Diplomacy Growing Troubles for U.S. Bases |

Spain's Torrejon Air Base outside Madrid boasts the longest runway in Western Europe. Last week, as usual, that shimmering 2.8-mile ribbon of concrete served as takeoff and touchdown point for U.S. F-16 fighters flying daily practice missions. But suburban Madrilenos, grown used to wincing at the ear- splitting shriek from the planes, took comfort in the knowledge that they would not have to endure it indefinitely. As the result of negotiations between the U.S. and the Socialist government of Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, the 79 F-16s flown by the U.S. Air Force's 401st Tactical Fighter Wing must leave Torrejon by May 1991. The pullout will take place to Washington's regret -- but at Madrid's insistence.

One less U.S. fighting unit around the world may not significantly affect the global balance of power. But Torrejon is by no means the only U.S. military outpost whose future has been called into question by a host government. Partly because of a chance convergence of treaty expiration dates, but mainly because many countries are increasingly reluctant to allow American armed forces to be housed on their soil, the U.S. could soon be facing a global basing crisis. Washington has already been asked to withdraw installations from such friendly nations as Thailand and Pakistan, and some strategists warn that the day may come when Washington will be forced to find alternatives to overseas bases as a means of projecting its strategic power.

While the "de-basing" phenomenon has not quite reached that point, defense agreements covering U.S. installations in five nations, four of them NATO allies, are the subject of intense and sometimes rancorous negotiations. "This is a watershed issue that can't help but affect American security," says Frank Gaffney, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, now at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank. Items:

-- Negotiators are working against a May 14 deadline to reach agreement on three major U.S. military installations in Spain besides Torrejon. The Gonzalez government has agreed in principle to permitting continued U.S. access to any of the three. But Spanish public opinion is hardly reassuring. A poll published in December by the Madrid daily Diario 16 showed that 48% of those questioned favored total withdrawal of U.S. bases from Spanish territory.

-- Portugal has requested a review of its eight-year treaty permitting the U.S. use of the Lajes Air Base in the Azores. The reason, says right-of-center Prime Minister Anibal Cavaco Silva, is that the agreement "is not being entirely respected." Translation: because of congressional cuts, the $147 million in U.S. aid that Portugal received last year was substantially less than it expected.

-- U.S. and Greek negotiators have been meeting since November to discuss a follow-up to their current bases treaty, which expires next December. The Socialist government of Andreas Papandreou is seeking an increase in the level of U.S. aid it receives -- $430 million in 1987 -- as part of a deal allowing Washington to continue using its four Greek bases.