General is fired for saying Soviets poised to strike

An Army general was fired Tuesday from his White House job as a defense strategist because he failed to get advance approval of a speech declaring that ''the Soviets are on the move, they are going to strike.''

White House aides moved quickly to minimize the grim assessment of the Soviet military threat expressed by Maj. Gen. Robert L. Schweitzer. They stressed his view was ''more pessimistic'' than President Reagan's.

General Schweitzer was transferred from the President's National Security Council staff - where he was in charge of all defense matters - to an unspecified Pentagon post.

His dismissal followed published reports of an address to several hundred Army officers in which he said the Soviets have gained nuclear superiority and the US is ''in the greatest danger that the republic has ever faced since its founding days.''