NEW YORK TIMES REPORT ON CABINET DISCUSSION OF THE JCC TRIP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP87T00759R000100060013-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 11, 2010
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: May 3, 1985
• Content Type: MEMO

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/11: CIA-RDP87T00759R000100060013-7
Iq
Next 1 Page(s) In Document Denied
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/11: CIA-RDP87T00759R000100060013-7
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/11: CIA-RDP87T00759R000100060013-7
They Call
Him Cap
the Knife
By CLYDE H. FARNSWORTH
special to Tb mar Tart Ti.
WASHINGTON, May 2 - There he
goes again. -
his first four years as Defense
Secretary, Caspar W. Weinberger re-
sisted any economic a modatian
with Moscow and rej efforts to
trim the of Unit States mill-
tary spending.
He fought the European allies over
their willingness to help build and fi-
nance a Soviet natural pipeline.
He fought newspaper editors over
their insistence that reporters accom-
pany military units an such opera-
tions as the invasion of Grenada.
He is, on the other hard, the Cabi-
net's most prolific writer of letters to
the editor, acting, as he pts it, "to set
the record straight for the benefit of
Congress and the public."
Over his objections a compromise
was reached last month between the
White House and Senate epublicans
cutting the growth in military
he
fisca
budget for the next year to 3
percent on top of an to make
iner"
up for inflation - mudh less than
what he had deemed essential.
Again over his protests the Cabinet
agreed last winter to rmit Com-
merce Secretary Malcom Baldrige
to visit Moscow May 20-1. The aim:
to improve trade relati as part of a
grand design in the Reagan Adminis-
tration's second term to get a better
political relationship will Moscow.
Now Mr. Weinberger is living up to
his reputation as the most tenacious
and zealous of the President's Cabi-
net advisers. He has just made an un-
usual 11th-hour appeal directly to Mr.
Reagan to block the Baldrige trip to
Moscow.
Rarely does one Cabinet officer op-
pose anther's journey abroad. But
this time the stakes are ouch higher
than usual, according to iAdministre-
tion officials close to the Pentagon
chief who disclosed details of the ac-
tion on condition that they not be iden-
tified.
Last Saturday at a meeting of the
National Security Council Mr. Wein-
berger argued that the trip should be
canceled or at least postponed for
three reasons:
qTo protest the March fN killing of
Maj. Arthur D. Nicholson Jr. by a
Soviet soldier in East Gdrmany.
9To Prevent Mr. Baldrige from en.
tering into any commitments in Mos-
cow that would lead to United States
sales of advanced oil industry equip-
ment that the Russians are seeking to
boost lagging oil production.
B6
THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, MAY JJ 1M5
To avoid inadvertently helping
Nicaragua in its request for economic
aid from Moscow. 'T'heoretically, any-
thing that results in improved traAe
relations with the United States help Moscow raise hard-currency
loans from banks in this country and
elsewhere, which in turn could help
the Sandinistas.
Mr. Weinberger's arguments did
not carry. The majority of the Na-
tional Security Council sided with Mr.
Baldrige, who told a reporter
Wednesday that the trip was on. "The
President is doing his best with the
Soviets to establish a better working
relationship," Mr. Baldrige said.
`Trade is one of the ways."
The President did not attend the
Saturday meeting. Mr. Weinberger,
showing his obstinacy one more time
when he thinks he is right, declined to
accept the majority decision of his
colleagues and has gone to the Presi-
dent directly, according to one in-
formant. "We're still waiting to hear
the final results," the informant
added.
On the Moscow 'Wish List'
of what Moscow has provided a "wish list"
hopes to get from the meet-
ing with Mr. Baldrige. Some of the
advanced oil-exploration equipment
on the list could also be used for sub.
marine detection, according to Pen-
tagon sources. Another item is a plant
to produce Kevlar, a material of high
strength, high tenacity and a high
melting point used here to produce
the MX missile. Yet another item is
robotics.
"The Russians expect us to believe
they want this simply to help them
manufacture blue jeans," one Admin-
istration official said.
Mr. Weinberger is consistent. He
has argued for years that Western
technolgy has been of immeasurable
aid in Moscow's military buildup. He
opposes sales of energy equipment
because oil exports have been Mos-
cow's principal source of hard-cur-
rency earnings, which also support
the military buildup, be says.
Whether it be trade with Moscow,
the budget conflicts or any other point
of Washington battle, most of those
who have dealt with Mr. Weinberger
have come away impressed by his
pertinacity, if not by his point of view.
"He's a million rubber bands in his
resilience," said Senator Alan K.
Simpson, Republican of Wyoming,
after one of the budget battles. "You
can't come away without the richest
regard for the tenacity of the man."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/11: CIA-RDP87T00759R000100060013-7