Reliance On A-Bombs For NATO Defence

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28154, 18 December 1956, Page 15

Reliance On A-Bombs For NATO Defence

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) WASHINGTON, December 17. General Alfred Gruenther said today that the Western Allies would have to defend themselves with atomic weapons in an all-out war even if the Soviet Union announced that she would not initiate their use. General Gruenther, the former Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, said the West did not have the strength to defend itself without atomic weapons.

Asked if the West thus had taken the responsibility for launching a hydrogen war, General Gruenther replied that it merely had taken the responsibility for “defending itself” with nuclear weapons.

General Gruenther, who was interviewed on a television programme, also said the Suez Canal crisis had put a strain on Allied unity and consequently had weakened the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. But he asserted that the Western Alliance would emerge stronger than ever once current disagreements among Britain, France, and the United States had been straightened out. He said NATO still was not yet strong enough to give a guarantee that it could defend all of Europe.

But it had an overwhelming capacity to retaliate against an aggressor with long-range air power, he said.

Because the west could never match the Soviet Union man for man, NATO had turned to atomic weapons to defend itself —although it would use nonatomic means if it Could in the event of a small attack. General Gruenther said. He was asked what NATO policy would be if the Soviet Union announced that she was attacking today, but would not use atomic weapons. General Gruenther replied that the decision would be up to the NATO Council, but said his recommendation would be: “Please announce to the Russians that we will have to resist with all we have.”