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University Daily Kansan
Monday. Dec. 16. 1963
Johnson Commits Support to NATO
PARIS—(UPI) President Johnson, in a message to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Council of Ministers, pledged today to keep the equivalent of six U.S. divisions in Europe "so long as they are needed."
The message was read to the opening session of the three-day meeting by Secretary of State Dean Rusk.
It told the United States' allies of Johnson's "steadfast resolve" to continue U.S. commitments to the defense of Europe.
"THEIS CONSTANCY reflects not merely the community of ideals and culture which binds us to Europe," the message said. "It reflects also my country's awareness that its security can be assured, its interests and values can be furthered, only by a close partnership with Europe in common tasks."
Rusk later paid a courtesy call on President Charles de Gaulle and gave him Johnson's greetings. He took time out from the NATO session to see De Gaulle, and the appointment, made at Rusk's request, appeared to indicate an attempt to inject a little warmth into U.S.-French relations.
Johnson said the first of these tasks is creation of a balanced defense posture for NATO, including both nuclear and conventional forces which would enable the alliance to deal with aggression "with the force appropriate to the threat."
"To NATO's continuing fulfillment of this task, I pledge my country's will and resources," he added.
JOHNSON CALLED on the other members of the alliance to share the defense burden and expressed assurance that this would be done.
He urged the NATO partners to assume responsibilities "commensurate with their resources" in defense, aid to underdeveloped nations, and trade.
"That is what partnership in a vigorous Atlantic community means and requires," he continued. "To this end we welcome the emergence of a Europe growing in unity and strength."
Johnson's message reflected a continuation of President Kennedy's policies toward NATO — assurances of continued U.S. commitments to the defense of Europe, coupled with an appeal for the European nations to assume a larger share in these and related tasks.
JOHNSON PAID tribute to Kennedy at the start of his message. He recalled that less than a month after Kennedy took office, he sent NATO a message of support.
"He fulfilled this pledge in the three years of gallant service he gave us." Johnson's message said. "That fulfillment is a lasting memorial to the stature of the man we mourn today."
Johnson said that the success of
both European and American efforts to build the Atlantic partnership "and the larger community of free nations which that partnership serves" depends on the success of NATO.
"That is why I, like three presidents before me, rededicate my country to its continuing support and hold high hopes for its continuing success," he said.
"WE CAN BEST honor him by continuing our pursuit of the goal of Atlantic partnership — by seeking an ever closer collaboration between a united Europe and the United States in dealing with all the great and burdensome tasks of building and defending a community of free nations," he added.
Rusk, in his capacity as NATO council chairman for 1963-64, also made a statement of his own on the close associations Johnson has had with the alliance.
"Those of us who have known President Kennedy personally will understand why we have now turned our eyes toward the future and are taking up our appointed tasks in the always unfinished business of peace and freedom," he said.
"President Johnson has been close to NATO from its very birth, has been a pillar of its bipartisan support, and has visited most of the NATO countries."
AS THE NATO ministers met, the Supreme Soviet in Moscow began deliberations on Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev's $46 million crash farm program, part of which he intends to finance by cutting military spending. In announcing the military cuts last week, Khrushchev urged NATO to take similar steps.
Rusk also carried personal greetings from Johnson to French President Charles de Gaulle, with whom he arranged a courtesy call. The meeting, at Rusk's request, was seen as an attempt to take some of the chill out of U.S.-French relations.
Farly because of French opposition to some NATO policies, the ministers' meeting was expected to be one of the lest controversial in years. The problems and opposition remain, but no attempt will be made to tackle them during the three-day session because their complexity is too great for such a short time.
The council sessions were being devoted instead to East-West relations, prospects for continued diplomatic probing with the Russians, Berlin, Germany, disarmament, and communist threats outside the NATO area. NATO sources said.
U. S. sources said Rusk told the other foreign ministers that the United States would continue probing for means of improving relations with the Soviet Union.
All these questions were discussed in detail during a round of preliminary meetings among the foreign ministers over the weekend.
