
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 11, 1994                    TAG: 9406110327 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A9    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: 940611                                 LENGTH: WASHINGTON

NUCLEAR WEAPONS A SMALLER PART OF U.S. DEFENSE PLAN, REPORT SAYS

{LEAD} Nuclear weapons play a smaller role in U.S. defense than they have in any year since 1945, a Clinton administration review concludes.

Ashton B. Carter, assistant secretary of defense for international security, described the review Friday as covering the whole ``nuclear posture'' of the United States. He worked on it with a representative of the joint chiefs of staff.

{REST} Carter outlined his main concerns to an American Bar Association conference on halting the spread of all weapons of mass destruction. ``The first is proliferation in the former Soviet Union - I would say it's my principal preoccupation,'' he said. ``North Korea is a close second.''

Russia and the United States have agreed not to aim missiles at one another, though missiles could be quickly targeted again.

Carter said the United States is keeping its nuclear arsenal as small as possible. Some weapons have been discarded, nuclear bombers no longer are on continuous alert, there is no more nuclear artillery and cuts are being made in other tactical nuclear weapons, he said.

In 1984, he said, the United States spent $47 billion, more than 13 percent of its military budget, on nuclear weapons; this year the figure is $12.4 billion, or 5 percent.

{KEYWORDS} NUCLEAR WEAPONS by CNB