Cheney Wants to Keep NATO 1st-Strike Nuclear Policy : Military: The defense secretary says political change in Eastern Europe should not affect basic strategy.

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney warned Tuesday that in spite of political changes that have caused the “demise” of the Warsaw Pact as a military threat, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization should not renounce the first use of nuclear weapons in a European ground war.

Speaking to reporters on the way to a meeting of NATO’s Nuclear Planning Group here, Cheney said, “I would not give . . . up” the threat to initiate a nuclear war in Europe.

Cheney’s comments come less than a week after President Bush called for negotiations to reduce or eliminate short-range, ground-launched nuclear weapons in Europe and announced that the United States will discontinue the modernization of such weapons. His remarks also are the first indication of the Bush Administration’s position on one of the most politically charged issues that the NATO alliance faces.

Cheney and his NATO counterparts gathered here to begin discussions today on the alliance’s future nuclear needs and policies. The 14 NATO defense ministers who take part in the alliance’s Nuclear Planning Group are expected to order a sweeping review designed to guide arms negotiations and modernization plans.

Cheney said that in retaining the option for a first use of nuclear weapons, NATO would be sticking to its “basic strategy,” under which the alliance could respond with graduated levels of force, including the first use of nuclear weapons, to a Soviet lunge into Western Europe.

That so-called flexible response strategy was adopted in the early 1960s. At that time, American military planners argued that only the threat to initiate a nuclear war from Western European soil could help NATO deter an attack by the then numerically superior Warsaw Pact forces.

While negotiated arms reductions and changes throughout Eastern Europe have virtually eliminated such numerical disparities, Cheney said that the strategy should not change.

“The basic strategy of NATO--an alliance with forces committed to a common integrated command structure, of U.S. forces deployed to Europe, with the ability to respond to an attack either with conventional or nuclear capability based in Europe, (and) with all that backed up by U.S. strategic capability--that’s been our strategy and I think that ought to continue to be our strategy,” he said.

However, a senior Pentagon official traveling with Cheney later conceded that as a result of changes in Europe, “the need to contemplate early first-use would be reduced.”

Cheney acknowledged that even as NATO nuclear missiles and artillery are reduced through negotiations, Washington expects that the alliance will proceed with the development of a nuclear-tipped missile designed to be launched from aircraft.

Speaking of the so-called TASM weapon--short for “tactical air-to-surface missile”--Cheney said, “I don’t see a reason to discuss it” in the meetings with the allies.

“You’ve still got a continuing requirement for nuclear capability in Europe,” Cheney said. “That’s been crucial to keeping the defense of Europe tied to our strategic (long-range nuclear) capabilities.”

His view is certain to be tested in two days of meetings here. Several defense ministers are expected to argue that as the Cold War ends, the deployment of new nuclear missiles, even the air-launched variety, which traditionally have drawn little controversy, will pose political problems throughout Europe.