Baker Competes With Gorbachev Popularity

BONN, West Germany-Secretary of State James A. Baker III, on his first diplomatic tour of West European capitals, has found it difficult to compete with the public relations blitz of Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, a senior U.S. official said yesterday.

And in an announcement which soothes concerns over a possible breach in the Western Alliance, Baker said in Bonn that West Germany still supports a project to upgrade missiles. But Baker also appeared to soften U.S. demands that NATO endorse the plan this spring.

The secretary said he and West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl agreed at a "very, very friendly" talk yesterday to negotiate differences over the NATO plan which would develop, produce and deploy new nuclear missiles to replace aging shorter-range rockets.

"This was not a decision-taking meeting," Baker said. "That is not what we are here for. It did, I hope, clear up some of the confusion."

While the logjam over the missile situation appears to be breaking, Baker's biggest problem is Gorbachev and the inroads he has made in Western European public opinion, a U.S. official said.

"There is just an attraction, an intriguing quality to Gorbachev that you have to answer somehow," said the official, who participated in most of the meetings Baker has held on his trip.

"We have no answer," the official told reporters as Baker flew back to West Germany for talks with Kohl and Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher.

Covering 15 capitals in eight days is testing Baker's endurance. Yesterday, for instance, was a three-country day with stops in Denmark, Norway and West Germany. Today will be no easier, with Baker going to Turkey, Greece and Italy.

The conversations so far in Canada, Iceland, Britain, West Germany, Denmark and Norway have been "warm, personal and professional," said the U.S. official, who requested anonymity. "It's going very, very well."

And yet, the U.S. official acknowledged, Baker is having a difficult time competing with Gorbachev's high-profile diplomacy. The Soviet leader is withdrawing Soviet troops from Afghanistan and has offered to remove six tank divisions and 50,000 men from Eastern Europe.

Baker pointed out to the Western ministers that at home, however, Gorbachev is faced with a failing economy and that "the jury is still out on whether he will be successful" in trying to revive it, the U.S. official said.

The challenge Baker and the allies face "is not a question of an initiative," the official said. "People feel very comfortable that we have the initiative on substance. But it is undeniable that as you go around people can see that when it comes to capturing public attention, the Western agenda has a hard time competing with Gorbachev's own ability to attract attention."

Modernizing Missiles

Gorbachev's arms control initiatives have also made the U.S. efforts to modernize missile forces in Europe more difficult.

Baker said Kohl told him "in no uncertain terms" he plans through further negotiations to work out the Bonn government's differences with Washington over what is referred to as modernization of aging, U.S.-built Lance missiles.

Kohl suggested earlier yesterday that allies could give a green light to producing the new rockets while delaying a vote on whether to deploy them.

Before meeting Baker, Kohl restated to reporters his desire that NATO delay approving the missile replacement project until 1991 or 1992.