Moscow Repeats Its No-First-Use Pledge

The Soviet Union, in a letter made public Monday, one week before American and Soviet diplomats are to meet for arms talks in Geneva, repeated its pledge not to be the first to use nuclear weapons and suggested again that “it is important that the United States do the same.”

The letter was written by Anatoly F. Dobrynin, Soviet ambassador to the United States, to Armand Hammer, chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corp. , who released it.

Hammer, a friend of top U.S. and Soviet leaders for more than 50 years, had met with President Konstantin U. Chernenko in Moscow in early December to discuss relations between the two countries.

He said that Dobrynin’s letter, which mentioned the Soviet leader’s “warm recollections” of the meeting and called again for a no-first use agreement on nuclear weapons, could signal the possibility of “the first dawn of a period of real peace and understanding between the superpowers.”

“I believe that President Chernenko’s message could establish a common ground to go one step further . . . and expand an agreement of no-first-use of nuclear weapons in Europe to an agreement that calls for no-first-use of any weapons in Europe, whether they be conventional or nuclear,” Hammer said.

The Reagan Administration, however, has repeatedly rejected suggestions that the Western allies renounce the use of nuclear weapons as a possible defense against the numerically superior Soviet Bloc forces in Europe.

It most recently turned aside the concept on Dec. 5, and Secretary of State George P. Shultz has indicated no change of policy is due when he meets with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko next Monday and Tuesday in Geneva.