Plea Reflects Longtime Political Device

President Reagan presented himself Wednesday night as the man who turned around “years of declining defense spending” only to find himself doing battle with those who would force the nation to accept “reckless, dangerous and wrong” reductions in the Pentagon budget.

At the same time, Reagan’s rhetorically powerful plea represented a time-honored political device: casting the nation’s defense record in a light far less favorable to his predecessors and thus more favorable to him. “Our modernization program--the MX, the Trident submarine, the B-1 and Stealth bombers--represents the first significant improvement in America’s strategic deterrent in 20 years,” he declared.

Increased at Steady Pace

But Reagan’s pitch for a renewed surge in military spending came against a background of defense budgets that have increased at a nearly steady pace since the middle of the Jimmy Carter Administration. His defense budgets grew each year--trimmed only slightly by Congress--until the Gramm-Rudman budget-balancing legislation forced the first decrease in Pentagon funding during his Administration.

Reagan and his senior national security aides argue that the $311.6-billion Pentagon budget that he has requested for next year is needed to maintain the military buildup fueled by a five-year, $1.3-trillion budget--a spending plan intended to overcome what they describe as a “decade of neglect.”

But, with the exception of the B-1 bomber and the multibillion-dollar program of research for a “Star Wars” space-based missile defense system, much of the strategic buildup that has blossomed during the Reagan Administration--including the MX missile, air-launched cruise missiles, Trident submarines and top-secret work on the Stealth bomber--grew from seeds planted by Reagan’s predecessors. And, in his final long-range budget for what turned out to be the first five years of the Reagan Administration, Carter projected a spending plan costing nearly $1.3 trillion.

“We need to remember where America was five years ago,” the President said Wednesday. “. . . It was not just years of declining defense spending, but a crisis in recruitment and retention and the outright cancellation of programs vital to our security.”

Indeed, the number of military recruits with high school diplomas has increased, as has the size of the nation’s military force, since Reagan took office, but only one major program--the B-1--was canceled by Carter.

Aware of Need

Even officials in the Caspar W. Weinberger Pentagon acknowledge that their predecessors were aware of the need to boost defense spending after the reductions that followed the Vietnam War. One senior aide, speaking on the condition that he not be identified, said: “If you want to make the case that this Administration made few innovations, you could probably do that.”

From start to finish, a weapons program generally takes at least 10 years to complete, if it encounters no stumbling blocks. Thus, many of the weapons that the Pentagon has begun to deploy were advancing from drawing boards to early stages of development even as Reagan was attacking Carter’s defense program during the 1980 election campaign.

“In the history of this department, there are very few dramatic weapons initiatives that barrel ahead under any one administration,” the Pentagon official said.

As an example, he pointed to the Stealth bomber. It was Carter, under pressure from Reagan, who disclosed during the summer of 1980 that highly secret work was being carried out to develop an advanced technology bomber that would use “stealth” technology to evade Soviet radar.

Shortly after Reagan took office, he submitted a revised federal budget that provided an increase of about $80 billion over Carter’s budget projections for fiscal 1981 and 1982.

Decreased Slightly

Carter’s first two Pentagon budgets--setting forth spending priorities--decreased slightly although spending itself continued to climb. But by fiscal 1980, which began one year before the election, the budget curve, too, began moving up, and it took a dramatic 12.7% jump the next year--during Carter’s final months in office.

Acknowledging, if only in passing, the turnaround that occurred in the defense budget under Carter, Reagan said: “Our defense problems five years ago were immense, and drastic action was required. Even my predecessor in this office recognized that and projected sizable increases in defense spending.”