Soviet Plan for Nuclear Cuts Put on Table in Geneva

After a weekend barrage of criticism from Washington, the Soviet Union on Monday formally placed on the bargaining table its proposal to reduce nuclear arsenals by up to 50%.

The presentation took place in a brief meeting of U.S. and Soviet arms control negotiators at the American delegation’s headquarters. A second meeting was scheduled for today at the Soviet Mission to determine whether the proposal provides the basis for negotiations.

Viktor P. Karpov, the chief Soviet negotiator, told the press on arriving at the U.S. headquarters Monday: “I can only say that the proposals we are going to start introducing today are directed at drastic solutions on all the problems we are negotiating on. Let’s hope it will permit progress, but it takes two to talk.”

Talks Last 40 Minutes

Terry Shroeder, spokesman for the U.S. delegation, would say only that the meeting lasted for 40 minutes.

In the past, Moscow has insisted that any new arms control agreement be conditioned on the United States abandoning its “Star Wars” space-based defense research program. Secretary of State George P. Shultz said Sunday that the new proposal represents a change in the Soviet position, but there has been no indication that the Soviets have taken a different stand on “Star Wars.”

Shultz said that President Reagan intends to go ahead with plans to develop the “Star Wars” program, formally known as the Strategic Defense Initiative. He added that “any deal on research would be ridiculous because there would be absolutely no way to verify whether or not it’s being observed.”

An outline of the Soviet proposal was contained in a letter from Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev that was handed to Reagan at the White House last Thursday by Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze.

The United States has made it clear that it welcomes a firm Soviet offer. But, although details have not been made public, much of the comment from Washington on the Soviet proposal has been negative.

Kenneth L. Adelman, the director of arms control and disarmament, called the Soviet proposal a “mixed bag” that may have some positive elements but is in most respects “blatantly one-sided.”

Robert C. McFarlane, the White House national security adviser, said the proposal contains “ambiguities masked in appealing headlines,” and Richard N. Perle, an assistant secretary of defense, called it “a throwback to the 1970s in its attempt to define reductions in a self-serving way.”

Despite the Soviet offer of a 50% cut in nuclear weapons, the United States is concerned that such a move would leave Moscow with a heavy advantage in land-based intercontinental missiles. According to the Arms Control Assn., the Soviet Union has 6,420 ICBM warheads to 2,120 for the United States.

But Max M. Kampelman, the chief American negotiator in Geneva, took care to avoid making any prejudgment. Talking with newsmen while waiting for Karpov to arrive, Kampelman said the Soviet proposals will be studied “with great interest.”

No Comment on Specifics

“We began here in March,” he said, “and this is only our third round, but it is time that we hope to hear what they have to say in a serious manner. We’ve been waiting for counterproposals for some time, and I hope this time we will receive them. I don’t want to comment on specifics until we have had a chance to study proposals which we have not yet received.”

Asked if he sees the Soviet proposal as part of a propaganda buildup for Gorbachev’s visit with President Francois Mitterrand in France later this week, Kampelman said: “I don’t know, and it doesn’t disturb us. We want to get a serious counteroffer and we hope we’ll get it.”

Whatever the details of the Soviet proposal, it has been made clear that there will be two large hurdles in any negotiations:

--The question of linkage between reductions in weapons and the “Star Wars” program of space weapons.

--The question of verifying compliance with any agreement on lower ceilings for missiles and other weapons.