 If I may start sir since Helen isn't here today I guess that makes me senior although I'll defer to Mr. President terrorism will be an important topic of the summit as I'm sure you know and of course it's been on the agenda for all of us in recent weeks. The Allies so far have been unwilling to go along with U.S. efforts to isolate Gaddafi or to use force against Libya. What do you expect to get out of them in Tokyo? Well I think there's an indication that our allies in those countries that are going to be represented there have been taking increasing action with regard to the people's councils there which is their term or the Libyan term for embassies and actually I hope that we can have a business like getting down to this problem and seeing what we can do together with regard to resolving it. One of the things is we do have now quite a good intelligence sharing relationship with them but to see if there's more that we could do about pooling our intelligence so that we can learn of intended targets and intervene, abort them. Last year as a result of what we've done so far we were able to abort 126 planned terrorist attacks and this action of ours was the result of intelligence information in which Libya had planned 35 different targets involving the countries that will be represented at the summit. The actions mainly taking place in those countries even though they were quite verbose in their ideas or their statements that Americans were their prime target but they would be finding Americans in those other countries so I'm not going there with the idea that we should get some grandiose statement I think we all know how we feel about terrorism I'm hopeful that we can sit down and work out what it is that we can do together to deal with this problem. Sir how do you explain given what you said about there being the primary targets most often how do you explain the reluctance of the other Western democracies to join you in your efforts? Well I don't I'll let them explain that but they do know the information for example France's expulsion of some of the Libyan representatives was because of one of those 35 targets that target was going to take place outside the American embassy there the weapons had already been distributed but the target was going to be the line of people that forms waiting to get into the embassy to get visas now those wouldn't be Americans Americans don't need a visa to come to the United States but Frenchman do and other immigrants who might be there of other countries and they took that action but this was I say this is a sample of the type of thing that was planned in advance and maybe it might be well right here to say that I noticed that the media is speculating great deal on would there be an upsurge because of the action we took the upsurge was planned before we took the action those 35 targets are evidence of that those were immediate things that that Libya Libya was ordering and supporting and being done you've spoken how frustrated you personally yet at the terrorism and how you punched many walls around here I don't see any holes could you give us an idea of what you might tell President Mitterrand or Prime Minister she rack about the France's refusal to let our planes at some risk cross French airspace well I think this is a subject that has to be discussed and we certainly will discuss it whatever the reason that they did not change and allow that kind of overflight I think it's something to be considered now and talked rationally between us as to what the effect might be now I happen to know that to our representatives abroad we've had General Waters most recently and we've had State Department representation over there talking to them and General Waters found that several of them were were reconsidering now with regard to that where it happened so swiftly that they didn't make a change in their policy but also we found that some of them were suggesting that not that the answer be nothing of that kind but that we look seriously at together real major action against Libya were you are you suggesting that to this day you don't know what caused that a decision by France no I don't I take it though from the tone of your answer you wouldn't be thinking of any kind of diplomatic or other type of penalty against France as some of the more strident commentators have suggested no we're we're going to the summit to see what we can work out together changing position and would be more willing now to take some major action military action against Libya is that what you said some others have suggested that this thing this type of action that we we had if we were going to resort to the to force that then perhaps it should be a wider based and a more all-out effort to change the Libyan policy now that when I say this has simply been in conversation with some of our representatives that have been over there and briefing them and in their talk I think it would be the kind of thing that they would want to talk about at the summit as to whether whether we had reached that point or not you think of the criticism that France has had in this country because of its decision not to allow the flight was justified in view that for instance when when there was these strikes against the French compound the Marines compound in Beirut the French did retaliate and the Americans did not so do you think this wave of criticism against France is justified in this case I think it is difficult to understand if we're all allies together and supposed to be sharing in the protection of all of our countries at one time to deny the right of our planes to fly over yes I have to criticize