Word: nato
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...that they will never be able to use on their own without U.S. say-so. West Germany may not mind such an arrangement, says Charles de Gaulle, since it brings it into nuclear politics. But France minds. De Gaulle rejected the subsequent Anglo-American invitation to join in the NATO nuclear command, and is going ahead more determinedly than ever to develop his own force de frappe. White House staffers profess surprise at De Gaulle's anger over Nassau. They say that the idea of the multilateral NATO command was devised deliberately to include France. Besides, Kennedy invited...
Actually, U.S. defense planners still see no real military need for a new nuclear force in NATO, since the U.S. striking power is so great. Used to big numbers, they dismiss De Gaulle's force as being less than 2% of the striking power of U.S. missiles and aircraft. But at that, De Gaulle's Mirage IV and Etendard IV planes will carry 50-kiloton bombs-more than twice the power of the bomb that leveled Hiroshima. As part of McNamara's conviction that the manned bomber will soon be obsolete, De Gaulle's force will...
Phantoms & Shivers. McNamara also wants a buildup of NATO's ground forces from the present 24 divisions (which include 400,000 U.S. troops) to a programmed 30 divisions. "We must continue to do everything in our power to persuade our allies to meet their NATO goals," he says, and he means De Gaulle most of all. "Until these capabilities are achieved, the defense of Europe against an all-out Soviet attack, even if such an attack were limited to non-nuclear means, would require the use of tactical nuclear weapons on our part." McNamara also is striving to increase...
...European framework independent of America.' On this, he left me for the Bahamas." There, according to De Gaulle, Macmillan betrayed him by agreeing instead to accept Polaris force from the U.S. and then to commit it, along with Britain's own new nuclear bombers, to a multinational NATO nuclear force. Shrugging that this "naturally changed the tone" of the Jan. 14 press conference at which De Gaulle gutted Britain's hopes of joining Europe, De Gaulle added testily: "Mr. Macmillan, whom I like, has had the British press compare me to Hitler and even to Napoleon...
...Charles. De Gaulle seemed to hold all the trumps. Some members of the other Common Market five had talked of giving France the "empty-chair" treatment, carrying on their efforts for European unity and Atlantic partnership without the French. Yet what purpose would it serve to exclude France from NATO councils? None at all. Its contributions to allied fighting strength are sufficiently meager-it is two divisions behind its commitments in Germany, it withholds its Mediterranean fleet from NATO, keeps most of its metropolitan territory out of the air warning system, and even prohibits foreign nuclear weapons on French soil...