European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 12, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Poge 12 the stars and stripes Tom Wicker that a Gapsis malady crops up once again the Reagan administration has a new Case of an old malady military As Secretary of defens Edevig Nate Caspar Weinberger testified at his confirmation the new team will come into office believing that it must Bridge a strategic Gap that now gives the soviet Union a distinct advantage Over the United Twenty Vears ago the Kennedy administration took Over with much the same just As Ronald Reagan campaigned last year on the supposed Lead the soviets had taken in military so John Kennedy made much in 1960 of the missile Gap he and numerous other critics of the Eisen Hower administration believed to As there was official backing for that the air Force reported in the period the soviets would have the capability to produce sever Al times the number of intercontinental bal Listic missiles that the United states planned to the House appropriations committee forecast a thre Toone soviet Lead in icbms by the end of once in Kennedy Secretary of Robert discovered that neither u2 flights nor other intelligence Means could verify any Exten Sive number of soviet icbms launching by november Hanson the military editor of the new York hapa hit5inc6 fantasia my my Tys Hows bin Gance Redato now some cum picks Nie up on a draft re6is7ratiotj rap Ira Eaker Reagan has mandate Tor arms parity i have suggested that the highest legislative priority for the next four years should be the restoration of military Power parity with the As advocated by president elect Ronald it is Clear that the voters have Given him a positive mandate to that it is most fortuitous that the surprising size of the Reagan including a Republican now makes it Likely that the expressed will of the people will be promptly carried since the principal candidates in the last presidential election differed most dramatically on the relative military Power Between the and the not Only what it was but what it should it seems a reasonable Assumption that that made the big Gest difference in the size of the Carter advocated and practice reduction of defense including declining cancelling weapons designed to modernize strategic systems and failure to support the recommendations of military Reagan took diametrically opposite supporting the military leaders and pointing to the hazards in allowing the United states to fall dangerously inferior to the russians in military Power in All Princi pal categories weapons and Bud of Reagan also charged Carter with defective policies in economics and in it May never1 be agreed which of these differing policies contributed most decisively to the landslide but in my judgment it was voter worry Over the safety of our republicans were nearly on this but since there Are normally nearly twice As Many democratic it is by the size of the Republican that there were a great Many More defectors from democratic other reasons like dramatic increases in Oil prices could be cited to which to charge economic and Energy but Only Mili tary weakness can be blamed for our rapid decline in world it is evident that the majority of the Vot ers shared reagans View on the relation of military Power to National strength and the greatest danger president re atari and his triumphant administration will face will be any appreciable or unexplained de Lay in executing the Peoples so clearly stated in such unmistakable it would be a fatal error to assume that the pacifists and unilateral disarmament after suffering their worst will now retire from the Battlefield and cease All future activity to Dis Arm the United still have the dedicated support of agencies such As the International Council of of still command the Money and Power and the unremitting enmity of the soviet but it May ultimately prove that our greatest peril will be the belief and Hope of so Many of our people that we Are Safe in relying upon the Peoples Republic of China As an ally for the communist China promptly joined rus sia1 against us in what reliable Assurance do we have that the chinese will not do so again c Ira Eaker i columns comments could report that new defense department estimates put soviet icbms strength at 30 to 75 instead of the 200 to the mis Sile rappers had variously the United states then deployed 180 Atlas mis and had 18 More ready to go on with the second generation minuteman nearing Kennedy never officially disavowed the missile but he never referred to it again that Doest of that Weinberger and Reagan Are in for the same but it does suggest that they might Well stay Loose until Treyve seen All the evidence on today reputed the Basic source for that Gap is the famous report of team a group of soviet and military experts who in 1976 reviewed Cia estimates of soviet strength and re ported it much than previously be the team b View was heavily based on a Cia reassessment of soviet military which concluded that such spend ing had jumped from 6 to 8 percent of soviet Gross National product to 11 13 percent or As american hardliners liked to put the team b estimate is now gospel among conservatives of both including Reagan and his advisers if they bring As hard an Eye to the new Gap As Mcnamara did to that of 1961  find that what the Cia actually said about the apparent soviet increase in defense spend ing was As follows this does not mean that the Impact of defense programs on the soviet Economy has increased Only that our appreciation of this Impact has it also implies that soviet defense industries Are far less efficient than formerly Arthur a former state depart ment and Cia writing in the new York review of books for interpreted this to mean that the soviet military Effort absorbed More soviet Gnu than previously not because defense spend ing actually had but because the Cia had raised its estimate of How much soviet Gnu was absorbed by inefficient military in january the Cia reported that soviet defense activities for estimated in constant increased at an average annual rate of 3 percent about the same rate at which the United states and its nato partners have raised theirs in the last four Paul the Carter administration arms negotiator advanced much the same thesis at a debate sponsored by the Center for defense information in new York last in Daniel Graham a member of team b and a former director of de sense failed at least in my View to refute the co Warnke inter Graham did insist that a soviet defector had confirmed the supposed increase in Moscow military citing another Factor in team is he also suggested that the soviets had poured 200 times the Effort into civil de in preparation for launching a nuclear but Secretary of defense Harold Brown has derided the idea that civil defense could save soviet cities from an american even after a soviet first Cox reported that the soviets claim their Effort is intended Only As a defense against a much More limited attack the Caspar at his had the Good sense to reject the current fad for fixed percentage increases in military spending and to pledge a restudy of the Carter administrations overblown Basing plan for 200 my missiles in Utah and to that Good surely he should add a searching examination of a strategic Gap often As in but no better documented now than c new York times the opinions expressed in the columns and on ills papa represent those of the authors and Art in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states