Decks cleared for N-arms freeze plea

Press, 18 March 1983, Page 8

Decks cleared for N-arms freeze plea

NZPA-Heuter Washington

The House of Representatives has cleared the way for likely approval of a resolution calling for a United States-Soviet nuclear weapons freeze, but not until next week.

Congressmen rejected efforts yesterday to exempt President Ronald Reagan's nuclear build-up from the proposed freeze, and to make the freeze only an option.

But then the House became bogged down in amendments and delaying tactics. Congressional leaders suddenly postponed final action until next week, possibly Monday. Supporters of the freeze said that the resolution had shown that Americans wanted the nuclear arms race stopped, and then reversed.

Michael Barnes (Democrat), said: “It expresses concern that we are on a headlong race toward destruction if we don’t find a way out of it.” But opponents echoed Mr

Reagan's position that the resolution would put the Kremlin in a position of nuclear superiority and remove any Soviet incentive to reduce atomic weapons.

Mr Reagan said earlier this week that approval of the resolution would make arms control progress difficult if not impossible. An effort by opponents to give Mr Reagan the choice of negotiating either the freeze or his own proposal for nuclear reductions was narrowly defeated by 215 votes to 209.

The House rejected by 226-195 votes an amendment that would have exempted from the freeze Mr Reagan’s build-up of MX nuclear missiles, Bl bombers, and other weapons he says are needed to match the Soviet nuclear arsenal and deter war. The amendment was offered by Samuel Stratton (Democrat), who said that without it the freeze would cripple the American deterrent in the next few years. But in an often angry debate, supporters of the freeze said that United

States-Soviet forces were already equal, and that Mr Reagan’s build-up would turn into a threat of aggression.

“If you want to build the MX, the Trident (sub-marine-fired missile), and all the other first-strike weapons, that’s fine,” Edward Markey (Democrat), told Mr Reagan’s supporters. “We don’t want to build them.”

The resolution declares that the aim of arms talks in Geneva should be first to reach an immediate mutual and verifiable freeze on testing, production and deployment of nuclear weapons, and then negotiate nuclear reductions.

But it is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled Senate, although 34 of the 100 Senators support it. Even if it does, Mr Reagan will use his veto.

But House approval would be the biggest victory so far for the nuclear freeze movement that emerged in Europe in 1979 and gained widespread support in the United States last year. In a related development,

the Dutch Prime Minister, Mr Ruud Lubbers, said after a meeting with Mr Reagan that he believed the President was flexible on the Geneva talks on mediumrange missiles in Europe. Mr Lubbers and other West European leaders have urged Mr Reagan to compromise On his so-called “zero option” proposal to cancel deployment of new American missiles in Europe if all Soviet missiles are withdrawn. Mr Lubbers said that Mr Reagan had not abandoned the zero option, but gave a strong impression that he was interested in working out something fruitful. Meanwhile, the Warsaw Pact and its closest allies have again warned Western Europe of the grave dangers it would face if Ameri-can-made medium-range nuclear missiles are deployed on its territory later this year. The warning came in a communique issued after a meeting in Moscow of central committee secretaries representing Communist parties from 11 countries.