The World - News from April 1, 1986

Revised U.S. intelligence figures on Soviet military growth will not cause President Reagan to modify his request for $313 billion in defense spending, a senior Administration official said. The CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency reported to Congress that Soviet military spending growth was 2% a year since 1974 and not the 4% previously estimated. The official said the gist of the intelligence report was that Soviet defense spending growth is “flattening, but flattening at a very high rate . . . considerably ahead of us.”