Outgunned NATO Weighed Nuclear Option in 1968

NATO commanders were so gloomy about their chances of repelling a Soviet attack after the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia that they contemplated using nuclear weapons, according to British records released today.

The Warsaw Pact invasion in late August of that year was a huge shock for the alliance and triggered bitter mutual recriminations about the low numbers and quality of NATO forces in Europe.

At a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s military committee in Brussels in September, the minutes of which were stored in Ministry of Defense records, U.S. Gen. Lyman L. Lemnitzer of NATO’s Supreme Allied Command Europe left his colleagues in no doubt as to their vulnerability.

“I can only say that this failure to translate recognition of the new Russian capability into specific urgent recommendations for measures to improve our conventional capability could lead us back to quick recourse to nuclear war in case of attack,” he said.

“I am certain we all agree this could be a dangerous price to pay for the lack of military prudence.”

A NATO report into the implications of the 1968 invasion had been removed from the British records and destroyed for security reasons. But notes of the discussions about the report remained intact and repeated certain key sections.

“The increased Warsaw Pact capability for initiating an attack, without buildup, gives added emphasis to the need to improve NATO’s capability to deal with an attack with little or no warning by some or all of the forces immediately available to the Warsaw Pact,” read one paragraph of the report. The lack of standardization of military equipment among member states also drew criticism.

In November, NATO ministers agreed to improve the alliance’s forward positions by upgrading the number of troops and the amount of weaponry.