Weinberger Says Soviets Lied on Shooting Incident : Warning Issued to Moscow

Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger said today that the Soviets are “lying,” and the White House said Moscow must respond to the death of Maj. Arthur D. Nicholson Jr. “in a responsible and reciprocal fashion” or face “adverse consequences.”

Spokesman Larry Speakes made the statement after the Soviet Union, disputing the State Department’s account, denied that it had promised never to shoot intruders on espionage missions against Soviet troops in East Germany.

Weinberger, interviewed on CBS television, said: “They’re just lying, that’s all. Their general, who is their authorized agent, made that pledge to our general.”

In a statement issued here, the Soviets on Monday called Nicholson’s death “regrettable” but said they had not “renounced the right to take legitimate steps” to prevent a recurrence. They also denied ever agreeing to consider compensation for the slaying. (Story on Page 6.)

Apology, Compensation

Speakes said that the expression of regret by the Soviets is “not enough” and that the United States believes the Soviets should apologize and agree to pay compensation.

“Continued Soviet refusal to address this matter in a responsible and reciprocal fashion cannot fail to have adverse consequences,” he said.

Speakes declined to elaborate or to say whether the incident could affect prospects for a summit meeting between President Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev. Reagan has said that the shooting of Nicholson made him want such a meeting even more than before.

Weinberger told a CBS reporter as he left his home today that the Soviets had agreed to renounce force at a meeting of U.S. and Soviet military commanders. “If they want to repudiate it they should say so,” Weinberger said.

Found Taking Photos

Nicholson was shot by a Soviet sentry who discovered him taking photographs near a Soviet tank shed. After a meeting of the top U.S. and Soviet military officers in Potsdam, East Germany, the State Department announced last Tuesday that the Soviets had agreed not to permit “use of force or weapons” against American military liaison personnel.

The Soviet statement on Monday, signed by Boris Malakhov, a second secretary in the Soviet Embassy, said “one cannot help but be puzzled” by the State Department account.

It went on to accuse the department of presenting the results of the meeting of the military officers “in a distorted light” and said U.S. authorities were entirely responsible for Nicholson’s death.

The State Department stood by its account of the April 12 meeting between Gen. Glenn K. Otis, commander of U.S. Army forces in Europe, and Gen. Mikhail S. Zaitsev, the commander of Soviet forces in East Germany.

‘Misunderstanding’ Doubted

At the Pentagon, spokesman Michael I. Burch said Otis “is not in the habit of misunderstanding.”

Last week, while visiting Moscow as part of a congressional delegation, Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) quoted the new Soviet leader as saying that a change in the ground rules governing U.S. and Soviet liaison officers in Germany “could well be the outcome” of Nicholson’s death and that “it should not happen again.”

The statement, however, strongly implied that the rules would not be changed.

It said “the entire responsibility for what happened rests wholly on the appropriate U.S. authorities. As is known, the U.S. side itself does not deny that Maj. Arthur Nicholson and his staff sergeant were carrying out an intelligence mission.”