months ago I had the privilege of attending a meeting unique in modern diplomatic history. Fourteen Heads of Government and one personal representative of his Head of Government sat down in Paris last December to assess the international problems facing them all individually and collectively as partners of the North Atlantic Alliance. After three crowded days during which there was a full exchange of information and opinion they, with one voice, told the world how they viewed the international situation and what they had decided to do about it. Their views and their decisions are to be found in the declaration and communique of the December ministerial meeting of the NATO Council. I mention this not only because it was the first meeting of the NATO Council that I attended but, of far greater importance, because it was the first NATO Council meeting held in the new era the era of space flight. It was a meeting held under the fleeting shadows of two earth satellites. Of more immediate concern, however, was the fact that it was held under the threat, from a bloc that NATO had in the first place been created to face and to resist, that within a relatively short time there would be the capacity to launch, in quantity, ballistic missiles capable of reaching any point on the face of the earth. It would be foolish to suggest that the fifteen men gathered about the conference table and their advisers were not concerned at the dramatic evidence of advances in Soviet technology and increased military potential. In the circumstances, it would not have been surprising if, at that meeting, one had encountered traces of panic. Such, however, was not the case. With a determination that clearly and profoundly demonstrated their faith in the purposes and principles of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, these fifteen representatives of 450 million people examined the problems before them and reached unanimous' agreement on the course of action to follow towards the solution! of each.
Read full abstract