Rogers, at Gop Platform Session, Warns Sharp Us Military Cuts Would End ‘close’ Ties with Israel

“Drastic reduction” in United States military strength in the Mediterranean will end the “close relationship” of the United States with Israel as well as with Turkey and Greece, Secretary of State William P. Rogers told the Republican Party’s platform committee today.

After delivering a broad review of the Nixon Administration’s foreign policy, Rogers was asked by a committee member–Jerrold B. Speers of Maine–to discuss the “drastic reduction in defense” the delegate said was proposed by Democratic Presidential nominee Sen. George McGovern. Mentioning specifically only the Mediterranean area in his response, Rogers said a $30 billion cut “or one of that magnitude” in US defense was “out of the question.” That figure had been used by Sen. McGovern as his contemplated reduction in the arms budget over the next several years. Rogers pointed out that the Soviet Union has “built up” power in the Mediterranean and declared that American ties with Israel, Turkey and Greece “would all be out of the window if we would not have the kind of strength” in that area.

In his 2,500-word prepared text, which he read to the committee with some modifications as the lead-off witness for three days of hearings preliminary to the writing of the GOP platform, Rogers spoke of the Middle East and other foreign policy matters mainly on the basis of the Nixon Administration’s promises and achievements.

Nowhere did Rogers mention the Soviet reduction of its military forces in Egypt at Egyptian behest nor the signs of Egyptian rapprochement with the United States nor the suggestion by Rogers himself last Friday in a news conference that Egypt pick up the thread of an interim agreement with Israel to reopen the Suez Canal. Thus much of his review today on the Middle East seemed to convey merely a rewording of the White House and State Department foreign policy reports of last winter. On the dais from which Rogers spoke large photos were exhibited of President Nixon drinking a toast with Soviet Leader Brezhnev and shaking hands with China’s Mao Tse-Tung.

CEASE-FIRE HAILED BY ROGERS

On the Middle East, Rogers pointed pridefully to the US diplomatic initiative in the prevailing cease-fire which last week entered its third year, and the maintenance of the regional military balance. Regarding the future, however, Rogers did not go beyond reiterating his oft-stated position of American assistance where and when it is invited.

In reading his statement, the Secretary omitted from his prepared text the sixth in a seven-point statement of policies which said: “Where our interests are engaged or where peace is threatened we will exert appropriate diplomatic efforts to help bring about communication and negotiation. In the Middle East, in Southern Africa, wherever there is conflict, the alternative to communication and negotiation can only be more and some day greater conflict.”

Prior to this point, he read of working towards a European security conference and to “the principle which we and the Soviets enunciated at Moscow–that size and power confer on no nation the right to decide for any other nation.” To this, he added extemporaneously “we will assist where we are wanted but we are not going to interfere in the internal affairs of other nations.”

Later, the Secretary told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that his omission of the language in the text was inadvertent and remained part of the prepared statement as made available to the press. In other Middle East aspects of his testimony, Rogers referred to having “promised our best efforts to help bring about peace negotiations in the Middle East” and that “in the face of a heavy Soviet arms buildup, fostering dangerous instability, we promised the assistance necessary to maintain the military balance in the area.”

Regarding this promise. Rogers pointed out that “our European allies (presumably NATO) have increased their share to the common defense by $2 billion in the last two years while we in return agreed to maintain and improve the quality of our forces there in the face of strengthening Soviet deployment in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.”

“We have done what was necessary,” he continued, “to preserve the military balance in the Middle East, while working to bring about better conditions for a peaceful settlement. As a result of the diplomatic initiative by the United States, an important first step in that direction was taken more than two years ago, with the establishment of a cease-fire. That cease-fire in the Middle East has now entered its third year.” Rogers prefaced his prepared remarks on the cease-fire by the extemporaneous comment: “I want to say this slowly because it in a very significant statement.”