Cutting of 50,000 Troops in Europe Backed by Panel

The Senate Armed Services Committee approved a $289-billion defense bill Friday that would require pulling 50,000 troops out of Europe, even if U.S.-Soviet talks on mutual reductions in the region remain stalled.

The Bush Administration has been adamantly opposed to withdrawing any American troops until an agreement has been reached with the Soviet Union. However, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, in a television interview taped Friday for showing today, signaled a change of direction.

When asked about the Senate committee’s call for an immediate 50,000-troop cut, Cheney said: “I think we can probably do that because we planned to take down significant forces from Europe anyway as part of our conventional force reduction negotiation.”

President Bush has proposed a mutual reduction of 80,000 U.S. and 370,000 Soviet troops to achieve parity in Europe, but negotiations between the sides have bogged down.

A defense bill amendment by Sen. Alan J. Dixon (D-Ill.), approved by the Armed Services Committee on a 15-5 vote, calls for 50,000 troops to be pulled out by Sept. 30, 1991. The President, however, could block the reduction by certifying that it would be against the national interest.

Dixon contended that Bush would have difficulty making such a claim because the threat of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe has been drastically reduced by the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, the former East Bloc military alliance.

The Dixon amendment was part of a committee recommendation that total military manpower, now 2.1 million, be cut by 100,000 in the coming year and by nearly 500,000 by 1995.

Bush had proposed an immediate reduction of only 38,000, arguing that a higher number would unfairly force many people out of the military. However, Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), chairman of the committee, said Pentagon officials had told him that “they can make these kinds of cuts without having a significant number of involuntary separations.”

The $289-billion measure--providing the first detailed congressional vision of a post-Cold War military--proposed cutting current Pentagon programs by $27 billion, three times deeper than the reductions requested by Bush for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

The committee recommended preserving two controversial new weapons programs, the B-2 Stealth bomber and the MX missile. But it proposed a nearly $1-billion cut in requested funding for the Strategic Defense Initiative, the anti-missile system known as “Star Wars.”

The President’s budget, however, was not the primary target of the bill, which was crafted largely by Nunn. The influential Georgian clearly hopes that the measure will head off even deeper cuts being discussed at talks by White House and congressional negotiators aimed at reducing the budget deficit.

In fact, Nunn’s committee attached a report charging that a proposal by the Senate Budget Committee to cut next year’s defense spending by another $3 billion would have “disruptive” impacts on defense manpower and weapons programs.

“This legislation provides a responsible and manageable glide path toward a major restructuring of our military Establishment and the way it does business,” Nunn said after his panel gave its unanimous approval to the measure at 1:30 a.m., ending a 17-hour drafting marathon behind closed doors.

He said that the bill provides the “most sweeping degree of change” in defense forces in his 18 years in Congress.

However, Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia, the committee’s top-ranking Republican, noted that the measure “may be just round one.”

“It may well be that the budget summit will direct this committee to go further in the cut process,” Warner said, adding that the bill provides “a foundation, a guidepost, as to how cuts could be made and the very severe consequences of further reductions.”

In emphasizing a “fly-before-buy” policy, the committee recommended a slowdown in production of numerous new weapons systems, pending more tests.

It provided $2 billion to build two more radar-eluding B-2 bombers at Northrop Corp. plants in Los Angeles. That was in line with a Cheney decision to cut the total number sought from 132 to 75. There will be a Senate floor effort to kill all further production, holding the total at 16.

The panel denied a requested $1.3 billion to immediately deploy the multiple-warhead MX missile on trains, but it authorized $548 million for research, keeping the program alive.

It also approved $202 million sought for development of the smaller single-warhead Midgetman missile to be mounted on trucks.

The panel deferred procurement of McDonnell Douglas’ C-17 transport plane, saving $1.8 billion. But, rejecting a Cheney termination request, it provided $238 million for the V-22 Osprey, a troop carrier that takes off like a helicopter and flies like a plane.

Cheney, in the interview to be broadcast on CNN’s “Evans and Novak” news program, objected that the committee had pared Bush’s SDI request back to $3.68 billion.

“If you cut a billion dollars out of SDI, you delay the point at which we get to deploy strategic defenses,” Cheney said. “I’d rather not delay that . . . . It’s a priority program for the President.”

Staff writer John M. Broder contributed to this story.