Nitze Calls for Patience and Unity on Arms

Paul H. Nitze, the U.S. chief arms control adviser, called Thursday for Western Europe to display unity and patience toward U.S.-Soviet nuclear arms negotiations amid signs of growing restiveness among U.S. allies and lack of early movement at the Geneva talks.

The West must show sufficient will, he told the International Institute for Strategic Studies here, for the Soviets to recognize “that their (military) buildup cannot and will not be translated into exploitable military or political advantage.”

“If it turns out that we have to go for a few more years without a formal agreement limiting offensive nuclear weapons, that is undesirable, but let us not panic,” he said. “We have been living with that situation for some years.”

Secretary of State George P. Shultz struck the same note Thursday in a speech to the Austin (Tex.) Council on Foreign Relations.

“The Soviets will be watching closely for signs of differences and disarray in the West,” Shultz said. “If they see such signs, they will only be encouraged to step up their political warfare while prolonging negotiations and waiting for unilateral concessions.”

Defense ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization earlier this week unanimously approved U.S. research on space-based defenses, nicknamed “Star Wars.” But other allied officials have expressed fears that if the system became operational, Western Europe would be vulnerable to Soviet attack.

Those fears, observers said, might signal the allies’ intention to pressure the Reagan Administration to trade “Star Wars,” if necessary, for Soviet concessions on offensive arms limitations.

Howe’s Criticism

Two weeks ago, British Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe questioned if the Strategic Defense Initiative system, envisioned as destroying attacking missiles with lasers and other devices in space, would undercut the prime principle of Western defense: deterrence.

However, Nitze told the institute that the West’s policy of threatening a massive nuclear response in the event of a Soviet attack will continue “for many, many years.”

In his Texas speech, Shultz said the Administration hopes to talk seriously with the Soviets in Geneva about negotiating a transition from deterrence to greater reliance on defensive weapons.

“Thus far, the Soviets have not accepted the idea of such a cooperative transition,” he said. “This should neither surprise nor particularly dismay us. At this point the Soviets are still seeking to undermine our domestic and allied support for SDI research, while they proceed with their own efforts.

“As our research proceeds, and both nations thus gain a better sense of the future prospects . . . the Soviets should see the advantages of agreed ground rules to ensure that any phasing-in of defensive systems will be orderly, predictable and stabilizing. The alternative--an unconstrained environment--would be neither in their interest nor ours.”

Shultz said that if the Soviets turned down a negotiated transition, the United States might go ahead and deploy a defensive system unilaterally. “We don’t plan to give the Soviets a veto over our defensive programs,” he said.

Nitze made no direct reference to the pace of the Geneva talks, which began March 12. It is understood, however, that in the closed negotiating sessions, the Soviets are showing none of the eagerness for progress that they displayed publicly by declining to delay the talks for the funeral of Soviet President Konstantin U. Chernenko.