Debating détente: NATO’s Tindemans Initiative, or why the Harmel Report still mattered in the 1980s

ABSTRACT

Scholars have long seen the Harmel Report as a significant moment in NATO’s history as the Western allies staked out a role for the Alliance in the pursuit of détente. This article examines how and why the Harmel Report’s parallel formula of defence and dialogue endured, focusing on the Alliance’s 1984 reappraisal of East-West relations, the Tindemans Initiative. A snapshot of the Alliance’s ongoing conversation about détente, the Tindemans Initiative illustrated the degree to which détente remained contested, yet also the enduring value of the Harmel Report’s ‘double philosophy’ as a mechanism to retain sufficient public support for the Alliance.

KEYWORDS:

• Harmel Report
• NATO
• détente
• transatlantic relations
• Tindemans Initiative

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ [Brussels, Belgium, Archives of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)], M-1(84)11, ‘Washington Statement on East-West Relations,’ 31 May 1984.

² On the Harmel Report, see Helga Haftendorn, NATO and the Nuclear Revolution: A Crisis of Credibility, 1966–1967 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), esp. ch. 5; Frédéric Bozo, ‘Détente Versus Alliance: France, the United States and the Politics of the Harmel Report,’ Contemporary European History 7/3 (1998): 343–60; Andreas Wenger, ‘Crisis and Opportunity: NATO’s Transformation and the Multilateralization of Détente, 1966–1968,’ Journal of Cold War Studies 6/1 (2004): 22–74; Helga Haftendorn, ‘The Harmel Report and its Impact on German Ostpolitik,’ in The Making of Détente: Eastern and Western Europe in the Cold War, 1965–75, ed. Wilfried Loth and Georges-Henri Soutou (London: Routledge, 2008), 103–16; Sten Rynning, ‘The Divide: France, Germany and Political NATO,’ International Affairs 93/2 (2017): 267–89; Timothy Andrews Sayle, Enduring Alliance: A History of NATO and the Postwar Global Order (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2019), 148–60.

³ See, for example, John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War: A New History (New York: Penguin, 2005), 217; James Graham Wilson, The Triumph of Improvisation: Gorbachev’s Adaptability, Reagan’s Engagement, and the End of the Cold War (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2014), 39.

⁴ See, for example, Poul Villaume and Odd Arne Westad, eds., Perforating the Iron Curtain: European Détente, Transatlantic Relations, and the Cold War, 1965–1985 (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2010), esp. 7–10; Oliver Bange and Poul Villaume, eds., The Long Détente: Changing Concepts of Security and Cooperation in Europe, 1950s-1980s (New York: Central European University Press, 2017), esp. xiii–xxviii; Stephan Kieninger, The Diplomacy of Détente: Cooperative Security Policies from Helmut Schmidt to George Shultz (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018).

⁵ Richard Davy, ‘Up the Learning Curve: An Overview,’ in Richard Davy (ed.), European Détente: A Reappraisal (London: The Royal Institute for International Affairs, 1992), 1–30; John W. Young, ‘Western Europe and the End of the Cold War, 1979–1989,’ in Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad (eds), The Cambridge History of the Cold War, vol. 3 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 291.

⁶ Matthias Schulz and Thomas A. Schwartz, ‘The Superpower and the Union in the Making: U.S.-European Relations, 1969–1980,’ in Matthias Schulz and Thomas A. Schwartz (eds), The Strained Alliance: U.S.-European Relations from Nixon to Carter (Washington and Cambridge: The German Historical Institute and Cambridge University Press, 2010), 360.

⁷ Gilbert A. Lewthwaite, ‘NATO: Old Solution for Current Problems,’ The Sun, 3 June 1984.

⁸ On Western reactions to the invasion of Afghanistan and intra-Alliance tensions, see Joe Renouard and D. Nathan Vigil, ‘The Quest for Leadership in a Time of Peace: Jimmy Carter and Western Europe, 1977–1981,’ in The Strained Alliance, 328–30.

⁹ On the Siberian pipeline, see Bruce W. Jentleson, Pipeline Politics: The Complex Political Economy of East-West Energy Trade (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986), 172–214; Ksenia Demidova, ‘The Deal of the Century: The Reagan Administration and the Soviet Pipeline,’ in Kiran Klaus Patel and Kenneth Weisbrode (eds), European Integration and the Atlantic Community in the 1980s (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 59–82; Andrea Chiampan, ‘“Those European Chicken Littles”: Reagan, NATO, and the Polish Crisis, 1981–2,’ The International History Review, 37/4 (2015): 682–99; David S. Painter, ‘From Linkage to Economic Warfare: Energy, Soviet-American Relations, and the End of the Cold War,’ in Jeronim Perović (eds), Cold War Energy: A Transnational History of Soviet Oil and Gas (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), 283–318; Tyler Esno, ‘Reagan’s Economic War on the Soviet Union,’ Diplomatic History 42/2 (2018): 281–304.

