TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRESIDENT'S NEWS CONFERENCE ON FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC MATTERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400380116-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 8, 2004
• Sequence Number: 116
• Publication Date: May 1, 1979
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2005/01/12 : CIA-RDP88-01315R00040031'1~
ARTICLE 9P'EAB.
p- PAGE
ITEW YORK TIMES
1 MAY 1979
Transcript of the President'
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and Domestic . mestic''
EXCERP2S :
'
as
3. Vex ifying ArrA est' I 4. Abiding by Arms fact
Q. Mr. President, can you provide Mr President, you've been quoted
any more enlightenment on our ability by historian James MacGregor Burns
Administration verify SALT and are those within the as saying that even if the SALT treaty
from onto who
four years say this away, ability are e i is rejected by.the Senate that you would
say from one
abide by its terms. I would like to know
wrong? they
A. Well the Secretary of Defense how far you would go in this. Would you
A. statement concerning instance abide by the limitations on
That made a to specifically oh h year.. the range of land-and-sea based cruise
was s applying missiles and more generally don't you
rapidly we could overcome the e setback setback think abiding by a treaty that's been re-
moniting from the loss of our Irme the Senate would amount to
..,nn;rr.r;na ctatinns_ But in thesa same jected by
o a
-"
Ones statement he replied t
question that as soon as the SALT
treaty is effective, when it's signed and
ratified, we would be able to verify the
treaty adetjuatgly.
There is no doubt in my mind that.- I
that is the case. I would. not sign nor
present to the Congress or to the Ameri-
can people any treaty which in my
opinion could not be adequately ven-
fied from the first day it's effective.
Many of the concerns that we have re-
late to very complicated questions. For
instance, we can't guarantee that
everytime a test missile is launched by
the Soviet Union that every aspect of
that flight can be completely compre-
hended by us.
.. There are limits on what we can do.
But as the Secretary of Defense has tes-
tified publicly, in order for the Soviets
?e .;e
el
ki
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nif c nt new
v
op any
n
g
h
i
e
t
ld h
ave se
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ave
missile they wou
thing like 20 to 50 test launchings. And nuclear confrontation in the absence of
high a treaty. But I still believe that we will
during that process, it?is a very h
likelihood that we ourselves would be havethetreaty. e
'able to detect any violation of the SALT
treaty.
There's another factor that must be = considered. If the only purpose of the
Soviet Union in the long, tedious negoti-
a.tions of a SALT treaty is to have a
..document that they can violate, and
that the only purpose in existence is to
violate the SALT treaty, would make..
our problem much worse.
But there is an element of rationality
and stability because the Soviets know
that if we ever detect any violation of
tf" SALT agreement;'that that would-
be a basis on which to reject the treaty
min Its-entirety..Therewould be a possi-:.
ble termination of the good relationship
between our country and the Soviet
Union on which detente is based, and it
might very well escalate into a nuclear
confrontation. So the consequences
would be very severe and that is an.
Views Confer
10. Turner Role; Oil Profit
Q. Mr. President,'-on Capitol Hill
today a number of Republican senators
who say that they are uncommitted on
SALT '7, were critical of Admiral Turn-
er, the director of the intelligence.
They claimed that he has been making.
speeches around the country in support
of the treaty and they feel that he .
should not get involved in what may be. come' a partisan.issue. What isyour un-
derstanding of Admiral Turner's role? . f
Is he an advocate of SALT 2 and it so is
--
tax was first mentioned, when I started
talking about it back in April, there was
an almost unanimous opinion ex-
pressed on Capitol Hill that no windfall
profits tax could be passed. And those
of you in the media reported these com-
ments. And now some of -those very
same people who said that. it was not
possible for a windfall profits tax to be
passed at all are now quarrelling about
whether we should take from the oil.
companies 29 cents out of each dollar or
25 cents or 24 cents or whatever. But I
think we've made great progress in the.
last two weeks in selling to the Ameri-
can public and therefore to.the Con-
gress. the need for the windfall profits ?
tax just because I have spoken out
strongly and fervently and with deep
feeling on the subject. So we're making
good progress. And I'm eager to work
with the Congress'on how to make my
pro,,os31s even better..
additional constraint imposed upon the
Soviet Union and a us that W=
p ?~~q@
my statement thepl ase 2005/01/12 : CIA-RDP88-01315R000400380116-2
as for that very important factor, we
can still verify tor our complete satis-
fnr"rinn t SAT.T agreement through
A. I have no inclination to minimize I :
A. No, I've never asked him to make
the importance of the constitutional i , .any such speech. I think as is the case
processes whereby treaties are negoti- with almost every official in the Fed-
ated by the executive and ratified or re- ' erxl Government, in the ? executive
jected by the Senate. My belief is that branch at least, we are called upon to
the treaty will be sound enough when Make speeches on matters of great mo-
it's completely scrutinized by the pub- meat and importance to the people.
lie and the Senate that it will be rati- . Even in the case of the C.I.A. director
fied. If because of some factor that I responsible for intelligence, he's not
cannot anticipate the treaty is not rati- confined just to expressing an opinion
fied, then I would do all I could, tnoni- on collection techniques, most of which
toring very closely Soviet activities to , are. highly secret in any case. I don't
comply with the. basic -agreements , know what comments Admiral Turner
reached. has made. I happen to know that he's
It would certainly not be proper for basically in favor of the SALT treaty.
me if the treaty were not ratified to im- I might say to get back to the previ-
mediately launch our country into a ous question about the Congress's atti-
massive nuclear arms race and the tude toward the windfall profits tax:
constraints placed on me and the Soviet 'It's ncit an easy question to address, but
Union, monitored very carefully by we've made a lot of progress in the last
each other, would be a basis on which to two weeks. When the windfall profits