NBC NEWS SPECIAL REPORT: PRESIDENTIAL NEWS CONFERENCE (Part 2 of 2)
NBC ID: ARIDMEEQ4E | Production Unit: Specials | Media Type: Aired Show | Media ID: S860812 | Air Date(s): 08/12/1986 | Event Date(s): 08/12/1986Beschreibung
Event Date(s): 08/12/1986 | Event Location(s): New York City; Lake Michigan; Chicago, Illinois | Description: (Continuation) The President. Oh, I would have no hesitation, whatsoever, in a summit meeting to discuss this with the General Secretary. I think it's a wall that never should have been built. And I happen to believe that at the time that they started to put it up - and they started with wire, barbed wire, instead of a wall - that if the United States had taken the action it should have - because that was a total violation of the Four Powers agreement for Berlin - that if we'd gone in there and knocked down that wire then, I don't think there'd be a wall today. Because I don't think they wanted to start a war over that. Q. How realistic is it, though? Some critics have suggested that it raises false hopes for those beyond the wall. The President. Oh, I don't think anyone is intending to do anything of that kind. But we know that they've done a kind of a lucrative business in letting people come through that wall, if the price was right, and rejoin their families and friends in West Germany. And isn't it strange that all of these situations where other people build walls to keep an enemy out, and there's only one part of the world and one philosophy where they have to build walls to keep their people in. Maybe they're going to recognize that there is something wrong with that soon. Q. Mr. President, I'd like to go back to your first answer on South Africa. You said that the only blacks who want sanctions are the radical blacks, the ones who want upheaval. One of the blacks who very much is in favor of sanctions and is very critical of your policy is Desmond Tutu, who is a bishop of the church and the Nobel Peace Prize winner. Are you saying that he's one of those radical blacks who wants upheaval? The President. No, but I don't think he's right in what he's advocating now. But, Chris [Chris Wallace, NBC News], I guess that was careless of me. I was talking in terms of the various groupings, political alliances and so forth, of the people in the black community there. Of course there are individuals that may be all over, individuals that think that's the thing to do, that there's no other answer now except just punish, never mind trying to find a solution to the problem. And so, I agree that was careless of me. No, I was not linking him in with the particular group that I had in mind. Q. If I might follow up, sir: You also, in your first answer, talked about a possible meeting - Western governments invited to talk to the South African Government and to blacks. Could you tell us a little bit more about where that stands? And also where does it stand now, the question of your appointing an Ambassador to South Africa and also the possibility of a special envoy? The President. Well, we have made no decision yet on the Ambassador, nor have we made up our minds whether we want to send an envoy or not. But at the risk of violating something that I said, or I thought that I wouldn't do, I am going to say one thing about Mr. Botha's speech today. Now, I'm not going to comment generally or take questions on that because I haven't heard it, and I'm not going to comment until I hear the whole thing. But I did, thanks to the media, hear at least one line of his. And this line - he spoke of the idea of having the leaders of West Germany, France, United Kingdom, and the United States to some meetings. Well, this is what we ourselves have been talking about, and among ourselves, these same leaders - is if we could be of help. This is a sovereign nation. You can't go in and dictate to them and tell them how they must run their country. But if we could be of help in bringing together various groupings there to discuss with the Government as to how something could be planned to bring along an end to apartheid earlier, this we would be pleased to do. Well, now, as I say, I can't comment because I haven't heard or read, and I will get his transcript and read his speech. But he did - and that was quoted on the air - he did say that he was thinking of such a meeting. Q. Would you go to that kind of a summit, sir? The President. I've got to go back to what? Q. Would you go to that kind of a summit meeting? The President. I don't know whether it would require us or whether it could be done with foreign ministers or not. We'd have to see the details. I have to go over to this side. If you've noticed, I'm going from Washington to Chicago. Q. Mr. President, Basil Talbott from the Chicago Sun Times. Two followers of Lyndon LaRouche won upset victories on the Democratic ticket here and sent Adlai Stevenson off into a third party. Paul Kirk has referred to this group as ``freakish, fascist, fanatic.'' Adlai Stevenson calls them neo-Fascists. And I was wondering: Your CIA top officials have met with Lyndon LaRouche, and a spokesman confirmed that a couple of years ago. Do you think that Lyndon LaRouche is within the pale, or do you agree with the Democrats that he is an extremist? The President. Well, let me say I'm not here to do battle with him, but I don't believe I could find myself in agreement with him on just about everything that he stands for. And my suggestion to those people - since he chose the Democratic ticket to invade - is: Play it safe, and vote Republican. Andrea [Andrea Mitchell, NBC News]? Q. Thank you, Mr. President. When you spoke earlier of that one group that you said wants disorder and is radical - just to clear up the point - you seemed to be referring to the African National Congress, the very group that Secretary of State Shultz says should be negotiated with, that the Commonwealths feel should be part of the solution. Now, are you saying that they should not be among the groups that ought to be included in some sort of dialog, even though they seem to be very representative of a large number of people in South Africa? The President. Andrea, the African National Congress started out some years ago, and