Foreign Relations: NATO's Dilemma

Of all the difficulties deferred until after the U.S. elections, none has greater implications for U.S. and free-world security than the strain within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Last week, in conferences with Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, President Johnson discussed the NATO problem at length. McNamara also held long consultations in Washington with West Germany's visiting Defense Minister Kai-Uwe von Hassel; U.S. Under Secretary of State George Ball was in Europe trying to sell the idea of a multilateral nuclear force (MLF), and former German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer injected himself back into the discussions...