Build Peace on War Alliance, Gorbachev Says

Kremlin leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev saluted the Soviet Union’s World War II allies Thursday and said their alliance should be a model for cooperation to keep the peace today.

His conciliatory tone, however, contrasted with a backstage diplomatic tussle over whether the Western allies will take part in the huge celebration planned here next month to mark the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.

Senior Western diplomats have said they might boycott a military parade scheduled for Red Square on May 9 if the event takes on an anti-German--as opposed to an anti-Nazi--character.

Message to Veterans

Gorbachev’s salute was contained in a message to Soviet and American veterans gathered in Torgau on the Elbe River in East Germany to mark the 40th anniversary of the historic linkup of their armies.

“Our combat union that was born during the war years has demonstrated the potential of cooperation . . . for peace and a better future for humanity,” said the message, made public by the official Soviet news agency Tass.

“The handshake of the Soviet and American soldiers who met in the spring of 1945 on the Elbe River has been forever recorded in history as the symbol of hope and friendship,” Gorbachev said.

In Torgau, the U.S. and British governments boycotted ceremonies marking the linkup in protest against the fatal shooting last month of U.S. Army Maj. Arthur D. Nicholson Jr. by a Soviet sentry in East Germany.

Earlier Rhetoric

The friendly words in Gorbachev’s message contrasted with strong anti-American rhetoric contained in a speech he made Tuesday to the Central Committee of the Communist Party. In that speech, he accused the United States of striving for military domination of the world.

Western diplomats said they are concerned that Moscow’s 40th anniversary observances of V-E Day will reiterate the Kremlin assertion that the Soviet Union saved civilization from fascism in World War II and now must defend the world against “imperialism”--a code-word for the United States and its allies.