ABSTRACT
The American military presence was wanted in Western Europe, not just in the negative role of a deterrent to Soviet aggression, but in the positive role of a reassurance to West Europe, the kind of reassurance a child needs from its parents or an invalid from his doctors against dangers which, however remote, cannot be entirely discounted. By the end of the 1950s Western Europe was an economic power-house that would have dominated Eastern Europe if the Soviet Union had let it. A decade later it was beginning to rival its own protector. A Soviet nuclear attack on Western Europe, or the plausible threat of one, is perhaps not utterly inconceivable. ‘The Dual Track’ is essential to effective reassurance: peoples expect their governments to provide them with adequate protection, but they also expect them to seek peace and, if they are not seen to be doing so, consensus over defence will crumble away.
