Massive U.S. Troop Cuts in Europe Planned

American defense planners are preparing massive new troop cuts in Europe, reducing the U.S. presence here by as much as two-thirds over the next several years, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday. The current 310,000 U.S. troops in Europe will be cut to 100,000 to 150,000 in response to a sharply reduced Soviet military threat and in recognition of severe budgetary pressures at home, said the official, who asked that his name not be used.

The new cuts would be conditioned on equal Soviet reductions and strict verification measures to ensure compliance with the agreement, U.S. officials said.

In Washington, President Bush on Tuesday sought to dampen speculation over the upcoming U.S.-Soviet summit meeting by declaring that the weekend talks in Malta will produce no deals on troop reductions in Europe. And here in Brussels, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney reassured West European allies that the United States will not unilaterally reduce forces committed to the Western military alliance.

Meanwhile, White House budget officials have proposed deep cuts in the 1991 defense budget that would require substantial troop cuts relatively soon, The Times has learned.

Richard G. Darman, White House budget director, has proposed cutting the defense budget to $290 billion, a slight reduction from the 1990 level and a 4.6% cut from the level that would be required to keep pace with inflation. The Pentagon is fighting to hold the line at $301 billion to avoid a rapid scale-back, sources said.

Bush is expected to make a decision on the issue after returning from the superpower summit.

Senior planners here have concluded that it is safe to gradually “draw down” U.S. forces to substantially lower levels.

Bush may propose the new numbers to Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev at the Malta meeting, the officials here said. White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said Monday that Bush is considering “a wide range of military options that involve a number of different force levels.”

The new cuts would be negotiated with the Soviet Union beginning immediately after completion of the current round of arms talks in Vienna known as CFE, or Conventional Forces in Europe.

CFE II, as the new talks are already being called, would build upon the principles of the first round, which began earlier this year. U.S. negotiators are under a firm White House deadline to complete the CFE I talks in time for a Bush-Gorbachev summit next June, officials here said.

The current round of talks would reduce U.S. and Soviet troop levels in Europe to 275,000 on each side. That represents about a 10% cut for the Americans and a 50% cut for the Soviets. The second round would at least halve those numbers but use the CFE framework as the means to accomplish the cuts, officials said. The proposed CFE treaty provides for constant monitoring of each side’s forces to assure that they are within the overall ceilings and are deployed and equipped in compliance with the treaty language.

“With CFE, you’re getting two for one,” a senior U.S. official at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said. “In addition to cuts everyone wants to make anyway, you’re also getting a security structure in the bargain.”

Talk of unilateral U.S. force reductions or a separate U.S.-Soviet peace outside of NATO leave European leaders profoundly uneasy.

Gen. Uigleik Eide of Norway, chairman of NATO’s military committee, said at a press conference Tuesday: “Defense planning must be in accord with the arms control process. . . . The committee strongly recommends a step-by-step process of controlled and verifiable progress, thus avoiding unilateral Western disarmament.”

Although expressed in NATO code language, his comments were meant as a sharp warning to Bush and Cheney not to bypass the alliance in their haste to conclude arms deals with Moscow and to trim the Pentagon budget.

Eide said that despite the symbolism of the Berlin Wall cracking apart, the military might of the Soviet Union and its allies remains formidable.

Ironically, the Norwegian’s language echoes that of Cheney just a few weeks ago, when the American defense chief was virtually the last voice in the Bush Administration warning of a continuing Soviet menace.

Today, Cheney appears to be among the Administration’s foremost advocates of disarmament. Aides suggest that Cheney has adopted a conciliatory tone in part to reassure Gorbachev that the Administration speaks with one voice and in part to convince Congress that he’s serious about cutting military spending.

The arms control process provides several opportunities for reducing the Pentagon budget.

A U.S. official assigned to NATO noted that arms control verification measures and improved surveillance of the Soviet Union and its shaky Warsaw Pact allies have provided the West with much greater warning of an impending Soviet attack.

The increasingly remote possibility of a surprise invasion of Europe will allow the Pentagon to scale back expensive overseas deployments and keep the forces in reserve in the United States in the event they are needed, U.S. military planners say.

The longer lead times will allow the Pentagon to save money on transporting troops back to Europe, if needed, shifting the job from expensive aircraft to cheaper ships.

Times staff writer Melissa Healy, in Washington, contributed to this story.

SUMMIT IMPORT GROWS--East Bloc upheaval could turn summit into a landmark. A12