that I have to say there's I can't see any justification for it they had the evidence they themselves were taking actions such as sending diplomats home Libyan diplomats back to their expelling them from their country are they still invited to the Statue of Liberty ceremony I'm quite sure yes at this summit the allies are also likely to press you on another summit when you might meet Mr. Gorbachev will you tell him what will you tell him and do you think he's stalling I thought even in these somewhat angry statements that he's made recently he however indicated that or made no indication that he was planning any change away from the summit I thought he kind of indicated in the most recent remarks that he was expecting to be meeting in a summit pre-summit planning meeting which again sets back your yes table I guess so I'll do you think that's just you expect frankly I don't I don't understand it because he himself has recently made statements about the evils of terrorism and I would hate to think that he's being rather selective in it that it's he's only opposed terrorism if certain people are doing it but not if others are doing it did you discuss terrorism in any great detail at the last summit and if so what did you learn of his position then I can't you know I honestly can't remember whether that if it did come up it wasn't in a major discussion we were discussing more of the bilateral things between us and the elimination of mistrust and so forth I would think that this should be discussed we still see that tourists are afraid to travel to Europe there are barricades all over this city people generally are afraid couldn't want to terrorism has already won this war no no but I I can understand right now this is one of the reasons why I think that our allies will be very willing to talk with us because they have seen this attitude this reluctance in the part of people to travel and it must be of great concern to them no you terrorism hasn't succeeded terrorism will have succeeded when we decide that we shouldn't take any action against it now you mentioned a moment ago and I didn't get around to that about in Beirut and the assaults made upon the various armed forces that were there from the allies the British the French and ourselves you mentioned the French and us and them retaliating and us not retaliating I think there was a difference the difference in our case that was so frustrating was that ours was a suicide mission and those who had perpetrated it were gone there was no way to pin down who was responsible there are a number of terrorist groups in Europe they have their own the red brigades the Beidermeinhof gang in the Middle East we know that there are several different groups and it was we were doing everything we could and for quite a long period of time to try and pin down what was the source where did who was back of this we couldn't get the actual perpetrators they were gone because it was a suicide mission but to find who had sent them who had helped organize this and we had great difficulty in pinning that down and at times when we thought we had leads we found that they did not lead to a target that you could hit without simply taking out a great many innocent people president haven't you said about that that you did in fact I forget whether it was the marine barracks or the embassy but that you you did find a target and we're going to attack it we we finally quite some time later we finally were pretty sure that we had the locale the training ground where these terrorists had come from but again there was a great problem of collateral damage around it and in the meantime it is true with the Israeli staged an air raid air raid against that particular target it seems to me by the conversation we're having and that we're all talking about military action is it wrong that since the two raids on Libya the next step has to be military won't make a decision about that till we see what happens and what is necessary but I'd like to remind you we've done all the other things we tried not only diplomacy but then tried trade sanctions and so forth and the violence not only kept on but our intelligence revealed that it was being stepped up so we decided that they had to discover that there was a price for what they were doing just one more on the subject please you've spoken so often before the attack on Libya about how we would hold perpetrators responsible public opinion had been whipped up in favor of that do you feel at all in your decision-making process that you were bound to take some military action just because of the past years of increasing public further no we met and we discussed this at great length and we were all we truly had a consensus within the administration that we had no other choice that we had to let them know there was a price and we were very careful in the targets we picked out we I cannot tell you that it wasn't a bomb of ours misdirected that did the collateral damage to the innocent civilians there but I can't tell you either that it might not have been their own missiles because we were interfering with their ability to target their missiles on our craft they were firing their missiles just simply straight up and they were returning straight down and if you recall there was a photo widely publicized in this country of something lying in the street that's evidence of this in which they had claimed it was a part of one of the planes that they had you remember there was one place where Gaddafi said he'd shot down 20 planes well the M111 we only said 18 but what he was pointing out or what they were pointing out was a part of an