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North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 May 2009
Extract
The Ministerial Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) held its spring ministerial meeting in Oslo, Norway, from May 8 to 10, 1961, under the chairmanship of the new Secretary-General of NATO, Mr. Dirk U. Stikker. United States Secretary of State Dean Rusk announced to the assembled Ministers of the fifteen-member alliance that his government was prepared, in pursuance of the plan announced to the NATO Council by his predecessor, Mr. Christian A. Herter, to commit five Polaris nuclear missile submarines to forces assigned to NATO. The Herter plan had been contingent upon agreement by the European members to purchase an additional 100 nuclear missiles for NATO, but according to the press, this part of the proposal was understood to have been abandoned because of European objections to the cost of such an undertaking. The submarines were to be assigned to the command of Vice-Admiral George W. Anderson, who held the dual role of Commander of the United States Sixth Fleet, based in Naples, and of the NATO Strike Force South, it was also made known. Ultimate control of the eighty Polaris nuclear warheads would, however, revert to the President of the United States. A plan for the Permanent Council of the treaty powers to review the alliance's total military situation as a matter of high urgency was tied to Secretary Rusk's announcement on the Polaris submarines. The United States Secretary of State, in addressing the Council, gave his government's views on the situation in Cuba, the Congo, Laos, and South Vietnam and stated that the United States would consider it a violation of the legal situation in Berlin if the Soviet Union signed a peace treaty with East Germany. Should the Soviet Union proceed to sign such a peace treaty the allies would insist on continued Western rights of access to West Berlin and would make it clear that they were prepared to resist encroachment on their position, Mr. Rusk declared.
- Type
- International Organizations: Summary of Activities: III. Political and Regional Organizations
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The IO Foundation 1961
References
1 NATO Letter, June 1961 (Vol. 9, No. 6), p. 18–19Google Scholar; see also The New York Times, May 9, ro, and 11, 1961Google Scholar, and The Times (London), May 11, 1961Google Scholar. For information on previous activities of NATO, see International Organization, Spring 1961 (Vol. 15, No. 2), p. 326–328Google Scholar. Mr. Dirk U. Stikker, former Foreign Minister of the Netherlands and permanent representative of the Netherlands to the NATO Ministerial Council was formally confirmed by the Council as the new Secretary-General to succeed Mr Paul-Henri Spaak on April 21, 1961.
2 NATO Letter, June 1961 (Vol. 9, No. 6), p. 18.Google Scholar
3 The New York Times, May 11, 1961.Google Scholar
4 NATO Letter, May 1961 (Vol. 9, No. 5), p. 21Google Scholar, and The Times (London), May 11, 1961.Google Scholar
5 Ibid., April 1961 (Vol. 9, No. 4), p. 19.
6 Ibid., June 1961 (Vol. 9, No. 6), p. 21.
7 The Times (London), March 3, 1961.Google Scholar
8 Ibid., June 21, 1961.
9 Ibid., June 5, 1961.
10 NATO Letter, March 1961 (Vol. 9, No. 3), p. 19.Google Scholar
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