there was no question about its being a solid organization. But in 1921, in South Africa, the Communist Party was formed. And some years later the Communist Party of South Africa joined with, and just moved into, the African National Congress. And it is that element; I don't say the entire ANC, no. And George Shultz has talked with them. We know that there are still sound people. We've had enough experience in our own country with so-called Communist fronts to know that you can have an organization with some well meaning and fine people, but you have an element in there that has its own agenda. And this is what's happened with the ANC. And right now, the ANC in exile, the ones we're hearing from, that are making the statements, are the members of that African Communist Party. So, no, if you could do business with and separate out and get the solid citizens in the ANC to come forward on their own, that's just fine. Q. Let me understand, also, the logic of what you said tonight about sanctions. The frontline states, the neighboring states, have said that they, even though hurt by sanctions, would welcome it if it came from Western countries. Yet President Botha has imposed sanctions upon them. You've not criticized him for that, you personally, and at the same time this country has imposed sanctions on Nicaragua and Poland. Are you saying that what those regimes do to their people is worse than what the South African regime has done to the residents of that country? The President. No, with regard to Poland, if you would check the sanctions that we finally felt had to be applied there, we applied sanctions that we were sure - and we sought Polish advice on this - that would not harm the citizens of Poland, that there would be restrictions on the Government that was at that time denying Lech Walesa and the union and so forth, the Solidarity movement, its rights. With regard to Nicaragua, there is no comparison between South Africa and Nicaragua. In South Africa you're talking about a country - yes, we disagree and find repugnant some of the practices of their government, but they're not seeking to impose their government on other surrounding countries. Nicaragua is a totalitarian, Communist State. It is a sort of a vassal of the Soviet Union. And it has made plain in utterance after utterance, even since the Somoza revolution, that their revolution is not going to be confined to their borders, that they intend to spread that revolution throughout Latin America. So, what we're talking about is helping the people of Nicaragua. Just recently, the last newspaper, La Prensa, was silenced; two religious leaders were ejected from the country for criticizing some facets of the government. And we simply feel that the revolution against Somoza, which declared in writing to the Organization of American States what their goals were: a pluralistic society, a democracy, free speech, freedom of press, free labor unions, and all of this - they pledged was what they were trying to achieve. Then one element in the revolution threw out the others that had fought beside them, and who largely make up the contras, took over, seized power at the point of a gun. And we simply believe that the people of Nicaragua have got a right to try for their original goals. Q. Mr. President, thank you. Chuck Goudie from WLS in Chicago. After Reverend Lawrence Martin Jenco was released by his captors in Beirut a few weeks ago, he met with you and said he delivered a message from his captors. What was in that message, specifically, and how have you been using that to obtain the release of the other Americans held in Lebanon? The President. Well, contrary to what the tone of some people is, we've been trying relentlessly to get those hostages back from the first day of their captivity. First, we had to try and find out where they were. We still don't really know that. They're moved frequently. And we're going to keep on trying. We have had some broken hearts. Many times that we thought we were on the track and that we were almost going to be able to set a day when they would be free, and then it would disappear into the sand and we'd have to start on another path. We're going to continue until we get them back. But he did bring some oral messages - well, I say messages because I didn't hear the one that was for the Pope - but he did to us. And I feel that it was told to me in confidence, and I have a feeling that if I should go public with some of the things in that I might do harm to our efforts to try and get them back. So, I'm not going to comment on that. Q. Sir, if I can follow on that: Can you say tonight that we are any closer to seeing the other Americans held there being freed as Father Jenco was? The President. My hesitance about that - it's just what I've said before: that there have been times when, if you'd asked me that question, I would have been tempted to say, yes, it's imminent. And then, as I say, it disappeared, and we had to find another track and start over. And we've known encouragement and discouragement. And I can't comment. We must get them back, and we're going to keep on doing everything we can and trying to get them back. But I don't want to say anything that will endanger them. Q. Mr. President, the comparison you discussed before between Nicaragua and South Africa seems to agitate many of your critics who note the eloquence with which you address the issue of freedom fighting in Nicaragua but seem to lose that eloquence in South Africa. Do you honestly believe that the South African Government treats its black majority worse than the Sandinista regime, Marxist though it may be, treats Nicaraguan citizens inside Nicaragua, keeping in mind the number of black South Africans who have died over the past year alone, the amount of the cross-border incursions the South African Government has conducted against the neighboring states, et cetera, et al? The President. I think that I have condemned publicly all of those things that you're talking about. On the other hand, I also realize the complexity of the South Africa problem, because much of that death that you spoke of is being inflicted by blacks on blacks because of their own tribal