New Push On by Pentagon to Wion Nerve Gas Approval : Production Blocked Since ’69

The Reagan Administration is boosting its request for chemical warfare funds, beginning what congressional aides expect will turn into a major campaign to win approval to produce nerve gas despite three years of congressional defeats.

The Pentagon, which was given a $1-billion chemical warfare budget for the current fiscal year, is seeking $1.4 billion for next year. But spending on actual chemicals to produce nerve gas is blocked, as it has been since 1969.

The military has been seeking approval for several years to replace aging, dangerous stocks of chemical weapons with new “binary” weapons that would not become lethal until two relatively harmless chemicals are mixed automatically in a shell or bomb just before reaching their targets.

Budget Asks $207 Million

Included in the Administration’s budget sent to Congress last week is a request for $207 million to cover research on modern chemical weapons, purchase of equipment and construction of a production site. Last year, the Administration unsuccessfully sought $136 million for similar efforts.

Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger and Gen. John W. Vessey Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have begun pressing Congress for the funds, and a Pentagon official said he expects Sen. Barry Goldwater, the new chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, to pursue the controversial proposal.

Soviets Aware of Gap

“We don’t have a good capability to retaliate with chemical weapons today and the Soviets know it,” Vessey told the Senate Budget Committee last week.

Supporters of nerve gas production concede that they face an uphill battle despite the departures from Congress of two leading opponents--former Rep. Ed Bethune (R-Ark.) and former Sen. Paul E. Tsongas (D-Mass.)

Last May, the House rejected a last-minute plea by President Reagan and refused for the third straight year to allow the Pentagon to buy the chemicals and other material needed to resume nerve gas production. The vote was 247 to 179.

A Pentagon official said that “well over 15 countries” have the capacity to use nerve gas weapons. The precise number is classified, he said.

‘Unacceptable Risk’

“If I were out there on the battlefield, I’d be facing what I consider an unacceptable risk,” said another Pentagon official, referring to the possible use of nerve gas by the Soviet Union.

The issue “carries a lot of emotional weight,” said a congressional staff member who has watched the fight over chemical weapons for several years. “A lot of people who are very pro-military will nonetheless vote ‘no’ to show some balance.”

Rep. William L. Dickinson of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, has led the fight in the past and will be interested in “making the same effort” this year, an aide said. “But a lot of times he doesn’t like to beat his head against a brick wall,” the aide added.

“It appears the Administration is really going to press for it. Every witness we’ve heard so far is jumping up and down” in favor of nerve gas production, Carl T. Bayer, a committee staff member, said. “Being a nonelection year, they might have some chance.”