Looking Southward

NATO has spent most of its 18 years worrying about the possibility of an attack across its central front by the 89 Communist divisions poised in Eastern Europe. Last week, at the first meeting at NATO's new Brussels headquarters, the defense ministers of the 14 military allies had a new concern: the sudden Soviet buildup in the Mediterranean, on NATO's southern flank.

Last January no more than a dozen Soviet warships sailed upon what has been for years the NATO domain, of the 50-ship U.S. Sixth Fleet. Now 45 to 55 Soviet ships, including missile-firing destroyers, plus a dozen submarines, patrol the Mediterranean. The Russians supply their ships at sea, sometimes drop into Alexandria, Port Said and the Syrian port of Latakia for repairs under the pretext of good-will visits. They also visit the French-built base at Mers-el-Kebir on the Algerian coast, which they would like to use as a permanent base when the last remnants of the French navy pull out next year. Sometimes the Soviet ships come so close to U.S. vessels that the Americans must take evasive action.

U.S.S.R. Marines. Many NATO experts fear that the Soviet Union is developing new military muscle for use in limited wars. The Russians are now testing their first aircraft carrier in the Black Sea; another carrier is under construction. Both ships are designed to carry helicopters and serve as offshore bases for mobile invasion forces. The Russians are also building the world's largest troop-lifting helicopter, which can carry 200 men, and the biggest air transport, the Antonov 22, which accommodates 500 troops in battle dress. In addition, they now have 50,000 airborne "red berets," patterned after U.S. Green Berets, and 6,000 black-bereted "naval infantry," the Soviet equivalent of the U.S. Marines. All of this represents not only a major departure in Russian strategy but also a grim warning that brush fires the world over may draw the U.S., and in some cases its NATO allies, into sudden confrontation with the Soviet Union.,

The defense chiefs in Brussels authorized the creation of a flotilla of destroyers that will be on constant call to speed to any crisis in the Atlantic area. And the ministers finally laid to rest the old doctrine of immediate massive nuclear retaliation in case of a Soviet ground attack. They officially adopted a strategy that has actually been the policy of NATO field commanders since it was first propounded in 1962 by Defense Secretary Robert

McNamara. Under it, NATO will counter any Soviet attack with a three-phase graduated response that will begin with conventional weapons, step up to limited-range battlefield nuclear missiles, and progress to all-out H-bomb attack on the Soviet Union only if the Russians refuse to withdraw.

Goodbye, France. NATO's foreign ministers also added to the alliance's traditional defense missions a new diplomatic dimension. Acting on the recommendation of Belgian Foreign Minister Pierre Harmel, the ministers voted to use NATO's consultative machinery to coordinate Western contacts with the Eastern bloc. In this way, the ministers hope that their countries can use trade and cultural exchange with the East as leverage to work for mutual troop reduction.

Even though President de Gaulle withdrew his forces from the alliance's military setup, France is still a member of NATO. But it is beginning to show its lack of interest even on the political level: Foreign Minister Couve de Mur-ville sat in the political meetings and studiously read Le Monde. The French Foreign Minister's cool disdain for the proceedings was regarded by other ministers as a sign that France will exercise the option that becomes operative under the NATO charter in 1969 and withdraw from the organization entirely. De Gaulle reckons that since the U.S. will defend Europe anyway, France may as well enjoy the benefits of the alliance without having to bear any of the responsibilities.

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