European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 24, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Dod budget ii5 billion request seeks reordering of priorities Washington up president in a significant reordering of Mili tary submitted a billion defense department budget to Congress monday that would increase army and air Force commitments to Europe in the big Gest peacetime military spending increase of recent defense Secretary Harold drown de fended the which Calls Lor a billion increase in spending during the year Slatting he told a news Confer ence it did not represent abandonment of Carters 197s Campaign pledge to reduce present defense expenditures by bit lion pc said it was a reduction of billion to billion in projections for next year made by the Ford administration rather than 1976 Levels and noted that Carters budget message sold this Mai cd the Ive said what the figures Are and the figures speak for he related Page in addition to an estimated i billion in 1979 the budget railed or total budget authority of 126 billion that could be used Over a five year total de sense requests also included another billion in Energy department funds for new nuclear including the Neu tron the billion Rise in 1979 spending topped this years billion making it the largest peacetime although corrections for inflation showed the total of proposed spending to be lower than in when the nation was gearing up for the Vietnam despite the the administrations shift in military priorities meant significant decreases in strategic weapons and Navy new priorities in the defense program reflected the View that in an Era when and soviet nuclear forces Are considered roughly equal in destructive conventional forces must be improved to deter m attack by russian forces in Europe that Are being constantly priorities included f u billion in army helicopters and including a production Start of the new Xii Battle tank a year Currier than previously the t continued an last 1 authorized unofficial Public Tatiom for the armed Poucel 179 january 1778 if 21855 a Brezhnev assails Neutron bomb in notes to the West snowmobile a pull into a Gas station for a Rochester census study gliding in for some Gas had Over 100 inches of Snow since Early but monday there wag Sunshine Over most of the related Page a Bonn up soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev has sent letters to Western nations warning against the american Neu tron West German government sources said the sources said Brezhnev spoke out emphatically against the production and deployment of the an american Short Range weapons system thai kills by radiation in a limited it kills More people but destroys fewer buildings than existing nuclear Brezhnev denounced the bomb in letters to West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and other Western the sources no details the sources confirmed a dispatch from Brussels to the West German newspaper die Welt on the letters but gave no die a newspaper that circulates throughout West said Brezhnev sent letters not Only to members of nato but to Western nations that do not belong to the it described the letters As rude and said they were sent about three weeks die Well said the letters would be an swered by members of the nato Alliance after they consult with each the government sources said the recipients were the nations that signed the 1975 Helsinki Security Brezhnev warned that arming the euro Pean allies of the United states with the Neutron bomb would endanger detente and Lead to difficulties in East West the newspaper he asked West Germany to use its influence to persuade the United Stales to drop i continued on Page 4 americans Are heading for the Hills Washington a Many Ameri cans no longer Ore just dreaming about a Carefree life in the Sun or the to Tyre moving there at Ever increasing says the census in addition to rapid growth in the Sun Belt the government Agency said sunday in an interim report thai there have been significant population shifts into the Western mountains and the More Rural Northern states of new we were surprised at the very Strong growth of the Mountain said Donald Starsinic of the census bureaus population whose office compiled the 1977 said the romanticism of the Sla paced lifestyle in the Western mountains probably has had much to do with the he noted that Vermont and new which have the same attractions also showed population although the other new England states Are losing these Stales Are not tremendously built theres plenty of room for expand More pleasant perhaps cheaper Starsinic said in an the census Bureau said the population of the nation As a whole grew 64 percent Between 1970 and to the growth in the Sun Belt and corresponding population decline in the Industrial Belt of the Northeast and North Central regions has been apparent for some the new figures confirm the the statistics said California had the largest increase in with is Mil lion More people than in a percent Florida and Texas were close with million new residents but Starsinic said the latest figures show the desirable regions Are spread around a lot More than had been sex while Florida had a Zzz percent increase in the number of people coming into the its rate of growth declined by one third during the past two the Bureau at the same a string of mountainous plates stretching from Montana to i continued on Page Al