At the Danish Society for the Atlantic Pact and Democracy at Copenhagen 30 September 1955

Speech delivered by Lord Ismay Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Denmark was the first NATO country that I visited shortly after my appointment as Secretary General. That was over three years ago and I cannot tell you how delighted I am to be here again. It was during that visit that I learned for the first time of the existence of the Danish Society for the Atlantic Pact and Democracy. I did not have the opportunity to meet you collectively at that time, but I much enjoyed my talks with two or three of your members; and a few weeks later I was thrilled to receive two golden hedgehogs - one for myself and one for my beloved war-time Chief — Sir Winston Churchill. Since then many other NATO countries have followed the initiative and good example of Denmark and have founded societies with similar aims. What is more, many of these societies have, as you know, joined together in a corporate body that is known as the Atlantic Treaty Association, which held its first Assembly in Paris last June. It was at this meeting that the Association elected Mr. Per Markussen as its Honorary Treasurer. They were indeed wise in their choice: and they were fortunate that so able a man and such an enthusiast for all that NATO stands for should be prepared to undertake this important voluntary task. In NATO we understand that he and Mr. Niels Matthiasen have been the driving force behind your Society. I am very interested and glad to learn that this very morning your Society has set up a powerful Council, on which various walks of life in Denmark will be represented; and not only your Society, but NATO are to be congratulated that the Rector of the University, Mr. H.M. Hansen, has accepted the Presidency. I hope that this will lead to your receiving even more widespread public support and understanding than you have enjoyed in the past. The recent change of tactics on the part of the Soviet — the substitution of the smile for the frown — may lead to false hopes and wishful thinking, unless the true facts of the case are kept constantly in mind by public opinion in all NATO countries. It is therefore more than ever, vital to the cause of freedom at this juncture that your Society should be able to continue and extend the valuable work that it has done since its inception. And now may I take the opportunity to repeat something that I have often said before. You may rest assured that the North Atlantic Council attach the greatest importance to the work that is beind done by voluntary organizations such as yours in enlightening public opinion about NATO and in developing a sense of community between the peoples of the 15 NATO countries. It is therefore the policy of the Council to give them all possible encouragement and support, but at the same time not to attempt to run them or finance them. For even if we had funds with which to help you (which we haven't), I believe that the value of your spontaneous enterprise would be diminished, if you became too closely linked with either NATO itself or even with your Government. But, except for money we will do our utmost to help you in any way that we can. For example, we would be only too glad to provide you from time to time with lecturers on the wide range of problems with which NATO deals. We can arrange tours of journalists. We can supply you with publications. Here we have a good deal of material. There is the book which appears under my name entitled: NATO - The First Five Years", (I propose to start bringing this up to date in the near future); then there is the NATO Handbook; a pocket version of my book. There is also the simple picture-book called "Atlantic Alliance"; and finally the monthly NATO Letter, which gives in condensed form news of current interest. Your Society already receives 200 copies of this Letter, and this is all that we can manage under our present arrangements for its production. I hope, however, to find ways and means not only of improving and enlarging it, but also of having it printed. This would enable us to let you have many more copies than you get at present, if you so wish. We cannot do much in the way of films at present, as they are expensive to produce; but, as you probably know, there are two quite good films, one entitled "Alliance for Peace" which portrays the birth of NATO, and the other entitled "Around this Table", which portrays the work of the civil side of the Organization. There is also a series of documentary films about each member of the Alliance, entitled the "Atlantic Community Series", which is now nearing completion. Lastly, there is the NATO mobile exhibition,which you are sponsoring at the moment and which I hope to visit at Elsinore this afternoon. Exhibitions of this kind have already bean seen by eight million people in Italy, Greece, Turkey, France and Portugal. To sum up, all our knowledge and experience, and all our resources - except money - are at your disposal. Please do not hesitate to draw upon them. I promise to give my personal attention to any requests. Now let me turn from voluntary organizations to NATO itself, I do not want to get involved in past history because it is familiar to all of my audience: but as a background to what I am going to say, I would ask you to recall the situation that existed in 1948. The free world was confronted with the greatest peril in its history. Russian expansion was rolling inexorably westwards. Somehow or other, the balance of power had to be restored. It was in that grim moment that the United States decided to abandon their traditional policy of isolationism from the affairs of Europe. It was in that grim moment that the Danish people, always realistic, decided to abandon their traditional policy of neutrality and turn it into a foreign and defensive policy, based on an active defence alliance. In the minds of free men that brave decision will always be associated with the name of your late Prime Minister, Mr. Hands Hedtoft, whose untimely death was mourned not only in Denmark but in all free countries throughout the