News In Brief

Kissinger proposes changes in NATO makeup

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is proposing that the United States withdraw up to half of its ground forces from Western Europe if Europe does not assume greater responsibility for its own ground defense.

''If Europe by its own decision condemns itself to permanent conventional inferiority,'' Kissinger writes in an article to appear in the March 5 issue of Time magazine, ''we will have no choice to opt for a deployment of US forces that makes strategic and political sense.''

In addition, Kissinger suggests that European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization take over arms control negotiations that deal with weapons stationed on European soil.