NATO Scientist Says Disarmament Would Aid Soviet Union

PARIS, April 7--The United States does not want even limited disarmament, and is stalling in the disarmament negotiations. The Soviet Union does want a limited disarmament agreement, and has made significant compromises in an effort to obtain one. This is the opinion of a top NATO scientist here, involved in developed armament systems for the U.S. and the allies.

Since all "official" interviews he gives must be cleared with NATO security officials, it is impossible to use his name.

The scientist defends what he believes the United States to be doing at the disarmament conference in Geneva as a useful and effective maneuver in the cold war. "We can afford the luxury of spending the top ten per cent of our Gross National Product on armaments," he said. "The Soviet Union can't do this and increase consumer services at the same time. It just isn't rich enough."

Cuts Soviet Foreign Aid

He pointed out that this also cuts the amount of resources the Soviet Union can allocate to foreign aid, thus reducing its potential in the political-economics war. Asked if an economic competition would not be a more constructive enterprise than the armaments race, he replied that it would, but that the Soviet Union would have a heavy edge over the United States. Whereas the President can easily persuade the Congress to spend ten per cent of the GNP on armaments and defense, he could never persuade the Congress to vote even a significant portion of that sum to wage an economic competition with the Soviet Union in an effort to win the goodwill of the underdeveloped nations.

Soviets Prefer Economic Competition

"We have succeeded in spending so much money on nuclear gadgetry that we have put the Soviet Union under real economic strain," the scientist said. "They have always been convinced that the future belongs to them, and they have become convinced--at least those in power have become convinced--that the way to win the future is not through the arms race. It is therefore no longer profitable for them to continue the arms race. They would like to keep a limited nuclear force and pursue the struggle in the politico-economic realm."

U.S. Wants Test Ban Only

The scientist believes that the United States has limited objectives at the disarmament conference. One was the Moscow-Washington "hot line," which was obtained; the other is a test ban, so that the continuing arms race will not poison the atmosphere. But beyond that, he said, Washington is not ready to go. Since we now have the edge in the armaments race, Washington finds it useful to keep the Soviet Union under the economic strain of an arms race.

This analysis, he points out, makes the Soviet desire to tie a test-ban to a general limited disarmament agreement readily understandable. The Soviet Union realizes that if it grants the test-ban, meaningful negotiations for a disarmament agreement will cease. Since Russia wants to end the economic strain of heavy arms production, the Kremlin insists on linking the two in order to lure the United States into an agreement.

This is also one of the political purposes of the Soviet nuclear test series, the scientist said--to push the United States toward a disarmament agreement. He emphasized that such an accord would be against U.S. interests, because the United States would be politically incapable of throwing as much money into an economic competition as the Soviet Union.

Inspections a False Issue

The scientist discounted the contention that the negotiations had actually snarled on the issue of on-sight inspections, the Soviet Union wanted three--although three is easily sufficient, they could have compromised on five any day of the week," the scientist said. "What the inspection issue really demonstrates is the sincerity of the Russian effort to reach a limited disarmament agreement, where they could keep a nuclear force but would not be forced to continue to spend so much in developing it. The Russians are profoundly suspicious of any inspection schemes. What is surprising is that they were willing to accept any inspections at all.