Haig says Pact push predictable

Press, 18 February 1977, Page 5

Haig says Pact push predictable

NZPA-Reuter Ramstein, West Germany The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s supreme commander in Europe. General Alexander Haig, has described reports that War- | saw Pact forces could overrun West Germans and reach the Rhine within 48 hours as exaggerated. In a speech to United States air base commanders in Europe, General Haig said the Soviet Union had been building up its armed forces, which were now fundamentally offensive in character, at an alarming rate. But he said that the We-t em defensive alliance "should not succumb to exaggerated scenarios which do not stand up to the facts.” I General Haig explained at a press conference after- | wards that this referred 'partly to Western reports that Communist troops could reach the Rhine within two I days in an attack w'ith conventional weapons. I He told the base com- | manders, who are attending a conference in Ramstein on | combat readiness, that it was unrealistic to believe that the Warsaw Pact was capable of such a lightning strike. This w’as because the Western Powers, particularly the United States, had sophisticated electronic devices such as spy satellites which could pick up early signs of any offensive.