¹⁰ NATO, C-M(82)34, Luns report, ‘Annual Political Appraisal,’ 27 April 1982.

¹¹ C-M(82)34, ‘Annual Political Appraisal,’ 27 April 1982.

¹² Washington, DC, United States of America, Library of Congress, Paul H. Nitze Papers, Part 1, Box 70, ‘Committee on the Present Danger Meetings 12–13 Nov 198ʹ folder, Nitze remarks, Committee on the Present Danger, 12 November 1981.

¹³ [Kew, United Kingdom, The National Archives] (TNA-UK), Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) 33/5362, Wright to Pym, ‘The Siberian Pipeline: Lessons for the Future,’ 10 December 1982.

¹⁴ On the origins of the Dual-Track Decision, see Leopoldo Nuti, ‘The Origins of the 1979 Dual Track Decision – A Survey,’ in Leopoldo Nuti (eds), The Crisis of Détente in Europe: From Helsinki to Gorbachev, 1975–1985 (London: Routledge, 2008), 57–71; Kristina Spohr Readman, ‘Conflict and Cooperation in Intra-Alliance Nuclear Politics: Western Europe, the United States and the Genesis of NATO’s Dual-Track Decision, 1977–1979,’ Journal of Cold War Studies 13/2 (2011): 39–89; Sayle, Enduring Alliance, 192–205.

¹⁵ NATO, ‘Press Summary: SCG Progress Report to Ministers,’ 8 December 1983.

¹⁶ For a broad overview of this rising activism, see Lawrence S. Wittner, Toward Nuclear Abolition: A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement, 1971 to the Present (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), 130–201.

¹⁷ [Simi Valley, United States of America, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library] (RRL), Dennis C. Blair Files, RAC Box 4, ‘Public Diplomacy 1982 (September 1982) (2)’ folder, USICA foreign opinion note, ‘Post-Summit Europe: Public Opinion Generally Unchanged,’ 16 August 1982.

¹⁸ For ‘evil empire,’ see ‘Remarks at the Annual Convention of the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida,’ 8 March 1983, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Ronald Reagan 1983, book 1 (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1984), 364. See, also, ‘Question-and-Answer Session With Reporters on Domestic and Foreign Policy Issues,’ 29 March 1983, PPP: RR 1983, book 1, 464.

¹⁹ See, for one example, [Ottawa, Canada, Library and Archives Canada] (LAC), Operation Dismantle fonds (MG28 I 445), Vol. 8, ‘Operation Dismantle Caldicott Helen corr biographical info speech nd 1980–84ʹ folder, Helen Caldicott remarks, Operation Dismantle conference, Nov. 1983.

²⁰ Walter Laqueur, ‘Hollanditis: A New Stage in European Neutralism,’ Commentary, Aug. 1981.

²¹ Effie Pedaliu, ‘“Footnotes” as an Expression of Distrust? The U.S. and the NATO “Flanks” in the Last Two Decades of the Cold War,’ in Martin Klimke, Reinhild Kreis, and Christian F. Ostermann (eds), Trust, but Verify: The Politics of Uncertainty and the Transformation of the Cold War Order, 1969–1991 (Washington and Stanford: Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Stanford University Press, 2016), 237–58. On Greek peace policies beyond the footnotes, see Eirini Karamouzi and Dionysios Chourchoulis, ‘Troublemaker or Peacemaker? Andreas Papandreou, the Euromissile Crisis, and the Policy of Peace, 1981–86,’ Cold War History 19/1 (2019): 39–61; Eirini Karamouzi, ‘“At Last, Our Voice Is Heard in the World”: Greece and the Six Nation Initiative during the Euromissile Crisis,’ in Laurien Crump and Susanna Erlandsson (eds), Margins for Manoeuvre in Cold War Europe: The Influence of Smaller Powers (London: Routledge, 2019), 224–40.

²² NATO, C-M(83)16, ‘Soviet Policy Trends and Their Implications,’ 19 May 1983.

²³ NATO, C-M(82)34, Luns report, ‘Annual Political Appraisal,” 27 April 1982. See, also, Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung and the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, Fifth German-American Roundtable on NATO: The Changing Context of the European Security Debate (Cambridge: Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, 1982), 4, 16, copy available in RRL, Jack F. Matlock Files, Box 2, ‘Matlock Chron November 1983 [2 of 4]’ folder.

