News In Brief

Ex-US defense chief urges arms-equivalence position

Former Defense Secretary Harold Brown said in an article published Wednesday that the United States should seek to break the impasse in arms talks with Moscow by proposing overall equivalance in nuclear weapons.

None of the current proposals, including President Rea-gan's Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) position, a nuclear freeze, or a build-down of atomic weapons is likely to break the current deadlock, Mr. Brown said in Foreign Affairs quarterly.

He said Moscow would be unlikely to accept the radical restructuring of its forces that these plans would require.

Brown, defense secretary from 1977 to 1981, also said Washington should continue to observe the limits in the unratified 1979 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II) as long as Moscow does so, even after they formally expire in 1985.