NATO Faces Gorbachev Speech Fallout : Alliance Fears Skeptical Public May Balk at New Arms Programs

Foreign ministers of the Atlantic Alliance, after hailing Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s pledge of a significant troop cut as a “most promising” development, turned Friday to the difficult task of maintaining public support for Western military programs in the face of Moscow’s initiative.

“Promising prospects are opening up for an improved East-West dialogue,” the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said in a communique following the annual foreign ministers meeting. “Among the most promising recent developments is the address made by President Gorbachev.”

Warmer Tone

The communique was warmer in tone than NATO’s strategy statement for conventional arms reduction talks, issued Thursday. But as they did in the earlier statement, the foreign ministers maintained Friday that Moscow will retain a substantial numerical advantage in conventional weapons even if it carries through on all of the unilateral cuts unveiled by Gorbachev at the United Nations on Wednesday, which total 10% of the Soviet armed forces.

The alliance’s secretary general, Manfred Woerner, said NATO must convince the Western public that the alliance needs to continue its military programs--including a controversial modernization of battlefield nuclear weapons--despite the warming trend in East-West relations.

“It is our task, and it can be accomplished, to explain to our populations that the success of our policies and the change in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (are) largely due to the political cohesion and the initiatives of the alliance,” Woerner said. “To maintain a credible defense posture is one of the conditions to make further success possible.”

‘Difficult Job’

He said maintaining public support for defense programs “has been a difficult job, and it will remain a difficult job. Still, I think it can be done.”

Nevertheless, he quickly added that the public relations problems caused by Gorbachev’s policies are preferable to the military threat posed by earlier Soviet leaders.

“We are not sad about what has happened in New York (during Gorbachev’s visit),” he said. “Why should we regret what we wanted to take place? We are not striving for more weapons; we are striving for less weapons, but at equal limits and lower levels on both sides.”

Secretary of State George P. Shultz told a news conference that Gorbachev’s speech was encouraging but “being encouraged doesn’t mean you just go bananas and forget what got you here.”

Perception of Threat

Another U.S. official explained: “Realistically, you have to be concerned that there could be a lessening of the perception of the (Soviet) threat before that threat has actually declined.”

The NATO communique said Gorbachev’s speech “implicitly acknowledges our long-held view that redressing the conventional imbalance is a key to more security and stability in Europe. Implementation of these measures would be a very important first step in this direction and (would) reduce, but not eliminate, the conventional imbalances.”

Gorbachev’s peace offensive should make unnecessary NATO plans to modernize battlefield nuclear weapons, West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher said in a West German radio interview. Bonn is concerned that battlefield nuclear weapons would be used only on German territory because of West Germany’s geographic position on the East-West dividing line.

But Woerner, a former West German defense minister, and Shultz insisted that NATO’s nuclear forces must be kept up to date.

Even if Moscow agrees to cut its conventional forces to NATO’s levels, Woerner said, “we would still need a certain number of nuclear weapons.”