European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 3, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes wednesday june 3,1987 Flora Lewis arms cuts have to Start someplace anyplace Moscow the strategic balance is finely calculated in weapons systems and numbers but. A tiny Cessna sports plane piloted by a West German teen Ager Flics through 500 Miles of so Viet air defense systems the world s mightiest and lands plunk in red Square before the Gates of the Krem Lin. The superpowers frighten he world and Washington says warships flying the american Flap arc enough to assure the safely of shipping in the persian Guif Oil artery but. An iraqi fighter slams to French missiles into an american frigate disabling it and kill ing 37 sailors. High technology creates fantastic new prospects advancing the prestige and Power of nations but. As sen. Albert Gore or. Pointed out Here in the last Yea Rand a half the american space shuttle challenger exploded and a reactor at chernobyl spewed radioactive dust around the world. The theories break Down through both technological and human error. Still there have to be plans programs calculations if anything is to be done. Expectations have to be evoked if they ate Tobe realized. Tom Wicker Gore a candidate for the democratic presidential nomination was addressing some 3,000 delegates to the seventh an Nual Congress of International physicians for the prevention of nuclear War. They made Clear How High expectations have grown for an Early soviet american arms control agreement and a washing ton Summit conference. Both Genera Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and presi Dent Reagan sent messages to he con Gress envisaging Accord. Some serious problems re main in what started out As an Effort o Roll Back the military clock to soviet deployment of ss-20 missiles in the mid 1970s, followed by deployment of Amer ican penning ii and cruise missiles in Europe begun in 1983. Now the talks arc mixed up with arguments about Shorter Range missiles Battlefield Short Range nuclear weapons chemical arms and imbalance in conventional forces. If there is o be any arms reduction a Start has to be made someplace. Intermediate Range missiles was t a logical place to slant it was simply How things evolved. It would have made better sense particularly for the exposed coun tries on the front line and especially West Germany to move up from the smallest atomic arms which would be used first. Now the West germans arc nervous that they will be left As he nuclear fire break in the words of the British prime minister Margaret Thatcher which infuriates Helmut Kohl West Germany s Chancellor. Still that is not the crucial Point because As More and More Leaden East my West Are coming to acknowledge the Issue is the threat of War and All the Levels of arms Are linked in creating the fears that created the Arsenal. Reversing he spiral is More important than precisely where the Lum begins providing there is some Overall Assurance on the new direction. Nato like a supertanker is Cumber some and hard to turn around. At the moment it has proved incapable of an swering new soviet proposals which Are coining at a dazzling Pace. The latest is a vague out interesting Warsaw pact offer of a new military doctrine to restructure conventional forces so they would be less Able to launch a massive attack. It is just no possible for the West Ern Alliance to bog Down now and fritter away the expectations. Thai would be As destructive to Western cohesion As any thing the russians could do. The reason nato ii faltering is that it never got around to working out an agreed Overall plan on How to proceed in reducing Arm j Levels. As a defensive Alliance it pre pared to deter War by meeting threats. But it never foresaw Success to the Point of really being Able to negotiate away those threats. Now there May be Chance. Gore has come up Wilh a framework of slept that could galvanize a hopeful rather than a dithering Western response. They in clude not Only cutting Back missiles but shifting to less vulnerable types to make a first strike pointless conventional Force reduction which would Rule out sudden mass attack Cooling hot spots such As the War in Afghanistan which heightens ears about soviet intentions in the per Sian Gulf. It is a sensible Clear headed approach. Soviet and american Leaden Are encouraging the world to look for a Turna round in the confrontation. Accidents have happened and with the plane in Moscow and the attack on the Stark they reacted with i habitual restraint. Now both must move on to bring the ensling our plans closer to peace Hopes. Iv4w worht a