COLUMN RIGHT/ RICHARD SYBERT : California Has Done Its Share : With 17 bases already slated for closure, economic and military sense dictates no more.

If they are serious about helping California, it’s time for President Clinton and our congressional delegation to stop further military base closures in the state. The nation cannot afford hollowing out any more of its defense infrastructure on the Pacific Coast.

California has already suffered through two rounds of base closures in 1989 and 1991. In all, we have had 17 bases slated for closure. We have done our share. The Governor’s Office of Planning and Research estimates, in fact, that California will suffer more than half of the total national civilian and military job losses arising from base closures to date.

These are losses our state can ill afford in the middle of a recession when our unemployment rates are already among the highest in the nation and our economy is reeling.

Moreover, many of these jobs are high-wage, high-skill, the kind California must keep and attract to prosper. Together with massive cuts in defense and aerospace research and development, their loss will accelerate the penny-wise and pound-foolish destruction of the entire high-tech infrastructure that is one of California’s principal competitive advantages.

Now a new round of base closures is looming. Defense Secretary Les Aspin must deliver his draft list of possible closures to the Base Reuse and Closure Commission before March 15. The commission must then hold hearings and present a final list to the Congress. Not a single Californian sits on the commission.

It is virtually a certainty that more California bases will be proposed for extinction, including many that were threatened on previous draft lists. Collectively, these facilities employ tens of thousands of skilled workers in both Northern and Southern California. The closure of any one of them would send economic shock waves through their local communities.

Economic impact is only one of the concerns, however. The Base Closure Act quite properly makes military necessity the chief (although not the only) factor in determining which bases will be shut. And it is on this basis that the closure of more California facilities makes the least sense.

We are about to enter the Pacific century. The nation’s trade and security concerns are increasingly focused on Asia. Yet this is not necessarily a stable part of the world. As the Economist magazine recently put it in a special on Asia’s arms race: “Asia’s balance of power is both complex and delicate. Only one Pacific power--the United States--has the resources, the impartiality, the trust of enough Asian countries and the self-interest to keep the region from toppling into instability.”

The new Administration must surely understand that hollowing out our military capabilities and defense infrastructure on the Pacific Coast would be dangerous for America’s future economic well-being and national security. One Californian, Warren Christopher, is secretary of state. Another, Mickey Kantor, is U.S. trade representative and a third, Laura Tyson, is chair of the Council on Economic Advisers. These are people who should understand better than anyone the vital U.S. interests that are wrapped up in Asia and the Pacific.

For his part, Gov. Wilson has worked furiously behind the scenes to lobby and save many of California’s bases from the chopping block in earlier rounds. For example, the governor has worked successfully to prevent Los Angeles Air Force Base and its Space Systems Division in El Segundo from being moved to New Mexico.

The governor’s office has also put together reuse proposals, to ease the pain of closure, such as a new state university campus at Fort Ord near Monterey, and a defense finance accounting center at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino.

But the fact of the matter is that these decisions will ultimately be made in Washington. And all the high-tech industrial policy and defense conversion programs in the world won’t amount to much more than traditional welfare if the Administration continues to dismantle the nation’s defense infrastructure in its largest state.

The President says he wants to help California, which sent him to the White House by more than a million and a half votes. We also sent him two U.S. senators from his own party and a majority of the nation’s largest congressional delegation, many of whom were reelected with considerable seniority. This is the time for them to pull together for the nation and the state.