separations. And all of this must be taken into account in finding a system of government. But also I am quoting now one of those black leaders who wrote a most statesmanlike and eloquent letter to me just recently, and he pointed out that while, yes, they were impatient, and, yes, we hope that we can make progress faster, he pointed out he did not disapprove of Botha. He pointed out what he has accomplished and the things that he has done. And he also made a point about what would happen if those in our country who want us to have the American companies that are over there doing business withdraw. And he pointed out that those companies - some 200 of them - following the Sullivan principles, in which there is the kind of treatment that we would recognize as being decent in this country with regard to their employees and outside the actual employment, the things they've tried to do to improve life for the families on the outside, that this would all be lost if some people had their way with sanctions and so forth and with forcing us to withdraw. But then he also pointed out that because of the Sullivan principles that were used by these American companies a great many South African companies had taken the cue from that and adopted on their own principles that were similar to that - having to do with promotion, having to do with hiring, having to do with ignoring racial difference with regard to promotion to supervisory positions and all. Now, this is all going on. Well, nothing like that is going on in Nicaragua, not when a priest stands up and speaks to his congregation and because he says some things that - well, for example, protesting the fact that the Government has shut down on the church's newspaper and shut down on the church's radio station, seized their printing presses so that they can't even have church bulletins anymore - and then he's thrown out of the country for having said that. That's a little different than what was going on in South Africa. Q. If I could follow up, sir: Twice now, black candidates to become your new Ambassador to South Africa seemed, for one reason or another, to have fallen by the wayside. Are you having difficulty in finding a black Ambassador to South Africa because you can find no qualified black who agrees with your policy now? The President. No, has nothing to do with that. And the one that fell by the wayside - let me tell you that I regret that more than anything. I have the greatest respect and admiration for that man. And what happened was some possible connection with a legal action involving some institutions - he's in a public relations field at this moment - and that he, for one thing, he very probably would not be able to leave and have the time to go there as this comes to a head. Now - Q. Mr. President, Ron Magers of Channel 5 from Chicago. About 3 years ago, at an editors' lunch at the White House, you said that you thought a great deal of the problem with homeless people in America was mental health patients who had fallen through the cracks. The President. Yes. Q. Can you tell me if you still recognize that as a problem? And what you've done to patch those cracks up in 3 years? The President. Well, what has happened, as you know, under the guise of civil rights, there were rulings that people who did not represent a threat of violence to themselves or anyone else could not be committed to an institution. And, thus, a great many people were turned loose from institutions who did have mental problems, whether it was retardation or whatever, and there was no place for them at the local level and, in many instances, either no family or no family that wanted them. And there they are in the streets. And they present a problem, also, in the sense that in many instances, having walked away from an institution, they turn away from many efforts that help, because they feel that it might get them back - institutionalized. Now, I don't know what percentage of all of the people that are out there fall into that particular situation, but I do know that - from my experience as Governor - that we tried at the State level to subsidize local treatment centers, where they could live at home and be - with the development now of new drugs and so forth, drugs in the good sense - that they could be outpatients. And this was coming along, although in some instances counties, just even with the State subsidy, would not take this up. But this is a problem in which, unless they represent a threat to someone else - to put them in an institution where they would receive the best of care and certainly have fine quarters and be fed and all. Q. To follow up on that, let me share with you a letter I received today from a family that does have someone in the family who is mentally ill and what they say about it. They say first they suffered through emptying and closing of hospitals. They say, then, the dumping of their relatives onto the streets. Then they had the withdrawal of funds from community-based programs, they say. They say in Illinois, because of a withdrawal of $18 million, Governor Thompson has cut from mental health programs, they're now faced with the stoppage of research. What would you tell these people? The President. Well, I would look into all the charges they've made there to find out if all of these things are true and whether the financial things that they mention there are the reason for those cases. I would think that Governor Thompson would like to see that letter very much. Q. Thank you, Mr. President. Q. One more from the local side, Mr. President, please. The President. I was supposed to be going back and forth here. Q. Thank you, Mr. President. The President. Oh, well, he just settled the whole argument there. Q. One more from - The President. No, I can't really take any after - it is traditional that when the man in the aisle tells me the time is up I can't take any more. No, I'd be breaking all the rules here, and then I'd never be able to live with that side of the aisle when I got them back in Washington. Thank you all very much. I'm sorry I couldn't get to more of you. TA; UNABLE TO ESTABLISH ALL IDS Producers: NBC
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