Radically Reduced Military Forces in Europe Will Depend on Reserves : Strategy: The plan is expected to pay a substantial ‘peace dividend’ on both sides of the Atlantic.

The United States and its Western allies will maintain radically reduced military forces in Europe, backed up by an increased reliance on reserves, under a new doctrine approved Friday by the NATO summit.

Perhaps for the first time since the democratic revolution in Eastern Europe seemed to sweep away the Cold War, the new NATO strategy holds out the prospect of a substantial “peace dividend” to taxpayers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Although no numbers were cited, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s structure would clearly be much smaller and far less costly than existing forces.

In a communique issued at the conclusion of their London summit, heads of government of the 16-nation alliance outlined a strategy in which “NATO will field smaller and restructured active forces.”

The shift is contingent on the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Eastern Europe and conclusion of a treaty limiting conventional forces. That may take some time.

Nevertheless, NATO outlined a military alignment in Europe that would be radically different from the one that the world has known since World War II.

In what may be the hardest proposal to implement, the NATO chiefs said the future alliance “will rely increasingly on multinational corps made up of national units.”

Although the upper levels of the NATO military structure have long used generals and other top officers from several countries in a single command, efforts to establish mixed combat units have proved disappointing in the past.

But facing a prospect of substantially reduced numbers of troops, the NATO leaders decided to stretch their remaining strength with units drawing manpower from two or more nations.

Moreover, the communique said, “NATO will rely more heavily on the ability to build up larger forces if and when they might be needed.” The only way to do that is to maintain reserve units that could be mobilized quickly to fill up units no longer fully staffed by regulars.

In another step that could save substantial sums, the alliance said, “NATO will scale back the readiness of its active units, reducing training requirements and the number of exercises.”

Such a step would also reduce the criticism of NATO in West Germany where military maneuvers often disrupt daily life.

Moreover, the communique said that NATO would prepare a new military strategy moving away from its long cherished concept of “forward defense,” which required the alliance to concentrate its forces as close as possible to the prospective front line.

Nevertheless, the alliance agreed that some American troops should remain in Europe for the indefinite future, primarily as a demonstration of U.S. commitment to Europe’s security.

However, transition to a smaller and less well-trained force requires a high degree of confidence that the threat from Moscow has been reduced. If that assessment proves to be wrong, NATO could be left with little alternative to an early use of nuclear weapons.

That aspect of the new strategy flies in the face of the alliance’s effort to convince both Western public opinion and the Soviet Union that it will use nuclear weapons only as a last resort.

The new doctrine, both nuclear and conventional, rests on the assumption that if Moscow withdraws its forces from the nations on NATO’s border--Czechoslovakia, Hungary and East Germany--the chances of confrontation will be substantially reduced and the allies would have considerable warning if trouble should develop.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said the pullback of Soviet forces would produce a starkly new military situation in which the danger of surprise attack would be all but eliminated.

With more warning time, Thatcher said, NATO could repel an attack without resorting to the use of nuclear weapons. However, the hard-line British prime minister insisted that NATO should be prepared to defend itself, regardless of what that would require.

“It must be the lesson of this century that the best way to maintain peace is to maintain a strong defense,” she said.

Thatcher said she is convinced that NATO could continue to maintain such a defense despite the shrinking of its conventional forces.

NOTABLE QUOTES FROM NATO SUMMIT

Bush, discussing the NATO leaders’ invitation to Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev to visit NATO: “We say to President Gorbachev, come to NATO.”

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher: “NATO has defended peace with freedom and justice but it has never threatened anyone. The cornerstone of that sure defense must remain, for we do not know what the future holds, but its architecture may change in the new situation.”

French President Francois Mitterrand, expressing reluctance to eliminate his country’s nuclear arsenal immediately: “When others have disarmed, those countries with enormous superiority with regard to weaponry, then we will. It is as simple as that.”