U.S. Invites Allies to Join ‘Star Wars’ Research

Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger on Tuesday formally invited key allies to join American research on space weapons to shield the Atlantic Alliance from a Soviet missile attack.

In a letter to North Atlantic Treaty Organization defense ministers and to the governments of Japan, Australia and Israel, Weinberger asked for a response within two months.

He also sought to reassure the allies that any U.S. space-based defense, if it were erected, would not leave Western Europe vulnerable to Soviet missiles.

Some European governments have raised doubts in recent weeks about the feasibility and wisdom of the U.S. plan, commonly called the “Star Wars” system.

The defense ministers, however, expressed full support for the research phase of the program, while adding that it is too early to judge whether such a missile defense should eventually be deployed, according to West German and other officials.

Shooting Incident

Weinberger also gave the NATO defense ministers an account of the circumstances under which a U.S. Army officer was shot and killed Sunday by a Soviet soldier in East Germany, according to Michael I. Burch, a spokesman for the Defense Department.

A key feature of the NATO defense ministers meeting, which is scheduled to end today, was a report by U.S. Gen. Bernard W. Rogers, the supreme commander of allied forces in Europe.

Rogers presented a detailed plan for implementing an October, 1983, NATO decision to withdraw 1,400 nuclear warheads from NATO’s short-range arsenal.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition that he not be identified, told reporters that the Rogers plan, which had been kept secret, called for reducing the number of short-range nuclear weapons in Europe to a little under 4,600 by the end of 1988.

Burch said that Rogers’ recommendations included removal of the entire NATO arsenal of atomic demolition mines.