²⁴ Joseph M.A.H. Luns, ‘Introduction,’ NATO Review 30, no. 2 (June 1982): 1; Guy de Carmoy, ‘Defence and Détente: Two Complementary Policies,’ NATO Review 30, no. 2 (June 1982): 12–7.

²⁵ On the efforts to overcome the Siberian pipeline issue, see Susan Colbourn, ‘An Interpreter or Two: Defusing NATO’s Siberian Pipeline Dispute, 1981–1982,’ Journal of Transatlantic Studies 18/2: 131–51.

²⁶ NATO, C-M(83)52, report, ‘The Situation in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe March 1983 to October 1983,’ 18 November 1983. On the Pentecostalists, see Jack F. Matlock, Jr., Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended (New York: Random House, 2004), 54–9; Sarah B. Snyder, ‘“No Crowing”: Reagan, Trust, and Human Rights,’ in Trust, but Verify, 43–6. On the Madrid CSCE from a transatlantic perspective, see Sarah B. Snyder, ‘The CSCE and the Atlantic Alliance: Forging a New Consensus in Madrid,’ Journal of Transatlantic Studies 8/1 (2010): 56–68.

²⁷ C-M(83)52, ‘The Situation in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe March 1983 to October 1983,’ 18 November 1983.

²⁸ Susan Colbourn, ‘“Cruising Toward Nuclear Danger”: Canadian Anti-Nuclear Activism, Pierre Trudeau’s Peace Mission, and the Transatlantic Partnership,’ Cold War History 18/1 (2018): 29–36; Luc-André Brunet, ‘Unhelpful Fixer? Canada, the Euromissile Crisis, and Pierre Trudeau’s Peace Initiative, 1983–1984,’ The International History Review 41/6 (2019): 1145–67.

²⁹ Schenk to Ottawa, ‘Vortragender Legationsrat I. Klasse Schenk an die Botschaft in Ottawa,’ Akten zur Auswärtigen Politik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (AAPD) 1983 (Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag, 2014), doc. 352. See, also, Colbourn, ‘“Cruising Toward Nuclear Danger”,’ 32.

³⁰ LAC, Department of External Affairs (RG 25), Vol. 21990, File 20-1-1-1, Part 25, briefing paper, ‘East-West Relations,’ Jan. 1984.

³¹ Wilson Center Digital Archive (WCDA), Instituto Luigi Sturzo (ILS), Archivio Giulio Andreotti, NATO Series, Box 169, subseries 1, folder 069, MAE memorandum, ‘Stato dell’Alleanza,’ 8 December 1983, https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/155152.

³² RRL, Matlock Files, Box 2, ‘Matlock Chron November 1983 [4 of 4]’ folder, Jordan to Matlock, 7 November 1983.

³³ All together, the conference identified 7 major themes to serve as the foundation for working groups: the Soviet Union (including East-West relations in Europe), economic challenges and responses, the structure of Western defence (including U.S. defence policy), defence and arms control, public opinion and parliaments, Japan and Western security, and regional security problems. RRL, Matlock Files, Box 2, ‘Matlock Chron November 1983 [4 of 4]’ folder, CSIS draft agenda, ‘The Future of NATO and Global Security.’

³⁴ RRL, Matlock Files, Box 2, ‘Matlock Chron November 1983 [4 of 4]’ folder, CSIS paper, ‘The Future of NATO and Global Security.’

³⁵ ‘Stato dell’Alleanza,’ 8 December 1983.

³⁶ TNA-UK, PREM 19/1244, Ridley to Butler, 12 December 1983.

³⁷ For ‘widening gulf,’ see LAC, RG 25, Vol. 21990, File 20-1-1-1, Part 25, draft memorandum to Cabinet, ‘Canadian Policies in an International Context: A Foreign Relations Framework,’ 19 December 1983. See, also, NATO, C-R(83)58 ‘Meeting of the Council in Ministerial Session held at NATO Headquarters, 1110 Brussels, on Thursday 8 December 1983 at 9.30 a.m. and Friday 9 December 1983 at 10.30 a.m.,’ 18 January 1984.

³⁸ ‘Bundeskanzler Kohl an Präsident Reagan,’ 1 December 1983, in AAPD 1983, doc. 365.

³⁹ ‘Drahterlaß des Ministerialdirigenten Schauer,’ 2 December 1983, AAPD 1983, doc. 367.

⁴⁰ ‘Bundeskanzler Kohl an Präsident Reagan,’ 1 December 1983, fn. 8.

