GROMYKO WARNS AGAINST DEPLOYING NATO MISSILES; PROPOSES NEW OFFER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85M00363R001202720026-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: January 4, 2017
• Document Release Date: April 17, 2008
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: January 18, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/04/17: CIA-RDP85M00363R001202720026-4
TUESDAY MORNING, 18 JANUARY 1983
Gro-ymy-rkoh, warnsa"ainst deplo.ir-1,
NA" missilese, -prolm w wier
poses ne
BALTIMORE SUN 18 January 1983 Pg.2
. Bonn-Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei
A. Gromyko said last night that West Ger-
many will be caught in a sharpened nu-
clear confrontation if a new generation of
American medium-range missiles is sta-
tioned in Western Europe.
On the second day of his visit to West
Germany, Mr. Gromyko repeated the of-
fer of Yuri V. Andropov, the new Soviet
leader, for a reduction of Soviet medium-
range weapons to the level of the existing
independent nuclear forces of Britain and
France.
But he brought a new element to the
standing Soviet proposal by saying Mos-
cow was prepared to negotiate a reduc-
tion of its shorter-range SS-21, SS-22 and
SS-23 nuclear weapons systems targeted
on Western Europe on the basis of "mutu-
ality"' with the North Atlantic Treaty Or-
ganization.
According to disarmament experts, it
was the first time that Moscow had pub-
licly offered to consider negotiations
about its short-range ballistic missile sys-
tems. The comparable American weap-
ons stationed in Western Europe are the
Pershing lA and Lance missiles.
On his first visit to Western Europe
since the death of Leonid L Brezhnev in
November, Mr. Gromyko said in a toast
at a dinner given in his honor, "In the nu-
clear age the Federal Republic of Germa-
ny and the Soviet Union are, figuratively
speaking, in one boat."
Apparently alluding to the Reagan ad-
ministration, the 73-year-old foreign min-
ister said the danger of nuclear war could
be overlooked only by "people who are
not capable of seeing things as they are."
"If there are gamblers and con men
who state that they are ready to plunge
humanity into a nuclear catastrophe for
the sake of their ambition," Mr. Gromyko
said, "then the question is allowed: Why
do they want to, and who gave them the
right to pull all of the people who want to
live down the abyss with them?"
His four-day visit, coming just as an
election campaign gets under way in
West Germany, is from a Soviet view-
point an important opportunity to urge
the West German public to reject the de-
ployment of 572 cruise and Pershing 2
missiles.
"One would like to give expression to
the hope that the federal government, the
political parties, independent of their cur
rent role in governing the state, and the
entire West German public would soberly
WASHINGTON POST 18 January 1983 Pg.1
Sen. Hart Used to Explore Proposal
Nitze's Role Limited in A Talks
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Stan Water
The recent Soviet offer to limit the
number of its intermediate-range nu-
clear missiles in Europe had its roots
in informal discussions last summer
between American negotiator Paul H.
Nitze and his Soviet counterpart, Yuli
A. Kvitsinsky, at the Geneva, arms
control talks, according to informed
sources.
After Moscow and Washington re-
jected a new negotiating framework
put together by Nitze and Kvitsinsky
to try to achieve a compromise limit
on the number of Soviet and U.S. nu-
clear missiles based in Europe, Kvit-
sinsky in November informally dis-
cussed a new Soviet proposal since
made public by Soviet leader Yuri V.
Andropov.
But Nitze, who was sent back to
Geneva in September with instruc-
tions sharply limiting his freedom to
bargain informally with Kvitsinsky,
had to use a visiting senator, _Cwry
Hart (D-Colo.), to help explore some
of the details of the new Soviet plan
and was not given the authority to
follow up.
Nitze has decided that he does not
want to be. placed in the same awk-
ward position when the talks resume
next week, the sources said, and in-
tended to ask President Reagan at a
meeting this week for greater flexi-
bility in responding to the Soviets
when he returns to Geneva. The
White House said yesterday that Rea-
gan may meet with Nitze later this
week.
A State Department spokesman
judge the present situation and do every-
thing to avert the danger of a nuclear
arms race in Europe," Mr. Gromyko said.
He said carrying out the NATO plan
would mean "for the whole world an ex-
tended nuclear confrontation with all its
consequences."
He added pointedly, "We cannot ignore
the fact that the Federal Republic (West
Germany] is the only state due for the de-
ployment of Pershing 2 rockets that can
reach strategic targets deep inside the
Soviet Union in a few minutes."
The Kremlin sees the 108 Pershing
missiles, which can hit Soviet targets in
less than 10 minutes, as a possible first-
strike weapon. The cruise missiles, by
contrast, hug the contours of the Earth to
evade radar and rank among the slowest
of missiles.
West German Foreign Minister Hans-
Dietrich Genscher told West German tele-
vision in an interview that the first of
three days of talks with Mr. Gromyko had
clarified aspects of Soviet arms policy.
He aid Mr. Gromyko had explained
details br new Communist Party General
Secretary Andropov's December offer to
cut Moscow's arsenal of 600 medium-
range missiles to match British and
French combined strength.
said yesterday that Nitze "has always
been authorized to explore any flexi-
bility in the Soviet"position." But the
spokesman, when questioned, refused
to say whether Nitze could indicate
any flexibility in the American posi.
tion.
The first official confirmation of
the informal talks between Nitze and
Kvitsinsky last summer was published
in The Washington Post on Dec. ).i,
after Andropov made public the new
Soviet proposal.
Eugene V. Rostow, then the Rea-
gan administration's arms control di-
rector, said in an interview that the
Geneva negotiator, had discussed "a
generally promising compromise ini-
tiative developed during last summer
... an initiative the United States
NITZE'S ROLE ...Pg.4
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Approved For Release 2008/04/17: CIA-RDP85M00363R001202720026-4