Soviets Urge U.S. to Affirm ABM Treaty : Gorbachev Letter to Scientists’ Group Also Denies Violations

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Friday invited the United States to strengthen a “key link” in arms control efforts by reaffirming the 1972 treaty limiting anti-ballistic missile defenses.

Gorbachev, in a letter to a group of American scientists, also denied U.S. charges that the Soviet Union is violating the treaty by constructing a large system against the ABMs.

The Soviet Union, he said, “unswervingly observes the spirit and letter of that document of paramount importance.”

Shortly after the official news agency Tass made the letter public, however, a Defense Department official renewed accusations of Soviet breach of the agreement.

‘Unmistakable’ Violation

Frank Gaffney, a deputy assistant secretary of defense, was quoted by news agencies as saying in Stockholm that a Soviet radar site at Krasnoyarsk was the “most unmistakable” violation of the 1972 accord. The United States considers Krasnoyarsk--because of its site, orientation and capability--to be the key component of a second Soviet ABM system, barred by the 1972 treaty, which limits each nation to a single such system.

Some American officials have said that the anti-ballistic missile treaty may have to be revised, rather than reaffirmed, if U.S. scientists succeed in developing a missile defense system. However, Moscow has resisted any effort to amend the agreement.

Gorbachev said that the 1972 agreement is the key to nuclear arms reduction. He charged that President Reagan’s “Star Wars” initiative, a program of research for a space-based missile defense system, would inevitably destroy the ABM accord.

‘Strengthening Trust’

“Strategic stability and trust would, no doubt, be strengthened if the United States agreed together with the U.S.S.R. in a binding form to reaffirm commitment to the regime of the treaty on the limitation of anti-ballistic missile systems, a treaty of unlimited duration,” he said.

The Kremlin leader’s remarks were made in a letter to the Union of Concerned Scientists, which had written to him and to Reagan, urging that space weapons be banned.

“This problem requires a bold approach,” Gorbachev said in agreeing with the views of the scientists, who generally adopt a liberal approach, one stressing disarmament and understanding between East and West.

He continued, “Hardly applicable in this question are the standards of yesterday, narrow notions of one-sided benefits and advantages, and illusory ones, too.

“What is essential now, as never before, is a far-sighted policy based on the understanding of realities and the dangers we shall inevitably encounter tomorrow, if today, those who can and must make the only right decision evade the responsibility which rests with them,” Gorbachev added.

Propaganda Ploy Seen

Western diplomats viewed Gorbachev’s letter as an attempt to seize the propaganda initiative in the months leading to the Soviet-American summit meeting in Geneva this November.

The Reagan Administration’s position is that the 1972 ABM treaty is unenforceable and that there should be discussions about how to change it to keep pace with fast-moving technological advances.

Reagan has said that the development of a defense against nuclear missile attacks would open the way for radical reductions in offensive weapons.

But Soviet officials have contended that deployment of space-based missile destroyers would allow the United States to develop the ability to deliver a knockout first-strike attack without fear of retaliation.

The issue is the major roadblock at the slow-moving nuclear arms control talks under way in Geneva between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Remarks on ASATs

On a related matter, Gorbachev said in his letter that the Soviet Union has voluntarily refrained from placing anti-satellite weapons in outer space for the last two years.

It will continue to do so, he wrote, as long as other nations do the same.

“The Soviet Union,” Gorbachev said, “is not developing attack space weapons or a large-scale ABM system, just as it is not laying the foundation for such a defense.

“The practical fulfillment of the task of preventing an arms race in space and terminating it on Earth is possible, given the political will and sincere desire of both sides,” he said. “The Soviet Union has such a desire and such a will.”