Word: nato
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Today Gruenther proclaims proudly: "Our resources are from four to five times what they were in those dark days of 1951." There is a plan, and "each unit knows what to do." The call to Oslo takes three minutes and goes direct. NATO has spent $1.9 billion building miles of road, miles of pipelines, supply depots and bases. Greece, Turkey and West Germany have joined NATO's ranks. Gruenther even makes a virtue out of his frustrations, pointing out the democratic problems in allocating costs for such things as airfields. "What should Norway pay for an airfield in Turkey...
...knows better than Gruenther that the history of NATO is also a story of NATO nations constantly falling short of constantly reduced goals. The original goal of 90 active divisions was cut by the Three Wise Men*to 50. Soon after he took command in mid-1953, Gruenther recognized that not even this goal was going to be met. In the U.S., Eisenhower shifted U.S. rearmament from a crash basis to "the long haul." In Europe, making a virtue of what was political necessity, Gruenther set up the New Approach Group to devise a new strategy for the defense...
...missiles. The hope was the addition of twelve German divisions by the planning date of 1957. After nearly a year of study, NAG came to a simple conclusion: Europe could not be defended with its present forces without the use of atomic weapons. With atomic weapons it could. But NATO powers would have to authorize their use to repel Communist assault whether or not the Communists used them first...
Gruenther confronted the 15-nation NATO council with the choice. If they were unwilling to supply more men to fight, they would have to accept the atom. The stern logic of numbers prevailed over the cold horrors of the new science. In December 1954 the NATO council approved the new strategy...
...NATO's other justification for being, and by no means a secondary one, is as a peacetime weapon of the cold war. It reduces fear and restores hope to Europe, by providing a shield-a shield that is visible, and, by virtue of five U.S. divisions in Germany, visibly American. In doing so, NATO, in its seven short years, has served well. It has created a community powerful enough to deter its enemy, healthy enough to survive family squabbles so far, binding enough so that no member has wished to withdraw. And for NATO's present solidity...