U.S. Plans New Offer on Missiles : Seeks to Verify Compliance, Keep Short-Range Arms

WASHINGTON — In a guardedly affirmative reaction to Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s apparent readiness to agree to the removal of U.S. and Soviet medium-range nuclear missiles from Europe within five years, Administration officials said Sunday that a proposed agreement is being drafted for submission this week to Soviet negotiators in Geneva.

The U.S. officials, who asked not to be named, withheld detailed comment pending study of the offer Gorbachev put forward Saturday in Moscow. They said, however, that the United States will seek to retain its short-range nuclear missiles in Western Europe and will insist that any agreement on intermediate-range weapons contains verifiable safeguards against cheating.

Nuclear Shield to Remain

In seeking latitude to continue deployment of the short-range weapons, the United States would be signaling its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that it does not intend to weaken the nuclear shield that has been developed to guard the Western powers against a massive conventional attack from the East.

And, by the very promptness of the reaction, it may also be signaling that the Reagan Administration--embarrassed though it is by the upheavals that have resulted from the Iran- contra affair--still is able to respond to potentially constructive proposals on major international issues.

The apparent effect of Gorbachev’s proposal would be that the Soviets would retain up to 100 medium-range warheads in their Asian territory, while the United States would keep an equal number of warheads on its own territory, presumably in Alaska.

441 SS-20 Missiles

The Soviet Union is believed at present to have deployed within its European and Asian borders 441 medium-range SS-20 missiles, each capable of carrying three nuclear warheads. The United States, under a NATO plan adopted in 1979, is in the process of deploying 572 medium-range Pershing 2 and ground-launched cruise missiles in Western Europe, each with one warhead.

Intermediate-range missiles are generally those with a range of 1,000 to 3,000 miles.

American officials were encouraged by the fact that Gorbachev’s proposal partially paralleled one that President Reagan put forward last October at his summit meeting with the Soviet leader in Iceland. It focuses on mid-range missiles without apparently tying any accord on reduction in these weapons to an agreement on the Kremlin’s demand that the United States cut back Reagan’s ambitious space-based missile defense program, the Strategic Defense Initiative.

That demand by Gorbachev, articulated in Iceland, has stymied ever since any progress toward agreement on reductions in Euromissiles, as the medium-range weapons deployed by both sides in Europe are frequently called.

At the White House on Sunday, deputy press secretary Rusty Brashear said that Gorbachev’s proposal “appears to us to be positive from what limited information we have” and added that consultations are under way with U.S. allies.

Gorbachev’s apparent readiness to deal when the arms talks resume today in Geneva won approval from senators appearing on television’s Sunday panel shows.

Warning From Scowcroft

But a word of caution came from Brent Scowcroft, a retired three-star Air Force general who was former President Gerald R. Ford’s national security adviser and has recently served as one of the three members of the Tower Commission that reported last week to President Reagan on the Iran-contra affair.

On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Scowcroft called it “useful” to separate negotiations on the various categories of nuclear weapons but added, “I don’t happen to think that the proposal on European weapons that was made at Reykjavik was a good proposal.” He did not amplify.

Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), appearing after Scowcroft on the NBC program, advocated a positive Administration response to Gorbachev’s overture but said he did not expect that Reagan will “rush into some agreement unless it’s fully considered.”

U.S. Urged to Hedge

Dole suggested that the United States should “hedge a bit” on withdrawal of all missiles from Western Europe, “because if we’re going to do that, we ought to be able to beef up conventional forces while withdrawing INF (intermediate nuclear force) forces.”

Former Sen. Paul Laxalt (R-Nev.), a Reagan confidant, said on ABC’s “This Week With David Brinkley” that he considers Gorbachev’s offer “the most reassuring news I’ve seen on the international front for a long time.” He suggested that Gorbachev may have moved because “he’s very concerned about our Pershings and would like to get rid of the Pershings.”

Sen. William S. Cohen (R-Me.), appearing on the CBS News program “Face the Nation,” was particularly encouraged by the apparent Soviet readiness to uncouple the question of medium-range missiles from other nuclear arms control issues.

‘Positive Step Forward’

“I think it’s a very positive step forward, provided the allies are reassured that this is not in any way a symbolic or military delinking of the operation or our security arrangement with them,” Cohen said. He conceded that some may speculate that Gorbachev is “trying to exploit President Reagan’s current difficulties” with an agreement that is “not in our best interests,” while others can argue that Gorbachev is acting in response to his own domestic political pressures. He said that Americans should view the proposal on its merits.

“The first thing we should do,” Cohen said, “is to consult very closely with our allies . . . and then to proceed with a decision that is in our best national security interest and that of our allies.”