European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 6, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes sunday december 6,1987 Flora Lewis real Issue is undoing decodes of bad nuke policy a serious Bailie is building in Washington on arms control agreements Wilh Moscow bul in won t really be about what appears on the surface. The Senate foreign relations commit tee has scheduled a month of hearings on iht1 medium Range missile treaty to begin in mid january which Means ratification won t come before Spring. That is nearly the deadline for president Reagan to achieve the next planned treaty to Cut Long Range missiles by half and confirm follow up Summit talks in Moscow. The major problems Reagan faces in trying to Complete his second term in a burst of peacemaking glory come not from hat my cold Raguc William satire Calls the distrusting disliking right seeking to yank its favorite president Back to his earlier Damn Lac russians stand. Some people oppose any kind of agreement with Moscow and they will use whatever arguments come to hand to kill the treaty 10 be signed nest week. Bul they arc in the minority and hey know in. With a sinking feeling of de Spair they arc watching the approaching end of heir Chance to Complete inc Reagan revolution and make it stick. Much More important is the mounting concern of eminent and influential people who do want arms control but fear that Reagan s defense poli cies have left the . Incapable of achieving it without danger. The opening Public shot came thursday from three of them there Are Many More in a Washington Post article signed by Brent scowcroft former National Security adviser John Dulch former under Secre tary of Energy the department responsible for making atomic warheads and a James Woolsey former under Secretary of the Navy. This is Onty the beginning. What is going on in Washington now is a Peculiar kind of negotiation among americans via Moscow. Arguments will be used about soviet plans soviet intentions treaty details. But they really have Little to do with the issues Between the . And the .s.k. They arc about inc skew in american strategic policy Over several decades. Soviet positions serve merely As a backboard for carom she because inc players still feet inhibited from taking direct aim at Reagan. Those in the respectable As distinct from the knee Jerk anti soviet opposition will use the coming ratification de Bate to express their longer term worries. They want to Sec a changed More rational american strategic position devel Oping in parallel with inc Effort to diminish the absurd nuclear arsenals. They fear Reagan is plunging heedlessly for the second goal without attending to the pm m those Wota and Short Kan missis pm wet imy Ned Ite first necessary conditions. As the russians also concluded in an important study earlier ibis year they Realise Hal reducing the level of arms does t automatically enhance stability f in is done mechanically without understanding the Cample questions of balance in can be destabilizing and in crease rather than reduce the danger of nuclear War. In thai Case what these experts see Down the Road is a situation where the United states would have to depend on the improbable or the intolerable for its safety. The three who have spoken out put in this Way in these circumstances we Are driven to one of i to choices de cide now to bet Hal we will be Able to deploy survivable effective affordable defences against ballistic Anil or disc mis Siles or hat we will adopt the policy of Tau Chine icbms on warning alone. The first approach is fraught with technical uncertainly the second risks accidental nuclear War in Case of a false alarm and hat been resisted for decades by All thoughtful political and military  the Basic need for Security and stability Al far lower Levels of weaponry it he approach suggested in the 1983 scow Croft commission report. In effect in is to reverse and undo the bad decision made in president Kennedy s administration to multiply the number of warheads per missile to Mir. At the time this was seen As a Way to maintain . Superiority Wilh a capability of overwhelming soviet defences. But the russians caught up any Way and now it is understood that he results arc worse than the situation be fore mires de Morving and Mobili y Are seen As the requirements for a survivable american defense. The Pentagon has been going in the opposite direction despite a White House Promise to apply inc scow rofl recommendations. Ii is important for the Public o grasp these difficult questions. The big Issue in t whether we can Trust the russians they serve their own interests. It is whether we can Rusl ourselves to Sec America s interests clearly a new Kwh tithes top of in Xii by Pill fld in the columns ind Carlo ont on we arvo it enl ?&0 o1 w Lut Nort and w m no Way Loba tojgra4 ill is fewling tha fowl cd to stars Ana St new of the Unildo ii ails . Martin Gottlieb Gorbachev s Kindred ideas found in Chicago for soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev the High Light of his trip id the United slates might have been a meeting with Chicago mayor Harold Washington if Only the mayor had lived and the Reagan people had been imaginative enough. There is probably no american with whom Gorba Chev has More in common. Washington was sort of Chicago s Gorbachev. Washington came to Power after a period of Politi Cal Drift in Chicago that followed the death of mayor Richard Daley. There was a vacuum of Power. People were looking for direction. Similarly Gorbachev came to Power after a Succes Sion of physically and politically weak soviet Leaden had presided Over nothing much. The system he stepped o the head of longed for leadership. Both Gorbachev and Washington decided to change things a lot. To discard outmoded customs that were Central Lothe operation of their respective systems. Washington said for example thai the whole idea of giving people rank and file government jobs As re wards for service