NATO 1948: The Birth of the Transatlantic Alliance by Lawrence S. Kaplan

Author:Lawrence S. Kaplan [Kaplan, Lawrence S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781461640264
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
Published: 2013-07-10T21:00:00+00:00

THE WASHINGTON PAPER—9 SEPTEMBER 1948

At no time was there an expectation that the Washington talks would be definitive. The adjective exploratory is sufficiently revealing of just what might develop from the conversations. No one was under any illusion that a treaty could be completed before the U.S. presidential election in November. But building on the labors of the working group, the drafting committee did produce a paper ready to be submitted to the home governments of the participating nations. After all the wrangling over issues dear to individual countries or to the Western Union bloc as a whole, the players all agreed that they had come up with a workable draft with elements of both the Brussels and Rio treaties prominently displayed. They included reference to collaboration in economic, social, and cultural fields (Article 3); continuous and effective self-help and mutual aid (Article 4); provision for mutual assistance in meeting an armed attack (Article 5); and delineation of areas in which Article 5 would be activated (Article 7).107

It did not matter that the scope of the alliance was not settled, that membership was far from complete, or that the critical Article 5 was given multiple interpretations. What did matter was the message tucked into a one-sentence paragraph in the memorandum, known as the Washington Paper, sent by the participants in the exploratory talks on 9 September 1948. It stated that “No alternative to a treaty appears to meet the essential requirements.” 108 And the most essential requirement was the incorporation of the United States into a transatlantic security system.

Hickerson and Achilles had every right to celebrate this as their treaty. Their fingerprints were all over the fourteen articles that were the heart of the draft. Gone were the pretentious locutions of the Brussels Pact; the “High Contracting Parties” of the Brussels Treaty was shortened to “Parties of the North Atlantic Treaty.” A preamble was postponed until the treaty was almost finished, to avoid wasting time arguing about its contents: “No applesauce until we’ve finished with the meat and potatoes” was Hickerson’s preference, along with language that could be understood by an Omaha milkman, as Achilles liked to say.109 More than six months lay ahead before the North Atlantic Treaty would become a reality, but its substance was in place by September 1948.

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