ABSTRACT
The on-again, off-again "retirement" of Allied Supreme Commander of NATO, General Lauris Norstad, reflects the fact that the advocates of nuclear spread and the tactical use of nuclear weaponry continue to be a major force. It is highly unlikely that the Soviet Union would not immediately perceive this tactical ruse and act accordingly—by dropping immense atomic payloads, not on Berlin or Paris, but on New York and Chicago. Tactical thermonuclear conflict in Western Europe is a geographical absurdity if nothing else. It is hard to believe that the strategy of arming Western Europe with modern arms has as its real intent the establishment of a partnership with our allies or an improvement upon current counterforce strategies in effect. The impulse to break the "delicate balance of terror" through arms expansion rather than through arms reduction would only heighten tensions and postpone indefinitely any counterimpulse toward a negotiated settlement.
