Star Turn for the Gipper

By Ann Blackman

Ronald Reagan and the MX missile, the political equivalent of Yul Brynner and The King and I, played another engagement last week, and the staging was as impressive as ever. Olive-drab Army buses wound down Pennsylvania Avenue, ferrying more than 100 members of Congress to the White House for a last- minute patriotic pitch from the Gipper. Chief Arms Control Negotiator Max Kampelman made a special guest appearance, jetting home from the Geneva arms talks to add diplomatic luster to Reagan's argument that a vote in the House against the MX would weaken America's bargaining position with the Soviets. Backstage, top Cabinet officials gave briefings to press Reagan's case to release $1.5 billion for a second batch of 21 missiles.

The elaborate White House choreography worked, as it had in the Senate the previous week, when lawmakers handed Reagan a 55-to-45 victory. Led by Wisconsin Democrat Les Aspin, the Armed Services Committee chairman, who drew hisses and boos when he defied his party's leadership and defended the MX, the House gave Reagan slimmer but significant margins in the back-to-back votes (219 to 213 on Tuesday, 217 to 210 on Thursday) needed to free the MX funds. The outcome was clearly influenced by Democrats' reluctance to be seen as "soft on defense." Said California's Tony Coelho, chairman of the Democratic congressional campaign committee: "The only concern of those who are switching (votes to support the MX) is that the President will point a finger at them."

Opponents of the missile argued that the MX is too expensive, vulnerable to Soviet attack and likely to upset the nuclear balance between the superpowers. Some Democrats who voted for the missile hope that by letting Reagan take the MX to the bargaining table, they can force him into serious negotiations ; with the Soviets. Said Representative Norman Dicks of Washington: "We want to keep President Reagan's feet to the fire and give him no excuse."

Reagan's case for the long-range missile centered on his conviction that the U.S. must bargain with Moscow from a position of strength. "The Soviets aren't going to compromise out of the goodness of their hearts," Reagan told visiting lawmakers, "but only if they calculate that an agreement is in their immediate self-interest."

Kampelman, a politically savvy Democrat, endured his negotiator-turned- lobbyis t status without complaint. He shuttled between 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and Capitol Hill, met privately with House Speaker Tip O'Neill of Massachusetts, an MX opponent, and coordinated strategy with Minority Leader Robert Michel of Illinois over a tuna-fish sandwich. He lectured House members on the folly of giving away bargaining tools to the Soviets: "As they enjoy the apple that falls from the tree that they did not have to pay for, they quite understandably wonder what other fruit will fall from that tree that they do not have to pay for."

The Kremlin predictably took a dim view of developments on Capitol Hill. "One gets the impression," wrote Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev to a West German peace group, ". . . that they need these (arms) talks as a screen for carrying through their military programs. Appropriations of millions of dollars are being pushed through for the manufacture of new batches of first- strike MX missiles."

White House aides hailed the latest MX vote as a signal success. A loss, they said, would have put a dent into Reagan's mandate and given Congress a psychological edge in the months ahead. For their part, the lawmakers insist that the MX vote will not put them at a disadvantage in coming battles. Said Democrat Leon Panetta of California: "By putting that much emphasis on this issue, the Administration undermined others. This may prove to be a Pyrrhic victory for them."

Somewhat paradoxically, one area where the Administration could be vulnerable is on the MX. Later this year Congress will be asked to approve $4 billion for 48 more MX missiles as part of Reagan's fiscal-1986 defense budget. After the House vote, several prominent Democratic Senators announced a plan to cap the number of MX missiles in the silos at 40. This would more than halve the Administration's requested allotment.

Many lawmakers want to make substantial cuts in Reagan's request for an almost 6% real increase in defense spending. "The Pentagon's position," said Aspin, "has eroded dramatically." Agreed Republican Congressman Silvio Conte of Massachusetts: "There's a strong feeling out there for a freeze across the board." In a speech last week at St. John's University in New York City, Reagan indicated that he is "willing to consider" cuts as long as U.S. security is not threatened. The Administration is hoping to force Congress to slash specific programs rather than impose a percentage reduction in military outlays; that way, the lawmakers would face political heat for trimming back weapons systems that produce jobs back home. But the tactic could backfire: one choice target for congressional budget cutters is Reagan's beloved Star Wars program, for which he has requested $3.7 billion next year.

As another showdown looms, White House aides acknowledge that they are in deep trouble in their drive to persuade Congress to provide $14 million in aid to the Nicaraguan contras. Their script calls for the President to go all out for the contras, whom he has dubbed freedom fighters, in the same way he did for the MX. "It's tough," said one aide. Then referring to the MX vote, he added, "But so was this. Go back and look where we were ten weeks ago on this one."

The trouper in the White House is playing one scene at a time, hoping to put together a string of successes like the one last week. "This was the first real test as to whether it's a healthy or a lame duck," said White House Congressional Liaison W. Dennis Thomas. "And this bird flew."

With reporting by Sam Allis and Barrett Seaman/Washington