KU students traveling to the Adair County area of Oklahoma for the vacation have been warned by the director of the student health service that an epidemic of diphtheria has broken out there.
Epidemic Breaks Out In Oklahoma County
Dr. Ralph Canuteson said students who will be visiting the affected area or who will possibly encounter people from that area should report to Watkins Memorial hospital for a diphtheria booster shot. Student enrollment fee paid at the beginning of the semester cover the innoculation.
Registrar's records of students who enrolled on September 12 and 13 in the Kansas Union revealed that no KU student listed a city in the affected area as his hometown.
Oklahoma State Health Department officials declared Adair County an epidemic area last Monday. At that time, two deaths had been definitely attributed to diphtheria and a third was suspected to have been caused by the disease. Thirteen cases were reported in county hospitals.
Cities in the epidemic area in Adair County are Stillwell, Christy, Bunch, Lynn, Blanche, Barron, Beeville, Proctor, Westfield, Ballard, and Watts. Prairie Grove, Okla, and Siloam Springs, Ark, are also in the epidemic area.
Officer Killed In Viet Nam
SAIGON, South Viet Nam—(UPI)
—A U.S. Army officer was killed by
Communist guerrillas yesterday and
three other U.S. servicemen were
reported missing in the crash of their
helicopter off the Vietnamnes coast.
The death was the ninth in the past four days. It raised to 126 the number of Americans killed in South Viet Nam combat since January, 1961, when the U.S. buildup began here. Another 29 U.S. troops have died in non-combat accidents.
The three helicopter crewmen raised to 15 the number of Americans missing in fighting or combat operations during the same period.
A U.S. military spokesman gave these accounts of the two incidents;
The officer was shot by a Communist heavy machine gun in an operation against the guerrillas just after dawn yesterday in Central Viet Nam.
He was killed by a single shot in the chest. Other casualities were not known.
The helicopter plunged into the sea Saturday night half a mile off the coast of Central Viet Nam. An officer and two enlisted men were listed as missing after the crab h.
A fourth crewman swam to shore and reached army units operating in the area. The survivor, the co-pilot of the helicopter, said it overshot its landing zone while on a night medical mission and circled over the ocean.
He said there was no mechanical failure of the HU1B turbojet helicopter, and officials had no explanation for the crash.
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The hope is based on the theory that first-hand knowledge of the destruction that can be wrought by nuclear weapons has a sobering effect.
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This assessment of the strategy disagreement explained why the question has been dropped from the agenda of this week's annual NATO ministerial meeting.
BECAUSE IT LACKS an anti-missile missile and is exposed to a Soviet attack that could kill 100 million Americans, Washington doubts that Moscow would take seriously any threat to use nuclear weapons to counter a conventional Russian attack.
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The U.S. government instead proposes a stair-step defense, beginning with conventionally armed troops. If this did not halt the attack, the defense would move up to tactical battlefield nuclear weapons, with missiles and other strategic weapons used only as a last resort.
U.S. Questions Western Force Without France
But Washington hopes that once De Gaulle does have his own nuclear strike force, he will realize American ideas for its use are better.
PARIS — (UPI) The United States believes there is little chance of Western agreement on nuclear strategy before French President Charles de Gaulle builds his own atomic strike force, diplomatic sources said today.
De Gaulle's theory is that a Soviet attack can be prevented only if Moscow knows that any attack will provoke an immediate nuclear strike at strategic targets inside Russia.
That force could make hash of Washington's and NATO's strategic plans. De Gaulle says his force will not be assigned to NATO, but remain under French national command.
BY THE END of 1965, De Gaulle is expected to have a strategic air force of 50 Mirage planes, each armed with a nuclear or hydrogen bomb.
Groom, 94, Is Early
CHRISTCHURCH, England—(UPI)
Bridegroom John Dickings, 94,
walked three miles yesterday to his
wedding to Miss Dorothy Ledbitter,
50, and arrived three hours early.
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