Word: west
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...broader sense, the new missiles are designed to fill a political as well as a strategic gap in the Western deterrent by warning Moscow that it could not escape unscathed from nuclear threats aimed at dominating Western Europe. In 1977, both Britain and West Germany called Washington's attention to the fact that the alliance, if it should suddenly become the target of a Soviet attack in Europe, could easily find itself in a nuclear dilemma: its response might be either too modest (perhaps with the use of battlefield nuclear artillery) or too devastating (an intercontinental ballistic missile strike...
...Soviet campaign only tended to strengthen the resolve of the British, West German and Italian governments. But it also contributed to the uncertainty of some of the smaller members of NATO, notably The Netherlands and Belgium. The opposition socialist parties in The Netherlands managed to collect enough support to put the Dutch Parliament on record as opposing the missile plan. Caught in a domestic political dilemma, Premier Andreas van Agt dashed off to Washington, Rome, London and Bonn in search of a compromise...
...Henri Simonet arrogantly declared that some of his party colleagues "would be better employed drawing comic strips than dealing with foreign affairs." In Denmark and Norway, some leftists also had strong reservations about the missile plan. For a while it looked as if NATO might degenerate into what the West Germans had always feared it could become if left alone to shoulder the nuclear responsibility: a two-tier organization of small powers and a "directorate" of larger ones...
During the six-hour session, the West Germans were openly impatient with the Dutch and the Belgians on the missile question. Said Bonn's Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher: "We Germans realize you have political difficulties. But two out of three of the new rockets will be based on our territory." He called on the organization to make "a clear-cut decision for the sake of the alliance...
...NATO members avoided a serious open split, but obvious differences remained. The final communique declared that NATO would press forward with the deployment of the missiles in "selected countries." NATO Secretary-General Joseph Luns confirmed that the countries were Britain, West Germany and Italy; he added that "Belgium and The Netherlands may accept the missiles later." Both recalcitrant countries said that they might well accept the missiles on their territory if there were no progress in disarmament negotiations with the Soviet Union; Belgium said it would reconsider in six months, The Netherlands in two years...