The Tie That Binds

The leaders of the Atlantic world had met to confront together the gravest challenge their alliance had ever faced. They conferred, decided, and departed to their several countries with no great acclaim.

But the Western world had been shaken before its leaders met. After their meeting, the world shook no longer.

For the summit meeting reminded the people of the free world that NATO has a kind of strength which the Soviet empire can never have--a strength based upon a common tradition and common aspirations. Dwight Eisenhower, searching for words to put this thought into writing, told the leaders: "The fundamental genius of actions such as this is that we follow certain principles but recognize certain differences which cannot be surmounted completely. But because of our fundamental unity, we either surmount our difficulties or accommodate them."

NATO nations may, and do, quarrel; in the heat of argument they may cry out that the whole family is worthless. But in the last analysis, they cannot escape the consciousness of the tie that binds them. At Paris, the NATO leaders discovered and articulated the fact that that tie was not merely the urgency of military need. It was the basic community of Western civilization itself.

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