He Also Wants to Dispel His ‘Sinister’ Image : Reagan’s Goal in Moscow: Better Ties

WASHINGTON —  With completion of a treaty reducing long-range nuclear missiles no longer in the cards, White House officials say that President Reagan hopes to use the Moscow summit to further U.S.-Soviet relations in general and to dispel the “sinister” image that some Soviets have of him.

The officials, who at one time had held out hope that a strategic arms agreement could be completed in time for signing in Moscow, have dramatically lowered expectations and now say that no major agreement of any kind is expected to be reached at the five-day summit, which begins May 29.

Both President Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan have signed off on the summit schedule, Tom Griscom, White House communications director, said Monday. And Griscom, who has directed U.S. plans for the summit, said that Mrs. Reagan requested no changes in the schedule submitted to her.

The First Lady has played a heavy hand in arranging the President’s past schedules, including last December’s Washington summit with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, according to former Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan. In a new book, Regan wrote that Mrs. Reagan relied heavily on a San Francisco astrologer’s advice in deciding the timing of many presidential events, including the signing of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Gorbachev at the Washington summit at 2 p.m. on Dec. 8, 1987.

Griscom said that Nancy Reagan “probably has the same kind of impact that she’s always had” on the President’s scheduling and that she was given the schedule for the Moscow trip both because she has a protective interest in her husband and because she is accompanying him to Moscow and is scheduled to make a side trip to Leningrad during the meetings.

“If you look at the Moscow schedule,” Griscom said, “you’re looking at the person who’s responsible right here. If something goes bad, it is me. And I accept that responsibility and understand that.

“But it’s probably like my wife--or anybody else’s wife--you listen. I mean, I listen to my wife and you make decisions and judgments because she is concerned, and I think it’s the same situation here, that she has a legitimate concern for the President and his well-being.”

Soviets Asked Changes

Only two changes were made in the schedule worked out by the White House, Griscom said, and they were in response to requests from the Soviets. The original schedule called for no Reagan-Gorbachev meeting on Sunday, May 29, the day of the President’s arrival, he said, but a “a substantive meeting” was added for that afternoon at the Soviets’ request.

Also at the Soviets request, “a more informal setting” was arranged for a meeting between the Reagans and Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, on the evening of June 1, when they attend a special ballet presentation from a variety of works at the Bolshoi Theater.

Griscom said there is little likelihood of any major new proposals being submitted by either side at the summit but that the visit of such a conservative President to Moscow sends “a strong message by itself” of serious U.S. intent to improve relations with the Soviet Union.

Further, he said, Reagan has been portrayed in the Soviet Union “as a sort of sinister figure,” and the President’s scheduled meetings with Soviet citizens will afford him an opportunity to dispel that image and to explain how an actor could be elected President in the United States.

He said that he expects Reagan to have a strong impact on Soviet thinking when he meets informally with Soviet writers, artists and film makers and later when he delivers a lecture at Moscow University.

“The chance for this President to go into the Soviet Union and to go out and meet with Soviet citizens in their environment, rather than put them into something that we might construct for him,” Griscom said, “. . . shows the level of confidence the President has to be able to carry his message forward.”

The White House is hopeful that the Senate will ratify the INF treaty before Reagan leaves for Moscow so he and Gorbachev can cite it as a completed agreement at the summit, according to Griscom. He said the Administration, in pushing for ratification, will try to provide satisfactory answers to remaining questions about the treaty on Capitol Hill during the next two weeks.