An Analysis of the MLF as a Solution to NATO's Nuclear Political Problem

The control of nuclear weapons and the strategy for their employment has presented problems in the NATO alliance for more than a decade. The United States proposed the multilateral nuclear force (MLF) as a response to European nations' political and strategic pressures in this area. It was U.S. policy makers' hopes that this proposal would reduce European demands for national nuclear forces. This thesis examines this U.S. proposal with an emphasis on its political aspects. Chapter 2 discusses U.S. policy against the proliferation of nuclear forces on the basis that this would endanger all nations concerned. It sets forth the necessity for centralized control of all allied nuclear weapons and some of the reasons for the United States' change of strategy from one of massive retaliation to one of flexible response. Chapter 3 presents the proposal for the MLF. The MLF would be a force of 25 ships resembling merchant vessels, each armed with 8 Polaris missiles. These ships would be manned with mixed crews from participating nations and assigned to NATO. The purpose of the proposal was to give nonnuclear nations of the Alliance a chance to participate in their nuclear defense, prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and promote political cohesion within the Alliance. Yet the proposal did not relinquish any degree of U.S. nuclear control to the allies. For the foreseeable future, the U.S. veto over use of the weapons in this force would remain absolute. In late 1964, it was decided to cease U.S. pressure for adoption of the proposal and to await European developments. The divergent views of major European allies are outlined in chapter 4. An evaluation of the views are presented in chapter 5. Finally, it is concluded that the MLF proposal does not meet the nuclear sharing needs of the Alliance, nor can it be easily modified to do so. However, there continues to exist a real need for more cooperation and coordination among the NATO allies in nuclear defense matters.