world. Now let me try to summarise the achievements of NATO in the 6 1/2 years since the Treaty was signed — not in the spirit of selfsatisfaction, but in order to show that the exertions and sacrifices which have been made by what I like to think of as the Atlantic Family of Nations have been worthwhile. First and foremost, peace in Europe has been preserved, thank God. That was and is, the primary purpose of the North Atlantic Treaty. Secondly, Russian expansion westwards, which was proceeding at such an alarming rate, has been stopped. Not a square inch of territory in Europe has fallen under Soviet domination since the Treaty was signed. Thirdly, the building up of the collective armed strength of the Alliance has proceeded — not perhaps as fast as some might have hoped — but certainly faster than anyone could have had reason to expect. Who could have foretold that the cohesion between the armed forces of all member countries would have reached its present pitch? Fourthly, despite the vast expenditure in terms of money exertion that has been devoted to defence during these last six years, the national economies of all the member countries are on the whole healthier and stronger than they were when the Treaty was signed. Fifthly, a remarkable sense of unity has grown up not only between the various armed forces of the Alliance, but between the Governments themselves. The habit of consultation is being constantly developed. Let me take as an example the Four Power Conference held at Geneva last July. Prior to this Conference, the French, British and US Governments exchanged views among themselves on all the problems that were likely to be discussed, and tentatively agreed on the line they should take. Their collective views, as they took shape, were periodically reported to the North Atlantic Council, so that the twelve partners who were not going to be represented at Geneva could express their opinions on the proposals, and put forward any suggestions they thought fit. In this way all the partners, and not only the three who were to be represented at the Conference took part in the preparatory work. Finally, the three Foreign Ministers who were going to Geneva, came to Paris the day before the. meeting, and had a full dress conference with their colleagues from the other twelve countries. Thus they could take their places round the Council table in Geneva, fortified by the knowledge that they would be acting in accordance with the wishes of their fellow members of NATO. , The same procedure is being followed at the present time in regard to the Conference that is to take place at Geneva on the 27th October. The North Atlantic Council had already had a preliminary report from the three Governments themselves, and they will continue to receive reports during the forthcoming weeks. And there is to be a Foreign Ministers' meeting in Paris about the 25th October just as there was on the last occasion. After that digression I come to the crowning achievement of 6 1/2 years of perseverance and sacrifice on the part of the members of the North Atlantic Alliance. I am convinced that the combined defensive strength which has been built up and the spirit of unity which has been developed are the principal reasons for the Soviet change of tactics. It is a great encouragement to all of us in NATO to know that this conviction is shared by your own Prime Minister, Mr. Hansen. In a public speech on the l4th August, he stated categorically that in his judgement the co-operation within NATO had been one of the essential reasons for the present possibility of easing international tension and that therefore it would be a grave mistake to abandon the NATO policy now. I shall have more to say about the Soviet change of tactics before I end my talk. Meanwhile, since I have summarised what NATO has done, it is only fair that I should mention some of the directions in which it has not made as much progress as might have been hoped. I refer, of course, to Article 2 of the Treaty which in effect pledges the partners to promote co-operation with each other in political, economic and social and cultural matters. So far as political co-operation is concerned, I have shown, that some progress has been made. So far as economic cooperation is concerned, this as you know, is a matter for the OEEC and it would be a mistake for NATO to enter this field. That leaves social and cultural cooperation and here it must be admitted that in spite of all our good intentions we have not made much headway. Of course the first essential is that each of the individual partners should be socially and economically a well organized community. We know that Denmark is fortunate in that respect and that such internal dangers as unemployment, social injustice and economic instability are not serious problems in this country. But how to secure cooperation in the social and cultural sphere between all the members of the Alliance is another matter and a very difficult one. The North Atlantic Council have had under consideration a very large number of schemes, but most of them cost too much money. I am glad to report however that we have at last made a start with the establishment of a NATO Fellowship Programme. The aim of this programme is to encourage the study of the historical, political, constitutional, legal, social, linguistic, economic and strategic problems of the North Atlantic area considered as a community. The sum of 13 1/2 million French francs — that is about 270 thousand Danish kroner — has been allotted to the 1956/57 Fellowship programme. The awards will, be divided into two categories: NATO Research Fellowships for established scholars; and Long-term scholarships for younger scholars at post-graduate level. It is at least a start, though a very modest one. And now let me conclude my talk with a few remarks about the Soviet change of tactics, — the smiles, the bouquets and banquetss the participation in sporting events, the much more reasonable attitude adopted at Conferences and so forth. The bear smiles instead of growls, but let us remember he is an animal that can kill you with a hug. Each