Soviets Strike Back Aghain, Pull 260 Off Embassy Jobs : 5 Diplomats From U.S. Ordeered Out

The Soviet Union, in the fourth round of an escalating diplomatic war, retaliated today for Washington’s expulsion of 55 Soviet diplomats by expelling another five American diplomats and withdrawing all 260 Soviet employees from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and consulate in Leningrad.

“We aren’t going to allow 55 of our diplomats to be eliminated just like that,” Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev said on television after the expulsions were announced.

“They (U.S. officials) have taken action in recent days which to the normal human mind appear simply wild after such an important meeting on the level of the highest leadership of the two countries,” Gorbachev said, referring to the superpower summit in Iceland.

“Every time when there seems to be a little bit of light . . . there is a provocation which is aimed at trying to cut off any real kind of a conclusion.”

Gorbachev expressed bewilderment at U.S. moves that he said appear to undermine chances of superpower agreements on nuclear arms.

‘Trying to Destroy?’

“Where is the real face of the American Administration? Is it trying to destroy these attempts to get an agreement?”

Is it possible that “the President cannot handle those around him (who) have such great hatred for the Soviet Union?” he asked.

In announcing the latest ousters in the diplomatic expulsion war between the two superpowers, Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady Gerasimov referred directly to the U.S. ouster order for 55 diplomats made Tuesday.

“This American action calls for a most resolute response,” Gerasimov told a hurriedly called news conference in Moscow. “We cannot remain indifferent to the wrongful activities of the U.S. Administration.”

The Soviet expulsion came one day after the United States announced that it is expelling 55 Soviets by Nov. 1. Those expulsions were in retaliation for Sunday’s expulsion of five American diplomats in the Soviet Union. The cuts were started by a U.S. order to cut the size of the large Soviet U.N. mission in New York by 25 people.

‘Impermissible Activities’

The Soviet Union order today said that four American diplomats must leave the embassy in Moscow and that one must depart from the consulate in Leningrad by the end of the month.

The statement accused all five of carrying out “impermissible activities against the Soviet Union.”

They were identified as Navy Attache Capt. Thomas Holme Jr., Army Attache Col. Richard Naab, Second Secretary Michael Morgan, Third Secretary Michael Matera and Leningrad Vice Consul Daniel Grossman. Matera is the embassy’s human rights officer, and Grossman also monitors human rights matters.

In announcing the removal of all 260 Soviet employees at the two missions in Moscow and Leningrad, Gerasimov said the United States will not be allowed to use third-country nationals to replace the Soviet workers and can bring only Americans in to fill their secretarial, custodial and driving jobs only within the overall limits on embassy staff.

That was an evident response to the U.S. position that Tuesday’s ousters from the Soviet missions in Washington and San Francisco merely brought the two nations’ diplomatic staffs to parity.

‘Misleading the . . . Public’

Gerasimov complained that “the U.S. Administration is misleading the U.S. and international public by saying there are fewer people in American missions than in ours.”

Soviet embassies abroad tend to use only Soviet citizens for even the most menial tasks, and some among the 55 staff cuts ordered by Washington presumably will be cooks, drivers and other domestic help.

In forcing the U.S. missions in the Soviet Union to import American labor for menial work, the Soviets are effectively demanding cuts in the diplomatic staff.

Gerasimov, while accepting the future identical sizes of the embassy staffs, outlined a number of other measures that will make operations more complicated and life more difficult for the American diplomats in the Soviet Union.

The number of people who are coming for temporary assignments at the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Consulate will be restricted to the number of Soviets allowed into the United States for similar work, the spokesman said.

Limit on Visit Visas

A strict ceiling was placed on American staff numbers in the Moscow embassy and the Leningrad consulate, which at no time should exceed the level of Soviet personnel at the Washington embassy and the Soviet Consulate in San Francisco.

The Foreign Ministry will also restrict the number of visas granted friends wishing to visit the ambassador and other diplomats. Gerasimov said about 200 such visas--one per diplomat--were issued last year.

The American measures came when “the prospect had opened of an improvement in Soviet-American relations and for solutions to the fundamental questions of nuclear and space weaponry,” a Foreign Ministry statement said.

“In these conditions, those forces in the U.S. who oppose this have resorted, as has happened before, to their old tried method--an effort to wreck the possibility of progress through provocations and political sabotage.

“This can only cause concern among the entire international public,” the statement added.

On Tuesday, before the latest U.S. expulsion order was announced, Gerasimov, said: “If the United States will insist on continuing this game of tit for tat, then this can continue indefinitely. We consider it is time to stop.”