airplane was the booster off one of their own anti-aircraft missiles which shows these things were coming back down so I believe before we just automatically assume that there was an accident in which one of our planes missed the target we have to accept that it also could have been damaged by their own descending missiles as a matter of fact we were so strict about collateral damage that we gave orders that any plane that had any difficulty coming in whether from clouds or smoke of previous explosions whatever it was going to interfere with their exact targeting they were to abort and six of the M111s or F111s I should say did and two of the naval planes off the carriers aborted their missions if it was one of our bombs I'm sorry about that in that missed target but again as I say there is just as much evidence on the side of it being their own missiles on that point you know the reports that Gaddafi's daughter daughter was killed and two sons were wounded was that intended or something you regret well something you regret anytime children or innocent people are wounded or killed hurt in anything of this kind on the other hand I was equally sorry about a little baby that was blown out the side of an airplane and fell 15,000 feet to its death along with his mother and grandmother I also feel badly about an 11 year old girl that was shot down in cold blood for simply standing in the airport in Rome I think that was one of the deeds that Mr. Gaddafi referred to as a noble deed you're getting back to the subject we were supposed to talk about good I prefer to put it that the yen has risen in value in comparison to the dollar we have the dollar with relation to our trading partners the mark and the frank and so forth and the pound and the yen this has been one of the great problems for us that's resulted in the increase of the trade imbalance that had made American products so expensive abroad but actually you have to say that their recoveries not Japan's they were doing all right but the other the European partners their their recoveries were not as great or as early as ours and so I think it is legitimate to say that their currency was undervalued as much as we could say that ours was overvalued and with the yen this is truly a great advantage because the biggest amount of our trade imbalances with Japan and I think that more than any restraints they had on imports the yen and its depreciated value was the biggest advantage that they had and because their products were that underpriced compared to ours this figure I don't know whether it has to change or not I believe this is supposed to be the highest value of the yen against the American dollar that we've ever known certainly I know it's true ever since from the half century from since World War two it's a this is the highest that has ever been this will be very definitely one of the one of the terms we're not only discussing with them a new GAT round the tariff treaties and so forth but also I think very definitely there will be a discussion on monetary policy and is there something that we can do to to stabilize it and quit having this volatility in the ups and downs point at which the yen for instance could get so strong against the dollar that it would reignite inflation here given America's love of Japanese products oh I would have a hard time believing that that could seriously affect our inflation rate which incidentally for the first quarter of this year has been running at an annual rate of 2.2 percent and that's the lowest it has been in many many years well well the last couple of the last couple of summits the difference was already there for example they were asking us about our policies that have created so many new jobs in our country and so we didn't we didn't gloat we just tried to be helpful in the monetary question you in your state of the union address you asked the Treasury to prepare a study to see if it would be useful to convene an international conference to reform the international monetary system do you have you seen this study is there do you think is such a conference would is needed now this is something I think we're at the point now of discussing with our allies whether we all feel is that that this could be helpful the Japanese are proposing to deal with their trade surplus with an even more fundamental revolution than the one that you proposed for this country in getting it out of its economic problems given the trouble you've had implementing your proposals are you prepared to wait for Japan to institute even more drastic measures no we've as I say we've at the ministerial level we've been continuing to meet with them and the Prime Minister has his political problems just as I do here he isn't free to suddenly issue edicts he has to get a the Japanese diet to go along with him and now this plan it hasn't been adopted by them as yet he favors it and this is a long-range plan to obey make a basic economic change their economy right now is geared toward providing great incentives for savings the part of the people lesser incentives for buying and they themselves this study that that you're referring to this study is one that suggests that they would be better off if they provided more incentives for consumption that are living and so forth for their people because they they don't have the real need in an investment way for the tremendous savings that that they have there well historically we had such a friendship with the Filipino people and we feel that this is something we want to continue and yes we we know they have great economic problems and right now I think our figure whether it can be