and every one of us must hope and pray that all of this may ultimately lead to a real relaxation of tension between East and West and to the laying of the foundations of an era of peace. But here I must sound a solemn warning, Paradoxical though it may seem, this change of Soviet tactics, which as I have said represents one of our crowning achievements, also presents us with very difficult problems. The peoples of all our democracies are hungry for peace and security. For 20 years some of us have lived either at war or under the shadow of war. They yearn for some alleviation of the exertions and sacrifices that have been demanded of them. They hear the argument put forward that the development of nuclear weapons has rendered conventional forces obsolete and unnecessary, and that it is a waste of money and effort to continue to maintain them. They are asked by some to believe that the hydrogen bomb has rendered war impossible because it is so deadly that both sides would be annihilated. There is therefore a danger that the free peoples may be lulled into a sense of false security, and that they will succumb to the temptation to relax their efforts which are still essential, if peace is to be preserved, and if our freedom and way of life are to be safeguarded. We must therefore be very careful not to be misled by specious and wholly untenable arguments, or read more into the smiles of the Kremlin than the facts of the case warrant. After all, even Mr. Krushev has himself warned us against wishful thinking. Here is what he said at a Kremlin banquet as recently as a fortnight ago: "The West say that the Soviet leaders smile, but that their actions do not match their smiles. But I assure them that the smiles are sincere. They are not artificial. We wish to live in peace. But if anyone thinks that our smiles mean that we abandon the teachings of Marx and Lenin" (i.e. that the ultimate purpose of Soviet policy is world revolution),"or abandon our Communist road, then they are fooling themselves". In the circumstances I submit that our course is plain. If we are to achieve a lasting relaxation of tension between East and West, and with it practical measures for peace, we can only do so by maintaining our unity and continuing to build up our collective strength. As I have already said, the national economies of practically all the member countries are healthier than they were five years ago. During the past two years defence expenditure has levelled off. This means that the proportion of its income that each country is devoting to defence is less than it was. Of course it is hard to have to spend money on armaments which could be so much better used for the happiness and well being of all our peoples, but it is for the present a stern necessity, alas. We have got to make the Atlantic Community a real family of nations. To falter or to weary of doing our duty to ourselves and to each other would be to incur the risk of fathomless catastrophe. That is the message which, in all humility but all sincerity, I submit to your Society in the hope and belief that you will find yourselves in agreement with my main conclusions. I pray that the great work on which you are engaged will be crowned with the success it deserves. Summary of Accomplishments To sum up the broad accomplishments of NATO in the five years since the Treaty was signed. A Council in permanent session, with effective powers of decision, meeting once, twice, or even thrice a week — at half an hour's notice if need be; an International Staff on which all fourteen countries are represented: a cordial and explicitly recognised relationship between the civil and military powers; a joint military organization with a network of commands covering the North Atlantic Ocean and the European Continent from the North Cape to North Africa, and from the Channel to the Caucasus Mountains; a shield of armed forces, not yet strong enough to resist an all out attack, but according to the Supreme Commander in Europe, sufficiently strong not to be overcome by the forces which the Soviet at present maintain outside Russia proper; impressive achievements in infrastructure, and so forth. These are noteworthy achievements, but there is an even more valuable achievement — namely the astonishing degree of unity which has already been reached. You see it everywhere. A visitor to the NATO Defence College in Paris will see groups of officers of eight or ten different nations working in the same syndicate and lunching together afterwards, learning each others viewpoints and making friendships that will endure for a life-time. There is the same atmosphere at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. General Gruenther recently said: "In my 35 years of service I have been in many headquarters; but I have never had experience with a happier one than SHAPE". A visit to the international manoeuvres which go on practically the whole year round all over the NATO area is an encouraging experience. Were it not for the difference in uniforms, one might think that the armed forces of all these different nations had always served under the same flag. On the civil side, no member of the International Staff regards himself as a national of his own country. They all regard themselves, with pride, as members of an international team dedicated to the service of the North Atlantic Alliance as a whole. Future of the Alliance We are now entering upon a difficult phase. The military danger may appear to have receded. The Soviet will continue to do their utmost to divide us. The longer a man carries a load, the heavier it seems to become: and all the member nations have been carrying a heavy load of defence expenditure for a long time. Nevertheless, the threat remains and may long persist. Our policies must be adopted to this basic fact. It would be mockery of all the exertions and sacrifices that have been made if we were now to be complacent or to relax, or worse still, to fall apart. We are on the right road: our fate is in our own hands. If we are true to ourselves and to each other, and if we remain united as we are today, all will be well.