CONFIDENTIAL
makes, and has traditionally made, to the Alliance. It welcome a
our determination that NATO will remain the first charge on our
defence resources, and expresses satisfaction that we propose to
maintain the effectiveness of our present contribution to the
strategic nuclear deterrent and the present scale of our tactical
nuclear forces. But it expresses the "considerable disquiet"
within the Alliance at reductions which are "on a scale considerably
larger than that proposed by any other ally in recent years".
It endorses the views of the major NATO Commanders that our proposals,
if implemented in full, and if not offset by compensating measures
"would represent a major reduction of NATO's defence capability in
ACE and in the ACCHAN/AOLANT area, and would correspondingly weaken
NATO's conventional military capability vis-a-vis the Warsaw Pact".
6. It suggests a number of compensatory measures which we might
take to mitigate the effect of our reductions and proposes further consultations, in particular on these suggestions. 7
•
7. From the outset of the consultations we made clear to our
Allies that the Government's decision about the level of resources
we planned to allocate to defence over the Review period was firm;
only variations within this level were negotiable. It is this
decision, rather than the priorities we have followed in making
our NATO reductions, that has so upset our Allies, and caused, such a sharp and unfavourable reaction from them 7. We knew that
this would be their reaction, but they have produced no reasons for
our varying the painful decision we took earlier. I consider that
there is no question but that we should stick to that decision.
CONF CONFIDENTIAL
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