Reagan Says Soviets Won’t ‘Run U.S. Out’ of Moscow : Tells Shultz to Put Security at Top of Agenda at Talks

WASHINGTON —  President Reagan said today that he might order the new, unfinished $191-million U.S. Embassy in Moscow torn down if it cannot be secured against Soviet eavesdropping but that Americans would not be “run out of town” by spies.

Reagan also said that Soviet diplomats will not be allowed into their new office tower on a Washington hilltop until the Americans occupy their new U.S. facility in Moscow.

Appearing on short notice in the White House briefing room, Reagan said that Secretary of State George P. Shultz will go to Moscow for arms control talks scheduled to start Monday, despite the belief that the Soviets had planted listening devices in the embassy--and in the replacement under construction next door.

Reagan said he was asking intelligence advisory boards to “evaluate the condition of our new building and ascertain whether it will ever be secure or whether it may be necessary to destroy and rebuild it.

“The United States will not occupy our new embassy building in Moscow unless and until I can be assured that it is safe to move into a secure embassy environment,” Reagan said.

“Likewise, the Soviet Union will not be allowed to occupy their new facility in Washington until a simultaneous move by both countries, if possible,” he said.

Major Agenda Item

Asked whether Shultz would fly to Moscow as planned, Reagan said, “I don’t think it is good for us to be be run out of town” by Soviet spying.

“I’ve instructed the secretary of state to make embassy security a major agenda item during his upcoming talks in Moscow. And I have asked former Defense Secretary Mel Laird to chair an assessment review panel,” he said.

Reagan spoke after State Department spokesman Charles Redman announced that the U.S. government had formally accused the Soviet Union of “a breach of the norms of diplomatic conduct” by infiltrating the embassy with alleged spies and bugging devices.

The protest was filed in Moscow by Ambassador Jack Matlock and announced at the State Department. “I don’t think there are any doubts what our concerns are,” Redman said.

Advice About New Building

Reagan also told reporters that he is asking his Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board to consider whether the new building, already several years behind schedule, should be torn down because it was riddled with Soviet listening devices.

That review, and one by the Laird panel, are due in 90 days, Reagan said.

Reporters asked Reagan whether the disclosures of bugging and the seduction of Marine guards by Soviet women would change American relations with the Soviet Union.

“It doesn’t surprise me a bit,” he said. “No, I haven’t changed my view of the Soviet Union.”

Redman, at the State Department, also said about nine Americans who had replaced Soviet workers at the embassy since October had been recalled, some possibly for fraternizing despite warnings against it.

Dispensed With Soviet Workers

Ironically, the Reagan Administration last year decided under pressure from Congress as a security precaution to dispense with Soviet workers and replace them with American technicians, clerks, drivers and plumbers.

They were hired by Pacific Architects & Engineers, a Los Angeles firm, and sent to Moscow after screening and a week’s training in Washington. So far, about 36 Americans have been sent to Moscow, with 65 to be placed there eventually.

The spokesman said some of those brought home “couldn’t adjust to life” in Moscow or had performed poorly in their jobs.

Referring to the fact that about one-fourth of the workers had been recalled, Redman said, “You can see from the statistics I have given you it’s difficult to adjust to life in Moscow.”