U.S. Seeks Truce in Envoys’ Ousters : Imposes Only Mild Curbs on Soviets in Response to Latest Kremlin Moves

The Reagan Administration on Thursday sought a cease-fire in its war of diplomatic reprisals with the Soviet Union and imposed only a few relatively mild restrictions on Soviet Embassy operations in response to Moscow’s latest expulsion of U.S. diplomats.

“We hope that this set of issues can now be put behind us,” State Department spokesman Charles Redman said. “We need to get on with resolution of the larger issues affecting U.S.-Soviet relations and build on the progress made in the discussions at (the summit conference in) Reykjavik.”

The measured retaliation marked an abrupt change in tactics for the Administration, which expelled Soviet diplomats in unprecedented numbers this week. Only the day before, U.S officials were insisting that Washington would not be the first to ask for quarter, and one threatened that the United States would “zap ‘em again” in response to the Soviets’ latest expulsion order.

‘Wholly Unwarranted’

On Thursday, Redman attacked as “wholly unwarranted” the Soviet action Wednesday to expel five U.S. diplomats, prohibit Soviet citizens from working at U.S. diplomatic missions, place new limits on the number of Americans who can be temporarily assigned to duty in Moscow and Leningrad and restrict the number of visitors from abroad who may be entertained by U.S. diplomats in the Soviet Union.

But the Administration held its latest retaliation to a minimum, hoping to wind down the cycle of tit-for-tat reprisals.

No additional Soviet diplomats were expelled but the United States imposed mirror-image restrictions on other operations of the Soviet Embassy in Washington and the consulate in San Francisco.

In Thursday’s order, Americans were banned from working for the Soviet missions, new limits were fixed on temporary assignment of Soviets to the United States and restrictions were placed on diplomatic entertainment by Soviet diplomats.

As a result of a month of diplomatic skirmishing, the United States and the Soviet Union were left with an absolute mathematical equality. Each nation is allowed 225 personnel in its embassy and 26 in its consulate. Neither can fill in with locally hired workers. And neither can bring in unlimited numbers of personnel on temporary assignments.

80 Ordered Home

At first glance, the United States would seem to have gotten the better of it. A total of 80 Soviet diplomats--42 from the embassy in Washington, 13 from the consulate in San Francisco and 25 from the U.N. Mission in New York--have been ordered home.

The Soviets have expelled 10 Americans, eight from the embassy in Moscow and two from the consulate in Leningrad. The United States will be permitted to replace all 10 of its diplomats, while the Soviets will be allowed to send substitutes only for five. The other 75 diplomats were expelled because Washington was seeking permanent reductions in the size of the three missions, which the United States had regarded as out of proportion to the Soviets’ needs.

Washington has long accused Moscow of using its diplomatic missions as centers for espionage, and the U.S. government said that all 80 of those expelled were intelligence officers. Exuberant Administration officials said the expulsions “decapitated” the KGB and GRU intelligence organizations in the United States.

But there are important differences between the two countries that ultimately may make the Soviet diplomatic presence in the United States more effective than the U.S. presence in the Soviet Union.

Viewed purely in terms of the potential for giving spies diplomatic cover, the Soviets clearly will have more positions, counting the U.N. Mission, than the United States will have in the Soviet Union. Also, espionage is a more difficult job in the secretive Soviet society.

“Without question, there’s going to be some change in our ability to monitor what happens in the Soviet Union,” Redman said.

Filled by Soviet Workers

Before the latest expulsions, the Soviets were authorized to have 279 personnel at the embassy, 41 at the consulate and 243 at the United Nations. Nineteen of those authorized positions were vacant. More than 100 of the slots were filled by Soviet citizens employed as drivers, cooks and other service workers.

In addition, the Soviet Embassy employed 10 Americans, mostly to translate U.S. newspapers and handle other non-sensitive jobs. The ousters cut the authorized strength by a combined total of 104, including the 10 Americans.

There was no change in the number of American diplomats authorized to work in Moscow and Leningrad. But the United States lost about 260 Soviet employees, not counted under the previous ceiling, who performed a host of menial jobs, including time-consuming tasks dealing with the Soviet bureaucracy and standing in endless lines that have no real counterparts in the United States.

In the future, Americans sent in to replace the Soviet citizens in those service jobs must be counted in the diplomatic totals--so for every driver brought in, a diplomat must be sent home.

Far More Restructuring

As a result of the exchange, the United States will have to do far more restructuring of its operation than the Soviets. In addition, there is no U.S. mission in the Soviet Union that is comparable to the Soviet presence at the United Nations.

“We are currently taking a comprehensive look at the entire structure of our diplomatic missions in light of the Soviet action,” Redman said. “We expect that there will have to be some fairly substantial changes in our staffing patterns. . . . There will undoubtedly be some short-term adjustment problems, and over the long term, we will have a different look in Moscow.”