augmented or not but our figure for this year is about 239 million dollars in in aid and we want to be helpful any international effort or in the American effort you're talking about in Tokyo I'm talking the summit in Tokyo with a with a international package for the Philippines is that in well whether it's a package or whether it's persuading other countries to participate and Japan has been a country that like ourselves has been greatly helpful of other economies and I think that Japan is is looking at what they can do with regard to the Philippines there's been some talk that Mrs. Reagan's separate schedule to Malaysia and Bangkok might be canceled in order for her to accompany you and this increased security around both of you is that to have been discussed in your family I have heard no suggestion of anything of that kind these far as I know her schedule is still on but if you're asking my concern or not I worry when she goes around the block president suggesting she stop this trip no I haven't I have confidence in those who are planning our security that if there was some a specific threat they would let me know in the last week we've been reading in the papers that Mr. Stockman says you're not particularly intellectual that Don Regan is a profoundly destructive influence on you and even Bud McFarland says that the disputes between Schultz and Weinberger have led to a paralysis and decision-making would you care to defend the way you you run the presidency against those attacks I'd rather not comment on that frankly I've seen and heard the statements and so forth and I did refer to it as fiction and I still feel it comes under that head you got a lot of play with it the first time you use that right you got a lot of play with it the first time you use that in your radio address Saturday as you have in several weeks in the past about decontrol of oil prices causing this dramatic decrease around the world how much of that domestic policy on your part has caused it or how much really has been OPEC's own internal problem of not being able to set production quotas isn't part of it really what's going on among OPEC yes I'm not the only thing that I'm saying about any hand that we had in this was our deregulation I think it was when we looked at what had been going on back here the oil lines out in the country and so forth and there was no question but that government regulations were imposing artificial restrictions on an industry and causing some of the problems and while everyone rushed into print to say that deregulating and as I recall I signed the order right after I'd been sworn in I think we stopped in a room in the Capitol and I signed the order for deregulation the all those statements that this was going to turn loose inflation that the prices were going to go up and we're going to penalize the poor for their heating oil and their gasoline and everything else almost immediately the prices started down and now this latest thing down I think is is the result of a lot of factors first of all conservation which reduced the the amount that was being used this was one factor but again it was the oil glut with the prices up where they were everybody rushed into production the the incentive to explore to find new oil just suddenly lit the old law of supply and demand and suddenly the demand wasn't as big as the supply so to keep their share of the market they began lowering prices pure capitalism at work that some of the domestic producers now in trouble brought it on themselves by over producing and over exploring or they went in the anticipation and spent money and borrowed money in the anticipation of of an ever-expanding price you remember that the talk was going around that while was going to be $40 a barrel and then found for example we are not using as much oil in the United States today as we were and in these recent years we also reduced the percentage that we had to import it's smaller and the second we've changed where we were importing it from from the OPEC nations the bulk of ours case started coming from Mexico the Caribbean Canada and so that this as I again as I say I think it's supply and demand and the one thing that we have to watch and this was the thing that caused the confusion the vice president spoke and he was talking the the truth and trying to call attention to one thing and then they would be in a position to start bringing the prices back back up we just wanted to warn against anyone attempting such a tactic terrorism that you wanted to work out a way that you and the allies could coordinate your efforts on this but you didn't expect anything grandiose but some it's always resulting in communicates and I think people are expecting that this one will result in a joint communique on terrorism very well but what I meant was we didn't want to just go there to get some great big declaration about the evils of terrorism and then think we done our duty we want to get down to the nitty gritty and get some agreements as to how we're going to deal with it is a political communique as it always is that's that will be the subject of it in your view oh no no I think any communique is going to touch on what the whole agenda would be yeah yeah this president what did Rick Dempsey mean when he said you called Gaddafi a name I was taken quite a backbite stop unless she's she decides to come to the ASEAN meeting instead of sending her for a minister have you suggested that that's up to them I think some countries will head heads and state their presence a lot of will be there I don't know whether others would be represented by ministers or not thank you thank you