ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the ideas and debates concerning security policy and NATO within the Labour party, from a historical perspective. It tries to explain the present ambiguous position of the Dutch social democrats and to speculate on the consequences for the security policy of the Dutch government. In 1946 and 1947 the Dutch government tried to maintain neutrality without aloofness or abstentionism. It joined the United Nations. Loyalty to the Atlantic Alliance retained high priority while Luns was minister of foreign affairs. In the late 1950s the Netherlands became the first European country to accept American nuclear weapons on its territory, and this occurred without public debate. Public opinion criticized the production of neutron bombs and the deployment of cruise missiles. Postwar Dutch social democracy, as embodied in the Partij van de Arbeid or Labour party, founded in 1946, cannot be understood without some knowledge of its predecessor, the Social Democratic Workers party.
