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 the aim of the policy of strength is not to correct such situations but to prevent them from getting worse...
...Gerhardsen's plan for solving the German problem by creating a totally or partially demilitarized zone in Central Europe can hardly be taken seriously...
...However, any new disarmament talks will be accompanied by numerous safeguards against Soviet trickery...
...and only remonstrances by some of his colleagues and the Norwegian press made him drop these tactics...
...The British thesis seems more plausible, but Adenauer damaged his prestige in NATO by his cynical attitude toward vital issues...
...It was a rather disturbing episode...
...However, Norwegian Premier Gerhard-sen, backed by the Danes and indirectly by the West Germans, tried to delay and ultimately sidetrack the decision...
...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 policy of submission to Arab and Afro-Asian blackmail will never win America the confidence of her European allies...
...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 shifting, devious diplomacy of John Foster Dulles cannot make up for the lack of leadership in Washington...
...The British privately ascribed his stand to a desire to placate the Social Democratic opposition in Bonn...
...What guarantees would it provide...
...Yet, as soon as America found it necessary to base atomic missiles on European soil, some European countries demurred...
...Its success was assured as soon as Ike landed at Orly airport looking brisk and energetic...
...There can be no lasting solution in Germany until the Russians permit free elections...
...And Hungary showed that they will never do that...
...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...
...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...
...Yet, the discussions that preceded the final agreement on essentials made the conference a poor show...
...A number of highly important practical questions, such as closer scientific cooperation, were settled at Paris almost without discussion...
...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...
...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...
...The NATO governments also agreed to consult henceforth on policy matters before they act, not after...
...And what if the Russians should pursue an anti-Soviet guerrilla force across the zonal border...
...Equally unedifying was the discussion of the Bulganin letters...
...Some others, however, saw the beginnings of a Bismarckian policy of playing West off against East, now that Germany is a power once again...
...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 main conflicts within NATO were settled at Paris, but the main essential—confidence— is still lacking...
...America could not force the abandonment of the whole idea ; her prestige is not great enough just now...
...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-?-vis the Soviet Union...
...Surely this stale rehash of the same old maneuvers that Moscow has been using since Potsdam deserved swift dismissal...
...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...
...What is needed is evidence of a dynamic, politically aggressive spirit...
...Today, President Eisenhower's prestige is at a low ebb...
...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...
...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...
...For years, Europe had cheered when Churchill pointed out that American atom bombs were protecting it against the Russians...
...The European Allies agreed to accept guided-missile installations and atomic stockpiles on their soil...
...How many seconds would it take an IRBM to cross such a zone...
Vol. 41 • June 1958 • No. 6
