Soviet Attache Ousted in Reprisal for Officer Death

The United States ordered the expulsion Friday of the assistant military attache in the Soviet Embassy here in response to the “unacceptable position” taken by Moscow in the killing last month of U.S. Army Maj. Arthur D. Nicholson Jr. by a Soviet sentry in East Germany.

Assistant Secretary of State Richard R. Burt called in Oleg M. Sokolov, the Soviet charge d’affaires, to tell him that Lt. Col. Stanislav I. Gromov had been declared persona non grata and must leave the United States within seven days.

In expelling Gromov, the State Department followed the advice of the Pentagon, according to a senior State Department official who spoke on condition that he not be identified by name. Gromov had been “very active,” he said, declining to elaborate.

Burt read a statement in which the State Department said it objected particularly to the Soviet declaration last Monday that force could again be used against U.S. members of the military liaison group in East Germany to which Nicholson belonged, despite earlier Soviet assurances to the contrary.

The statement said that Burt “reiterated to Mr. Sokolov the United States’ abhorrence of the murder” of Nicholson March 24, demanded clarification of the Soviet position and insisted that the Soviet Union adhere to an agreement reached between Gens. Glenn K. Otis, U.S. Army commander in Europe, and Mikhail M. Zaitsev, Soviet Army commander in East Germany.

No Written Accord

The State Department has maintained that Zaitsev agreed to ban the use of force against Americans in the liaison mission when he met with Otis on April 12, but Soviet officials afterward denied that such an agreement was reached. The senior State Department official conceded that there is no written version of the accord.

The statement said that the United States still wants an apology from Moscow as well as compensation for Nicholson’s family. It added: “Gen. Otis will be pursuing with the Soviets his mandate for further discussions to prevent incidents of violence against our military liaison mission.”

Asked if he expects a similar expulsion of a U.S. diplomat from Moscow, the official responded: “We have told the Soviets we do not wish to get into a fruitless cycle of retaliation and counterretaliation. We have strongly urged that they need to understand the depth of concern by the United States over the murder of Maj. Nicholson.”

When a reporter observed that the Soviets must be adhering to the agreement because no incident has occurred in the month since the shooting, the official said, “The problem is that in their public statements they say they reserve the right to do the same again.”

He dismissed a report that quoted Zaitsev as asserting that Nicholson received immediate medical care after the shooting--although Nicholson’s driver said that no treatment was given Nicholson before he died about an hour after being shot. Nicholson’s companion, Sgt. Jesse G. Schatz, reported that Soviet troops prevented him from rendering medical aid for the mortally wounded major.

“Who do you believe?” the official snapped. “The sergeant on the scene or Gen. Zaitsev?”