The World - News from Feb. 18, 1988

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, citing a Soviet threat to the unity of the Western allies, urged the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to stiffen its defenses. Thatcher, on a visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels, came out strongly in favor of modernizing short-range nuclear forces, a key issue that could split alliance leaders at a summit meeting early next month. “You don’t deter with obsolete weapons,” she told reporters after addressing a closed meeting of ambassadors to NATO. West Germany, NATO’s front-line state, has expressed misgivings about pressing ahead with a program to modernize short-range nuclear missiles.