U.S. Attitude To Atlantic Pact

Northern Advocate, 18 February 1949, Page 5

U.S. Attitude To Atlantic Pact

WASHINGTON, Thu.—There had been no change in the United States attitude to the Atlantic pact, said the Secretary of State (Mr Dean Acheson) at a press conference today.

He had been asked to comment on European and other charges that the United States was “welshing” on the commitments planned in the pact.

Mr Acheson said: “We have been proceeding on the basis of policies which have been clearly defined and which, I think, are well understood.” TRUMAN’S SPEECH

These policies, he added, were contained in President Truman’s recent inaugural address, the Vandenberg resolution passed by the Senate in 1948, and the resolution passed by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Repi'esentatives in 1948. Mr Truman, in his inaugural speech, supported the principle of collective defence pacts, and said the best deterrent to aggression was “the certainty that immediate and effective countermeasures will be taken against those wno violate the peace.”

The Vandenberg resolution favoured United States participation in collective defence pacts, but stipulated that American military commitments must be “in accordance with constitutional processes.”