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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, NOVEMBER 16, 1984
PAGE 13
the U.S..•• ! believe the WEU should more properly be called the
EOC (Europeans-Only Caucus).
The misguided effort to revive the WEU was launched by the
French.••• The British magazine ECONOMIST believes that: "The
French motive is clear. For years France has seen the WEU as a
means of getting back some of the influence over European defense
matters it lost when it took its armed forces out of NATO's mili
tary command in the mid-1960s." The French also seem worried
that the West Germans are sliding toward neutrality, and they
hope to prevent this by tying the West Germans more firmly to
NATO •..•
In Rome this past weekend, the WEU member nations agreed to hold
twice-yearly joint meetings of their defense and foreign mini
sters.
This select group will meet prior to NATO's sessions.
Might not they present their recommendations to NATO as a fait
accompli?
��
Ironically, one of the purposes of the WEU is to allay the con
cerns of U.S. officials that the Europeans are not doing enough
for their own defense. This worthwhile objective may backfire
because the WEU could actually undercut American public support
for keeping U.S. troops in Europe. NATO's security may very well
be jeopardized if this misguided, some say sinister, initiative
goes
full-steam ahead.
A case in point was last June's narrow Senate vote opposing an
amendment by Sen. S�m Nunn (D., Ga.) to sharply reduce the levels
of U.S. combat troops in Western Europe unless the Europeans in
crease their defense spending. The administration lobbied very
hard against this proposal, and it failed. However, next year
members of the Europeans-Only Caucus may get a change in U.s.
policy they hadn't bargained for.
At the Rome meeting, the WEU ministers formally approved the removal of the
remaining WEU restrictions on West Germany's production and stockpiling of
conventional weapons. The Soviet Union severely eriticized the proposed
lifting of restrictions (on the production of long range bombers and
missiles) after a preliminary agreement was announced in June.
The West German foreign minister, Hans Dietrich-Genscher, said the decision
will not alter his government's long-standing policy on armaments. "We
have no intention of producing strategic weapons," Genscher remarked. A
document issued by the group said "commitments and controls" concerning
nuclear, biological and chemical weapons will be maintained for West Ger
many.
In this regard, it will be a little time yet before West Germany could ac
quire, if it eventually chose to, nuclear weapons. An article entitled
"Europeanization of NATO" appeared in the November, 1984 issue of the BUL
LETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS. It reported, in part:
The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1970 prohibits many NATO
members, including West Germany, from acquiring or controlling
nuclear weapons. But thanks to several U.S. interpretations of