American arms-limit policy favored in US, Europe poll

Almost six in 10 adult Americans and a plurality of adults in Britain, West Germany, France, and the Netherlands find US policy on arms control more credible than the position advanced by the Soviet Union, according to a new poll by Newsweek magazine.

But Newsweek said many Europeans distrust both President Reagan and Soviet Communist Party chief Yuri Andropov on the question of limiting nuclear weapons.

Asked to choose whom they found more credible on the issue - Mr. Reagan or Mr. Andropov - 59 percent of Americans chose Mr. Reagan and 10 percent chose Mr. Andropov. Among the French, the Reagan-Andropov tally was 36 to 14, among the West Germans 43 to 14, among the Dutch 23 to 21, and among the British 38 to 18.