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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, FEBRUARY 28, 1986
reportedly described as based on the advice of most of his senior arms
control experts, who see an agreement on medium-range missiles as the most
likely way to move the Geneva arms talks off dead center.
Mr. Reagan's proposal is apparently in partial response to similar ideas
floated by Mr. Gorbachev a little over a month ago at which time the
Soviet leader called for the elimination of all nuclear weapons by the
year 2000.
To accomplish this, Mr. Gorbachev proposed a three-step
program:
In the first stage, he said, "within the next five to eight
years, the United States and the Soviet Union would reduce by one-half the
nuclear arms that can reach each other's territory and limit remaining
nuclear warheads to 6,000 on each side." At the same time, according to
the Kremlin's plan, the Soviet Union would eliminate its intermediate
range missiles aimed at Western Europe and th� United States would remove
its missiles in Europe aimed at the Soviet Union.
In addition, the Soviets want to see the British and French freeze their
growing nuclear arsenals at present levels.
The Soviets are clearly
disturbed over the growth of these two independent European programs. The
British and French presently have 352 warheads between them and could have
as many as 1,200 by the early to mid-1990s.
The Europeans clearly confront a dilemma from two directions. First of
all, several European nations went to the political wall, facing public
wrath in some cases, in order to implement the 1979 NATO decision to
deploy u.s.-made Pershing II and cruise missiles.
"Having marched all the way up the mountain and gotten these INF weapons
deployed," says a British diplomat, "all of a sudden proposing to march
back down the mountain is a pretty quick turnaround."
A British arms specialist adds that if an agreement is indeed made,
"Europe will get back to feeling unprotected and naked because there will
be no visible symbol here of America's nuclear commitment."
The fear would grow that a ban on intermediate range missiles in Europe
would mean the "decoupling" of Western Europe from U.S. nuclear
protection.
France: World's Third-Largest Nuclear Power Even though the U.S. counter
proposal is said to reject the Soviet demand of a freeze on the growth of
the British and French nuclear forces, officials in these countries are
concerned that pressure will grow in the future.
The fact is, Soviet
concerns over the expansion of the British and French nuclear forces are
legitimate, especially over the French program.
The French have been
spending vast sums to develop and deploy their own nuclear weapons
systems.
The British have elected to depend mostly on American tech
nology. They are presently upgrading their own small fleet of Polaris
submarines and are in the process of acquiring the Trident submarine and
missiles system.
Quietly and steadily, France has solidified its position as the world's
third-strongest nuclear power. This was made evident last May when the
French Force Oceanigue Strategigue unveiled its most advanced nuclear
submarine, the Inflexible, the first French sub equipped with MIRVed
(multiple warhead) missiles.
The Inflexible can fire 96 warheads--16
missiles with 6 warheads each. The 96 missiles represent 16 more than the