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iv.
V.
Dutch will observe this pledge.
The Americans
The Americans are currently resisting strong
domestic pressure from Congress (e.g. Senator
Mansfield) to make cuts in their forces stationed
in Europe and have been urging the Europeans to
do more not less in their own defence. The
US Secretary of Defense has recently warned that
significant British reductions, particularly if
they involved cuts in the strength of BAOR
outside the context of MBFR, would surely be
followed by unilateral US reductions.
If the
US Administration was indeed compelled to make
substantial reductions, these could seriously
imperil the strategy of the Alliance and its
political cohesion. There is a strong probability
that UK cuts, if followed by significant !!S cuts
would precipitate European cuts; and some countries
e.g. Denmark, Norway and Holland might reconsider
their membership of the Alliance.
The cohesion of NATO and our position in it
Reductions to the Critical level would in any
circumstances be a severe shock to the cohesion
of NATO, and as indicated in iv above could in
some circumstances lead to its unravelling.
addition to the essential minimum of political
consultation‘(ii above) we could mitigate the
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