Word: pact
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...against a country, by infiltration within the country, be an armed attack?" If it were purely an internal revolutionary activity, said Acheson, .that would not be an armed attack. But if it were a revolution inspired, armed and directed from the outside, that would be a different matter. The pact, he said, didn't spell it out and shouldn't-when you come to real situations you ought to be able to have some latitude in deciding them...
Acheson said that the pact did not bind the U.S. to provide arms for Western Europe, but it was obvious to him that only the U.S. could. He did not say, but his audience knew that the Administration was already preparing a first-year program of $1 billion to $1.5 billion in arms shipments to Western Europe. It was the point in the North Atlantic Treaty discussions that was most likely to get senatorial danders up. The Senate, after plenty of questioning, would probably produce the two-thirds majority vote required to ratify the pact. But several key supporters...
...pact recognizes the common heritage and civilization of [the Western] peoples, founded on principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law . . . It is based on an understanding and a determination to preserve our way of life . . . No nation innocent of aggressive intentions need have the slightest fear or apprehension...
Britain's Ernest Bevin spoke with fervor and measured hope: "We have today embarked on a great adventure ... a most famous historical undertaking . . . This new [North Atlantic] pact brings us under a wider roof of security ... It is certainly one of the greatest steps toward world peace ... a new era of cooperation and understanding...
...cheers were less solid than British, French dissent more furious and determined. Snarled Communist Boss Maurice Thorez: "Hypocritical phrases and lies . . . Today there rises the ghost of the new war . . We are now chained to the war chariot of the American billionaires." L'Humanité shrilled: "The war pact is signed...