U.S. Ties Soviet Inaction on Terror to Raid

WASHINGTON — The Reagan Administration, in a diplomatic counteroffensive, said Wednesday that it would not have ordered the air raid on Libya if the Soviet Union had heeded American requests to discourage Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi’s agents from carrying out the terrorist attack on a West Berlin nightclub.

“We urged the Soviets and the East Germans to restrain the Libyans,” State Department spokesman Bernard Kalb said. “Had they done so, this entire cycle of events would have been avoided.

Warning to Soviets

“We had previously warned the Soviets that their supply of SA-5 (anti-aircraft) missiles might encourage Kadafi to take risks which would force us to respond,” he added. “This, in fact, turned out to be the case.”

Kalb said that several days before the April 5 terrorist bombing of a West Berlin discotheque, in which an off-duty American soldier and a Turkish woman were killed, U.S. officials informed the Soviets and East Germans of evidence that the Libyan Embassy in East Berlin was planning a terrorist action in West Berlin.

Influence With Libya

He did not say how the Soviets or East Germans could have prevented the Libyans from carrying out their plans, but Moscow is believed to enjoy substantial influence with the Libyans. Also, State Department officials say they assume that Soviet and East German security forces could have prevented an attack from being launched from East German territory.

President Reagan cited the disco bombing as the immediate cause of the U.S. strike at Libya.

Kalb’s hard-edged rhetoric was part of a government-wide effort to reassure allies and rebuke foes in the wake of the U.S. air attack on Tripoli and Benghazi. Secretary of State George P. Shultz conducted a satellite press conference to answer questions from skeptical and hostile European reporters about the confrontation with Kadafi and its likely consequences.

When a reporter in Paris asked Shultz if he was not concerned that Kadafi would launch “a new terrorist campaign against U.S. citizens all over the world” in retaliation for the nighttime bombing, the secretary of state let his temper show through.

“Haven’t you noticed that these terrorist activities of Kadafi’s were going on over a sustained period, were widespread before this American military action?” Shultz demanded. “What he’s now doing is a continuation of what he has been doing.”

Shultz said the United States acted against Libya “because appeasement of aggressors does not pay.”

An ‘Unfortunate Byproduct’

And when a reporter in London asked how the raid could be called a success when “women and children were killed,” Shultz said: “Sometimes, of course, when civilians put themselves in a military place, they open themselves to this kind of unfortunate byproduct.”

The Administration clearly was stung by the international criticism of the air raid. But officials sought to put the situation in the most favorable light.

Reagan, in remarks at a signing ceremony for a proclamation designating May 1 as “Law Day,” looked only at the bright side of the diplomatic picture when he remarked:

“Our allies who cooperated with us in this action, especially those who share our common law heritage, can be proud that they stood for freedom and right, that as free people they haven’t let themselves be cowed by threats and violence. They have earned the lasting respect and friendship of the American people.”

One Fits Description

Reagan did not name any countries, but Britain is the only one that fits his description. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher authorized the use of American F-111 fighter-bombers based in Britain to attack Tripoli. But other North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies were critical of the raid, and France and Spain had implicitly refused permission for the 18 F-111s to fly over their territory on the way to the target.

The President said the two airmen presumed to have been killed in the one F-111 missing from the raid are “heroes of our hearts, and each of us today owes a piece of our freedom to their noble effort.” The two, both Air Force captains, are Fernando Ribas-Dominicci, the pilot, and Paul F. Lorence, the weapons officer.

White House Press Secretary Larry Speakes named Japan, Jordan, Israel and Singapore as nations that either supported the U.S. attack or expressed understanding of it. The inclusion of Jordan was curious because it has been critical of the raid in its public statements.

Cancellation of Meeting

Kalb, consulting position papers prepared for the briefing, sought to blame Moscow for the chill in U.S.-Soviet relations that followed the raid on Libya. His comments came 24 hours after the Soviets had canceled a scheduled meeting between Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze to discuss plans for the next U.S.-Soviet summit meeting.

“If they do not wish to meet, so be it,” Kalb said. “But the problems are still there.” He accused Moscow of delaying the start of the dialogue that Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev agreed on during their summit meeting in Geneva last November.

“They (the Soviets) have wasted six months since the summit,” Kalb said.

Shultz, in his telecast to Europe, added: “The need for (U.S.-Soviet) discussion and the need for efforts at negotiations are there. The United States is prepared to proceed. What the conclusions of the Soviet Union will be remain to be seen.”

Cause of Friction

Gorbachev may have scored propaganda points in Europe by making the U.S. bombing raid--already unpopular with large segments of the European public--the cause of renewed friction in East-West relations. Most European nations react with nervousness to chills in the Washington-Moscow relationship.

U.S. officials were surprised by the tone of the Soviet reaction because Georgy A. Arbatov, one of Moscow’s top America-watchers, pointedly told interviewers on U.S. television last week that the Soviet Union does not have a mutual defense treaty with Libya. It was understood that Soviet diplomats also led U.S. officials to believe in private conversation that Moscow’s reaction would be mild.

‘A Pretty Big Box’

A senior White House official said Wednesday: “The Soviets have put themselves into a pretty big box. Now they have to find a way to do that (arrange the next Reagan-Gorbachev meeting) without disappointing the clients they are trying to please.”

Meanwhile, the Administration sought to soften the impression left by Reagan’s own comments that the United States would respond with massive military force to any future Libyan-backed terrorism.

One official, who asked not to be named, said, “We’re going to take our time to make assessments, to respond where it will be appropriate, where it will have results, where it will do the most good.”