Allies Will Be Expected to Pay Some Costs if They Take Part in ‘Star Wars’ Research

If any allied nations agree to participate in U.S. “Star Wars” research, they will be expected to pay part of the costs of the program, a senior State Department official said Wednesday.

“If they (allied governments) want to share in the benefits, clearly there will be some costs (to them),” Richard Burt, assistant secretary of state for European affairs, told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee. “The United States will not foot the (whole) bill. Just what the European contribution will be is unclear.”

The issue of sharing the costs of the five-year, $26-billion “Star Wars” research program is academic, so far, because no nation has yet agreed to participate. Burt said Britain and West Germany have expressed interest, while France, Denmark and Norway have made it clear they will not go along.

Neutralizing Missiles

Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger invited members of the Atlantic Alliance, plus Japan and Israel, to take part in the program, officially known as the Strategic Defense Initiative, which is intended to find a way to neutralize hostile nuclear missiles. Burt predicted that most countries will decide by the end of the year whether they want to be included.

If the research indicates that missile defense is possible, the ultimate cost of building the shield is likely to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars, and some estimates range as high as $1 trillion.

Although Burt sought to reassure committee members that European participants would not get a free ride, he said the United States does not really need the help either financially or technologically.

“It is attractive politically,” he said of allied participation--but he added that if the other nations opt out, “it would be their loss.”

Burt, Lantos in Dispute

The hearing was enlivened by a heated dispute between Burt and California Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), a subcommittee member, over President Reagan’s recent European trip, which Burt called “a clear success” and Lantos labeled “a new low in ineptitude and insensitivity.”

The lawmaker complained Reagan had “snubbed” former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt and said the President had been inept in his handling of a speech to the European Parliament at Strasbourg, France. He also bitterly assailed Reagan’s decision to lay a wreath at the Bitburg military cemetery, burial place of 49 members of Hitler’s Waffen SS.

“The original itinerary included a visit to Bitburg and no visit to a concentration camp,” Lantos said. “The visit to Bergen-Belsen (camp) was added as a clumsy attempt at balance.”

Burt replied: “Those are not the facts. It is not true that the President didn’t want to go to a concentration camp.”

Burt, who stormed out of a news briefing during the early stages of Reagan’s West German visit, refused to permit Lantos to interrupt one long response, telling the lawmaker: “I haven’t answered the question.” Later, Burt said: “I apologize to my friend Tom Lantos. I got a little heated there.”