Word: nato
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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From the moment the NATO Prime Ministers met for a post-Sputnik conference in Paris last December, it became part of Western European belief that their deliberations constituted a famous victory over John Foster Dulles by the forces of reason. At Paris, so the legend went, the farsighted statesmen of Europe finally overrode Dulles' pathologic distrust of Communists, began to push him, kicking and protesting, toward the one thing that might relieve world tensions-a summit conference with the Russians...
...last week, as 15 NATO foreign ministers wound up a three-day meeting in Copenhagen's Christiansborg Palace, strange new sounds filled the air of Western Europe, and echoed in the big segment of the U.S. press that was cool or hostile to Dulles in his summit-conference position. Secretary Dulles, declared one European statesman, "is a much-maligned man. If only everyone could hear him in a closed session." "You know," echoed a member of one of the smaller NATO delegations, "Mr. Dulles did not once give us a lecture, did not once tell us about morality...
...conference, Dulles, of all the NATO ministers, sounded the least pessimistic about summit prospects, had all the appearances of being Old Mr. Flexible himself and was virtually being warned by his colleagues not to display too much eagerness to rush into talks on Moscow's terms. On the record, Dulles was still declaring the U.S. willingness to meet with the Russians if there should be any prospect of settling anything...
...also continued the agonizing effort to establish negotiations with Russia in order to placate the Western allies, who until recently have been obstinately optimistic over the value of summit talks. In an effort to satisfy this optimism and to alleviate the sources of dissension in NATO, the United States has bent over backwards to reach some sort of preliminary accord with Moscow...
...instrument for ending conflict, and has become one for continuing it." The perils of an illusory evaluation of negotiation are greater today than the possible successes of diplomatic solutions. Acheson appears to be aware of these dangers, and in this he agrees with Secretary Dulles and with the NATO allies, who have drifted over to a cautious and skeptical position. The chief result of the recent Copenhagen meeting was this change in the NATO attitude, and the emergence of a wariness which gives wider rein to the U.S. in its bickering with Russia...