Subject: Reagan States U. N. Is a 'Better Place,' Urges Talks Against Chemical Warfare -- --   By Frederick Kempe and Robert S. Greenberger Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
Date: Published: 9/27/88 64 lines
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    Reagan States U. N. Is a 'Better Place,'
    Urges Talks Against Chemical Warfare
    ----  
    By Frederick Kempe and Robert S. Greenberger
    Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal

    UNITED NATIONS -- President Reagan, for years a harsh
 critic of the United Nations, said the recent successes and
 budget reforms of the international body have made it "a
 better place than it was eight years ago."
    In his farewell address to the General Assembly, Mr. 
 Reagan reserved his most passionate language to urge the U. N. 
 to fight "the terror" of chemical warfare.  Citing the use of
 chemical weapons in the Iran-Iraq war, he called upon the
 U. N. to convene a conference to reverse the "serious erosion"
 of a 1925 treaty banning use of such weapons.  White House
 spokesman Marlin Fitzwater later said the administration
 would like to hold a meeting before the end of Mr. Reagan's
 term in January.
    In his speech, Mr. Reagan warned that the recent use of
 poison gas, coming as the world is "diminishing the awful
 cloud of nuclear terror," threatens "the moral and legal
 strictures that have held these weapons in check since World
 War I.  "
    The president avoided what would have been a harsh
 reception at the U. N. by agreeing earlier this month to
 release $467 million that the U. S. owes the body.  Delegates
 nevertheless gave him only polite applause during a 36-minute
 address that generally praised the U. N. for recent
 breakthroughs in peace-making and for budget reforms.
    The U. N. this year helped negotiate peace agreements aimed
 at ending wars in Afghanistan and the western Sahara, and
 between Iran and Iraq.  It also is helping mediate disputes in
 southern Africa, Cambodia and Cyprus.  "We salute you for
 those accomplishments," Mr. Reagan said to U. N. Secretary
 General Javier Perez de Cuellar.
    In addition, Mr. Reagan noted, the U. N. has cut personnel
 and established spending priorities.
    In the past, Mr. Reagan has preferred unilateral action
 over multinational efforts, but in yesterday's speech, he
 called for a larger role for institutions like the U. N. He
 said the U. N. should expand its work to blot out the
 "scourge" of terrorism and hostage-taking, to fight the AIDS
 crisis and to stop drug traffickers.
    The apparent softening in Mr. Reagan's attitude toward the
 U. N. parallels an easing in his hard-line stance toward the
 Soviet Union.  But it could cause some embarrassment for his
 vice president, Republican presidential candidate George
 Bush.  Citing his own experience as U. S. ambassador to the
 U. N. during the Nixon administration, Mr. Bush frequently
 scoffs at his opponent, Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis,
 for preferring multilateral solutions to international
 problems.

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