NATO Setback Feared if Labor Wins in Britain

Popular support for NATO is weakening in Western Europe, and the alliance could be jeopardized if the Labor Party wins next month’s elections in Britain, a report by a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee said Sunday.

“In a worst-case scenario for NATO, if a British Labor government attempts unilaterally to implement Labor’s current defense program, the alliance could be put in jeopardy,” the report issued by the House Europe and Middle East subcommittee said.

The Labor Party has said it would eliminate British nuclear forces and seek the removal of U.S. nuclear weapons from Britain if it comes to power in the June 11 election.

“Such a unilateral British change of policy could be seen as sufficiently damaging politically to trigger a strong reaction in the United States and among other NATO governments,” the report said.

“There is a possibility that the implementation of Labor’s policy in Great Britain could set off an anti-nuclear . . . domino effect in Western Europe,” it added.

“The Social Democratic and Socialist parties in West Germany, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium, for example, could join in the trend if they came to power with decisive parliamentary majorities.”

The report was written by Stanley Sloan, a foreign affairs specialist of the Library of Congress’ Congressional Research Service, at the request of Rep. Lee Hamilton, the subcommittee chairman. Sloan said the report did not necessarily represent the views of the members of the subcommittee.

Erosion of Support

Hamilton, an Indiana Democrat, said the report suggested that there was a significant erosion of support in Western Europe for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s defense policy.

“NATO reached a consensus in the late 1960s on the doctrine of ‘flexible response’ and the role of nuclear weapons in the defense of Western Europe. Now this consensus is beginning to come apart,” Hamilton said in a statement.

Among the reasons cited for the reduction in support for NATO were differences between the United States and many Western Europe leaders over the assessment of the Soviet threat and a growing impression in Europe that U.S. leadership is erratic and sometimes insensitive to European political and security concerns, he said.