Europe Growing Doubts

"Dear Colleague," began the letter that was dispatched last week to the 13 defense ministers attending a North Atlantic Treaty Organization conference in Luxembourg, as well as to the defense ministers of France, Spain, Japan, Australia and Israel. The message, signed "Sincerely, Caspar Weinberger," was an invitation from the U.S. Defense Secretary to participate with the U.S. in a $26 billion research program for President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, commonly known as the Star Wars defense system. The U.S., said Weinberger, would appreciate a reply within 60 days.

The offer, which referred vaguely to financial as well as technological participation, put the spotlight on a debate that has been going on in several allied nations since President Reagan broached the Star Wars concept in March 1983. No one quarreled publicly with the notion that the U.S. had the right, under existing security treaties, to conduct a space-defense research program; indeed, the ministers attending the Luxembourg meeting endorsed such an effort unanimously, and NATO's Secretary-General, Lord Carrington, described the discussions as "harmonious and constructive."

But serious questions remain among several allies about participation in SDI research, let alone the ultimate deployment of a Star Wars system. While such stalwart U.S. friends as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl initially endorsed the idea, there are indications that neither the British nor the West German government is altogether sure of its course.

The Thatcher government welcomed the Weinberger proposal and promised "urgent consideration." The response came against the background of a speech, approved by Thatcher advisers, in which Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe last month compared the Star Wars program with France's Maginot Line, the vast defensive wall designed before World War II as a means of protecting France against a German invasion; when the test came, the line proved useless. Howe also raised questions about the effect of Star Wars on the Western alliance's policy of nuclear deterrence and the possibility that a project of such magnitude could set off a new and vastly larger arms race.

In West Germany, meanwhile, Chancellor Kohl has been quietly retreating from his earlier endorsement of Star Wars. At first the Chancellor said that his government would "cooperate fully" with the U.S. on research. Later he stipulated that participation was desirable, but only if other allies joined as well. In a further departure, a recent government policy paper describes the project as "a long-term research effort" and emphasizes that West Germany favors an outcome in the Geneva disarmament talks that would "avert an arms race in space." Said a West German spokesman, explaining his government's announcement last week that it would not respond immediately to the Weinberger offer: "The Americans can't think that we are so crazy as to make a decision now about a research concept we don't even know. We don't want to get on the wrong horse, if we decide to get on one at all." Some West German officials have expressed concern that the U.S. does not realize how nervous and suspicious the Star Wars concept has made the Soviet Union. Apart from that danger, they believe that the program could split Europe from America: if the U.S. goes it alone, its defense would no longer be linked with that of Western Europe; if allied governments try to join in, they may be voted out of power by electorates increasingly worried about the arms race. While most allied governments were intrigued about the lucrative contracts that might be associated with such high-technology research, they tended to be leery of the political implications. France was chary, though Defense Minister Charles Hernu said his government would consider the invitation. The Italians doubted that, given the U.S. lead in technology, they would have much to contribute, while the Norwegians said they would prefer to devote their limited resources to conventional defense. In the Pacific, Australia turned down the offer, and Japan said delicately that the plan would be "carefully studied." Canada's Prime Minister Brian Mulroney described his enthusiasm for the idea as "restrained." Though some of the doubts may fade by the time the U.S. spells out exactly what it is talking about, the initial reactions were less than enthusiastic.