NATO Balance Sheet
TAS, SAL
Despite Ike's display of vigor at the Paris meeting, United States leadership is still wanting NATO Balance Sheet By Sal Tas Paris The NATO conference that ended here on December 19 was a...
...But this sort of thing can become effective only if there is real leadership, and that leadership can come only from the President of the United States...
...Such is the strength of European wishful thinking, however, that one delegate after another got up and proposed new disarmament negotiations with the Russians...
...The NATO governments also agreed to consult henceforth on policy matters before they act, not after...
...But the aim of the policy of strength is not to correct such situations but to prevent them from getting worse...
...The British privately ascribed his stand to a desire to placate the Social Democratic opposition in Bonn...
...There can be no lasting solution in Germany until the Russians permit free elections...
...and only remonstrances by some of his colleagues and the Norwegian press made him drop these tactics...
...For, despite all the loose talk about a "fatal crisis" in NATO, the European nations can no more leave NATO than they can leave their continent...
...The main conflicts within NATO were settled at Paris, but the main essential—confidence— is still lacking...
...Equally unedifying was the discussion of the Bulganin letters...
...For years, Europe had cheered when Churchill pointed out that American atom bombs were protecting it against the Russians...
...It is true that the division of Germany is a constant threat to peace and the American "policy of strength" will never solve the problem...
...However, Norwegian Premier Gerhard-sen, backed by the Danes and indirectly by the West Germans, tried to delay and ultimately sidetrack the decision...
...Today, President Eisenhower's prestige is at a low ebb...
...Some others, however, saw the beginnings of a Bismarckian policy of playing West off against East, now that Germany is a power once again...
...Yet, as soon as America found it necessary to base atomic missiles on European soil, some European countries demurred...
...The British thesis seems more plausible, but Adenauer damaged his prestige in NATO by his cynical attitude toward vital issues...
...However, any new disarmament talks will be accompanied by numerous safeguards against Soviet trickery...
...And what if the Russians should pursue an anti-Soviet guerrilla force across the zonal border...
...America could not force the abandonment of the whole idea...
...her prestige is not great enough just now...
...What is needed is evidence of a dynamic, politically aggressive spirit...
...Eisenhower's speech may have been a combination of a high-school valedictory and a Salvation Army sermon, but it did bring home to the Europeans that the United States was going to continue backing NATO with strength...
...In private conversation, these delegates assured you that it was all just a tactical maneuver designed to show the people back home that a sincere effort was being made to reach agreement...
...A number of highly important practical questions, such as closer scientific cooperation, were settled at Paris almost without discussion...
...It was a rather disturbing episode...
...Its success was assured as soon as Ike landed at Orly airport looking brisk and energetic...
...And Hungary showed that they will never do that...
...The shifting, devious diplomacy of John Foster Dulles cannot make up for the lack of leadership in Washington...
...Surely this stale rehash of the same old maneuvers that Moscow has been using since Potsdam deserved swift dismissal...
...That sufficed to guarantee the success of the conference...
...On this issue, too, West German Chancellor Adenauer was by no means the anti-Communist bulwark he has long been held to be...
...Despite Ike's display of vigor at the Paris meeting, United States leadership is still wanting NATO Balance Sheet By Sal Tas Paris The NATO conference that ended here on December 19 was a success, but a poor show...
...Gerhardsen's plan for solving the German problem by creating a totally or partially demilitarized zone in Central Europe can hardly be taken seriously...
...Yet, the discussions that preceded the final agreement on essentials made the conference a poor show...
...American setbacks in the missile field have had the unfortunate effect of enhancing European self-confidence in relation to the United States while causing it to shrink even more vis-a-vis the Soviet Union...
...His demonstration of vigor was probably designed at least in part for the American public, but it was not lost on the Europeans, who are not yet reconciled to seeing their fate determined by Jim Hagerty and Sherman Adams...
...the policy of submission to Arab and Afro-Asian blackmail will never win America the confidence of her European allies...
...How many seconds would it take an IRBM to cross such a zone...
...The European Allies agreed to accept guided-missile installations and atomic stockpiles on their soil...
...What guarantees would it provide...
...Nevertheless, it is hard to escape the suspicion that behind the tactical maneuver lurked the hope that perhaps, just perhaps, the Russians might reveal a different attitude which would enable European governments to pare their costly defense budgets...
Vol. 41 • January 1958 • No. 1
