Defense Cuts Seen as Peril to Soviet Pact : Weinberger Pins Negotiation of Arms Accord on Strength

Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, girding for a long fight with Congress, said today the Pentagon cannot sustain additional budget cuts if the United States is to successfully negotiate an arms control agreement with the Soviet Union.

In a wide-ranging interview with wire service reporters, Weinberger defended the Reagan Administration’s emphasis on conducting military exercises in Central America; said that military aid to U.S. allies is an essential way of “protecting ourselves,” and said he has no regrets about his harsh criticism of the press for disclosing details of the space shuttle’s military cargo.

Weinberger declined to predict how Congress will treat the Pentagon’s $277.5-billion fiscal 1986 spending plan.

He said he has stepped up his public defense of the plan because “there does seem to be a substantial misunderstanding with respect to whether or not the defense budget has been cut enough or at all, or whether we’ve made any contribution to the deficit reduction program.”

Weinberger made a speech in defense of his agency’s budget Monday night on Cable News Network--an unusual thing for a Cabinet member to do.

In that speech, he said it would be “impossible to gain” an arms control agreement with the Soviets “if we falter now in our commitment to a stronger defense.”

Cites Previous Cuts

Today, he said the Pentagon already has absorbed its share of cuts.

“I have to say that we have made a major contribution,” Weinberger said, noting the fiscal 1986 proposal was substantially below the projections made by President Reagan just a year ago and even below the target accepted by Congress last fall.

“Whatever figure we submit, Congress is always going to say, ‘It’s not enough,’ ” he added. “I have no doubt whatever that if we cut another $100 billion out of the defense budget, there would be a number of people who would say this is not enough.

“But we have to look, finally, not at percentages and not at comparisons with other spending, but at whether it is enough from the point of view of the size of the threat we face.”

Turning to Central America, Weinberger said he considers it just as essential for the United States to conduct military exercises in that region as it is to conduct exercises with NATO allies in Europe.

“Military exercises are not a prelude to armed combat or anything of that kind,” he said.

On the subject of military secrecy, Weinberger said he didn’t think his criticism of the Washington Post last month for writing about a secret spy satellite carried into space by the shuttle was too harsh. But he also agreed that little was accomplished by the Air Force holding a press briefing before the shuttle mission to warn about disclosures.