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U.S. Says it Won’t Give Up Military Command of NATO
Eisenhower was the first supreme allied commander
By Charles Aldinger
U.S. generals have served as supreme allied commander of
NATO forces in Europe (SACEUR) since Dwight Eisenhower first
donned the cap in 1949 when NATO was formed. And senior U.S.
officials said at a meeting of alliance defence ministers that
policy would not change now.
"It's universallly accepted that to maintain the
transatlantic link it needs to be an American. It's still the
view. It's both our view and the unanimous view within the
alliance," assistant U.S. Defence Secretary Frank Kramer told a
news conference.
France, which left the military wing of the alliance in
1966, recently agreed to return in a move to increase European
influence and autonomy for selective military operations without
U.S. participation.
"The United States will provide SACEUR as long as our
allies want it. They all want it," said U.S. Ambassador to NATO
Robert Hunter in response to questions.
British Defence Secretary Michael Portillo told a news
conference at Thursday's meeting that both Britain and France
supported the continuation of a U.S. military commander for NATO
forces.
But he also voiced support for a proposal that would give
more autonomy and power in future to the deputy SACEUR, a post
traditionally held by a European. Under that plan -- one of
several to be considered by ministers in future months -- the
deputy would take control of European-only operations and would
not be required to answer to the American SACEUR.
"We believe that under that (overall U.S. command), a
regional structure should reflect the realities of modern
Europe," Portillo said in response to questions.
The American SACEUR also serves as commander of U.S.
military forces in Europe, but makes decisions invoslving the
two tasks separately from each other.
Kramer said he expected NATO military officials to move in
the coming months to begin drawing up detailed contingency plans
to reinforce last week's decision by foreign ministers on key
security restructuring.
Under the plan, the Western European Union would be given
the ability to use NATO command structures, heavy transportation
aircraft and other assets in European military operations in
regional crises even when U.S. forces did not become involved.
But Hunter made clear that NATO itself would get first call
on its military assets in any situation effecting all members. |
BRUSSELS, June 13 (Reuters) - The United States said on
Thursday it would not end 47 years of U.S. military command of
all NATO forces despite France's decision to rejoin the
alliance's defence structure.
U.S. Defence Secretary William Perry, who is attending the
two-day meeting of defence ministers, and European allies have
welcomed France's move. But they made clear the general who
follows U.S. Army General George Joulwan as current commander
would be an American.
Other alliance officials said privately on Thursday that the
civilian leader of NATO, its secretary general, is traditionally
a European and that they had seen no pressure from Paris or
other European capitals to change the SACEUR tradition.
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