U.S. Expels Soviet Diplomat

WASHINGTON — The Reagan Administration today expelled a Soviet diplomat in retaliation for Moscow’s refusal to renounce the use of violence against U.S. military liaison personnel following the death of Maj. Arthur D. Nicholson Jr., shot by a Soviet sentry in East Germany.

Assistant Secretary of State Richard Burt informed a Soviet official today that Lt. Col. Stanislav Ivanovich Gromov, a Soviet military attache, is persona non grata and has seven days to leave the United States. An official said consideration had been given to expelling a number of Soviet diplomats. But that might have led to major retaliation by Moscow, the official said, and was discarded.