Still No Soviet Apology for Latest Fracas in East Germany, Weinberger Reports

Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger presided at a posthumous promotion ceremony Thursday for a U.S. Army officer slain last March by a Soviet soldier in East Germany, and said afterward that Moscow has still not apologized for the latest U.S.-Soviet encounter there.

Weinberger also endorsed an aide’s suggestion, in response to Soviet efforts to acquire sophisticated Western technology that can be applied to weaponry, that the number of Soviet citizens allowed in the United States should be reduced.

The secretary, appearing before reporters at the Pentagon for the second consecutive day, continued to focus on U.S.-Soviet relations, a topic high on his agenda as the Administration prepares for President Reagan’s meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Geneva on Nov. 19-20.

Weinberger, who disclosed Sunday that a team from the U.S. Military Liaison Mission in East Germany had been detained by Soviet soldiers on Sept. 7, differed with State Department officials who had sought to tone down his earlier remarks and to minimize the incident.

‘Wishful Thinking’

Asked whether the Soviets had apologized, Weinberger replied, “Not at all.” Reminded that there have been reports that they had done so, he said, “I don’t know where those stories started to emerge, except probably wishful thinking on some people’s part.”

Earlier, Weinberger gave a posthumous promotion to Maj. Arthur D. Nicholson Jr., who was killed in March while on a reconnaissance mission in East Germany. Nicholson, who was advanced to the rank of lieutenant colonel, was a member of the U.S. military liaison team assigned to monitor Soviet military activities in East Germany. An agreement entered into after World War II provides for such monitoring.

“His outrageous murder really testifies to the ruthlessness of the adversaries we face,” Weinberger said at the ceremony, which was attended by Nicholson’s widow and daughter.

In the latest incident, according to official accounts, an Army vehicle was stalled near a Soviet installation and then became entangled in barbed wire.

“When you have a stopped truck . . . and a truck of the Soviet mission approaches at very high speed and hits the American truck, or grazes, or bumps, or rams, but comes in contact with it and damages the paint, then you do have a question” of whether it is intentional, Weinberger said. “I don’t think it could be any other way.”

And he added, “I also think driver training is clearly indicated.”

Weinberger offered support for a suggestion made by Richard N. Perle, assistant secretary of defense for international security policy, that the United States “would benefit by enormously reducing the number of Soviet officials in this country.”

The secretary said that a “reduction in numbers . . . would be a useful start” and added: “We have a very large number of Soviets, not only here, but in many other countries, far out of proportion to the reciprocal numbers. The Soviets don’t send people to countries like the United States unless they are fully equipped, fully trained and either part of KGB (the Soviet intelligence agency) or might just as well be.”

539 Soviets at U.N.

By State Department count, 214 Americans are employed at U.S. diplomatic missions in Moscow and Leningrad, and there are 24 American businessmen and 38 journalists living in Moscow. Soviet diplomatic installations in Washington and San Francisco are staffed by 320 Soviet citizens, while there are 539 Soviets at U.N. headquarters in New York. About 50 Soviet trade representatives are in the United States, along with 40 journalists.

Asked how he would reduce the number of Soviet citizens in this country, Weinberger replied: “There are diplomatic ways of doing that. That’s not my department.”