U.S. catching up—secretary

Press, 11 March 1983, Page 8

U.S. catching up—secretary

NZPA Washington The United States Secretary of Defence. Mr Caspar Weinberger, asserted yesterday that, despite the steady expansion of Soviet military power. "I think we have begun to catch up." Mr Weinberger said during a news conference: “We've improved our readiness and we have laid the foundation, although it takes longer than I would like, to regain our strategic modernisation and strength.” In seeking to justify the Reagan Administration’s proposals for a large military budget, Mr Weinberger said: "But I think it’s absolutely necessary that we continue because it will take us a good five years to regain the strategic and conventional strength and readiness that I think we need to be able to assure the American people

that we still have a verycredible and effective deterrent.” As he spoke, the Pentagon (Defence Department) made public a new edition of a 107page booklet entitled, “Soviet Military Power,” that outlined advances in Soviet forces . over the last 18 months. It was also intended to justify the Administration's military budget. The Administration's effort drew equally quick replies from Democrats. Senator Gary Hart, of Colorado, a member -of the Armed Services Committee, asserted that the Pentagon report "as usual, focused only on Soviet strengths and not on any weakness or problems.” Senator Edward Kennedy, another member of ,the Armed Services Committee, said: “Secretary Weinberger’s exercise in excessive rhetoric and exaggeration, timed to coincide with the defence budget and nuclear freeze votes, is classic scaremongering.” In his news conference Mr

Weinberger said that, “it’s very hard to get inside the Soviet mind,” but pointed to what he called the entirely offensive character of Russian military expansion as evidence that Moscow sought world domination. The new element in Mr Weinberger’s presentation was his remarks on catching up. He said that that was “an important, and a welcome and a ratifying statement to be able to make.” Moreover, the booklet on Soviet military power, while crammed with reports on Soviet weapons, also recorded slowdowns in military production. Mr Weinberger disclosed that the Soviet Union had deployed 351 SS2O mediumrange nuclear missiles, up from 250 about 18 months ago and from 333 on March 1, the date of information in the booklet. Between 250 and 275 of those missiles, he said,

were aimed at Europe, the rest at Asia. Mr Reagan has offered, in what is known as the “zero option,” to forgo deployment of Pershing II medium-range missiles and ground-launched cruise missiles in Europe beginning in December if the Soviet Union dismantles the SS2Os and similar older missiles. Mr Weinberger, asked why the Administration had stopped reporting on the total number of nuclear warheads ready for use by the United States and the Soviet Union, asserted: “It is not a very accurate measure because it doesn’t take into account the age, the accuracy or the yield.” Pentagon officials, - in response to inquiries, said that in 1979 the United States

had 9200 warheads compared with 5000 for the Soviet Union. They said that the United States had 9000 today, 200 having been retired for age, compared with 8850 for the Soviet Union. President Ronald Reagan said that the study supported his determination to build up American defences. The Soviet Union said that the Pentagon report was a mixture of lies and distortions and said that deployment of new American missiles in Europe would add impetus to the. arms race. The Soviet news agency, Tass, in a series of hardhitting commentaries accused the American Administration of trying to mislead the public with false threats and misinterpretations of the Conservative win in the West German General

Election. A Tass news analyst, Yuri Borisov, said: “Certain quarters in the West, above all in the United States... are now trying to present the results of last Sunday’s election... very nearly as the consent of the population to deploying new U.S. medium-range nuclear missiles.” . The agency’s political analyst warned the West against speculation that Moscow would be cowed into making unwarranted concessions in the Geneva arms talks because of events in Bonn. • “Such speculations are absolutely groundless,” Tass said. The Soviet Union has openly attacked the- West German Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, for his declared

support for American plans to deploy new missiles in Europe if the Geneva talks fail. “It would be naive to think that the Soviet Union will not take appropriate measures towards preventing the disruption of the existing mili-tary-strategic balance in Europe. But it will then exist at a much higher level," Tass warned. In yet a third commentary Tass said that the Pentagon report was an attempt to manufacture a false sense of threat to scare and confuse the American public into accepting the Reagan Administration's vast increases in military expenditure. The report was described as “a. mass of doctored data, full of shamelessly manipulated facts and groundless contentions.”