sunday newspapers...
About 300 Soviet and foreign reporters, including TIME Correspondent John Moody, were waiting when Gromyko strode into the ministry's press center with a jaunty step that belied his 73 years. He delivered a 65-minute speech, then answered a dozen questions. Speaking without notes or a prompting device, Gromyko came across as thoughtful, worldly and more humorous than his nickname, "Grim Grom," would suggest. Insisting that British and French missiles must be included in any agreement limiting warheads in Europe, he asked what would happen if they were launched against the U.S.S.R.: "Will a French missile have...