a014  2343  19 Nov 89
PM-Cheney-Defense,0404
Cheney Plans Defense Spending Cuts
By BRYR EY
Associated Press Writer
    WASHINGTON (AP) - Defense Secretary Dick Cheney says he is ordering
the military services to plan spending cuts next year because the
rapid pace of Soviet bloc reform reduces the threat of war to a
45-year low.
    ''It's clear that the likelihood of all-out conflict between the
U.S. and the Soviet Union, between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, is
probably lower now than it's been at just about any time since the
end of World War II,'' Cheney said Sunday on the ABC-TV program,
''This Week With David Brinkley.''
    Cheney said the Soviets appear to be cutting military spending, and
that further U.S. defense reductions are acceptable - a shift in his
position.
    ''You can't watch the events unfold in Eastern Europe, the
development of governments headed by non-communists, the
possibilities of free elections, of opposition parties, and not
believe that that will have some long-term impact upon the security
situation in Europe,'' Cheney said.
    ''Given the changes that we see today in Eastern Europe, I think
it's possible to contemplate the possibility over the next few years
that we may, indeed, be able to reduce the level of our deployments
in Western Europe,'' Cheney said.
    Cheney did not specify how great a reduction he anticipated, but
senior Pentagon officials have said he plans to cut $180 billion over
three years beginning with 1992. Congress is now completing action on
a $286 billion defense budget for the 1990 fiscal year that began
Oct. 1.
    In an interview with The Washington Post published Sunday, Cheney
said the spending cuts for 1991-97 would center on such high
technology hardware as the B-2 stealth bomber. The New York Times
reported that the Air Force has proposed closing 15 bases and
reducing deliveries of F-16 fighters to achieve overall cuts of $34
billion, about $10 billion short of the reduction Cheney has
requested over three years.
    The Soviets have reduced their spending on conventional arms, Cheney
said, but continue to modernize their strategic nuclear force and
have ''a long way to go to clean up their act in the Third World.''
    He said the Soviet Union was in part to blame for the guerrilla
offensive in El Salvador because Moscow supports Cuba and Nicaragua,
two nations the Bush administration has accused of aiding the
Salvadoran rebels.
    
 
AP-NY-11-20-89 0233EST
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