⁴¹ NATO, M-2(83)32, ‘Declaration of Brussels,’ 9 December 1983.

⁴² NATO, M-2(83)32, ‘Declaration of Brussels,’ 9 December 1983.

⁴³ NATO, C-R(83)58, ‘Meeting of the Council in Ministerial Session held at NATO Headquarters, 1110 Brussels, on Thursday 8 December 1983 at 9.30 a.m. and Friday 9 December 1983 at 10.30 a.m.,’ 18 January 1984.

⁴⁴ C-R(83)58, ‘Meeting of the Council,’ 18 January 1984.

⁴⁵ C-R(83)58, ‘Meeting of the Council,’ 18 January 1984.

⁴⁶ C-R(83)58, ‘Meeting of the Council,’ 18 January 1984. See, also, ‘Botschafter Wieck, Brüssel (NATO), an das Auswärtige Amt,’ 9 December 1983, AAPD 1983, doc. 376. Background on the Canadian MBFR proposal can be found in ‘Vortragender Legationsrat I. Klasse Schenk an die Botschaft in Ottawa,’ 15 November 1983, AAPD 1983, doc. 352.

⁴⁷ NATO, M-2(83)30, ‘Final Communiqué,’ 9 December 1983. See, also, ‘Botschafter Wieck, Brüssel (NATO), an das Auswärtige Amt,’ 9 December 1983.

⁴⁸ On the Harmel Report’s domestic dimensions, see Sayle, Enduring Alliance, 154–7.

⁴⁹ The final vote was 144 in favour with 3 abstentions. Andrée Gérard, ‘La dynamique du mouvement de paix en Belgique francophone,’ Courier hebdomaire du CRISP, no. 1053–1054 (1984): 19–20.

⁵⁰ Bridget Bloom, ‘Conciliatory Stirrings in Nato Depths,’ Financial Times, 14 December 1983.

⁵¹ Lord Carrington, ‘The 1983 Alastair Buchan Memorial Lecture,’ Survival 25, no. 4 (1983): 146–53. For some press coverage of Carrington’s commentary, see Henry Stanhope, ‘Carrington Derides “Megaphone Diplomacy” with the Russians,’ The Times, 22 April 1983; R.W. Apple Jr., ‘Carrington Warns on East-West Ties,’ Washington Post, 24 April 1983; Bridget Bloom, ‘Nato’s New Image Maker,’ Financial Times, 10 December 1983.

⁵² NATO, PO/83/127, Luns to permanent representatives, ‘Appraisal of East-West Relations,’ 29 December 1983.

⁵³ PO/83/127, ’Appraisal of East-West Relations,’ 29 December 1983.

⁵⁴ NATO, C-R(84)2, ‘Summary record of a meeting of the Council held at NATO Headquarters, Brussels on Wednesday 11 January 1984 at 10.15 a.m.,’ 20 Jan.1984.

⁵⁵ C-R(84)2, ‘Summary record,’ 20 January 1984.

⁵⁶ C-R(84)2, ‘Summary record,’ 20 January 1984.

⁵⁷ C-R(84)2, ‘Summary record,’ 20 January 1984.

⁵⁸ C-R(84)2, ‘Summary record,’ 20 January 1984.

⁵⁹ C-R(84)2, ‘Summary record,’ 20 January 1984.

⁶⁰ NATO, C-R(84)8, ‘Summary record of a meeting of the Council held at NATO Headquarters, on Tuesday, 31 January 1984 at 10.30 a.m.,’ 5 March 1984. For similar internal assessments, see ‘Ministerialdirektor Pfeffer, z.Z. Paris, an das Auswärtige Amt,’ 1 February 1984, AAPD 1984 (Munich: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2015), doc. 32, fn. 5.

⁶¹ NATO, Annex to PO/84/9, draft outline, ‘Appraisal of East-West Relations: Towards A More Constructive Dialogue,’ 26 January 1984.

⁶² NATO, C-R(84)8, ‘Summary record of a meeting of the Council held at NATO Headquarters, on Tuesday, 31 January 1984 at 10.30 a.m.,’ 5 March 1984.

⁶³ C-R(84)8, ‘Summary record,” 5 March 1984.

⁶⁴ C-R(84)2, ‘Summary record,’ 20 January 1984.

⁶⁵ ‘Ministerialdirektor Pfeffer, z.Z. Paris, an das Auswärtige Amt,’ 1 February 1984, AAPD 1984, doc. 28.

⁶⁶ C-R(84)8, ‘Summary record,” 5 March 1984; NATO, C-R(84)24, ‘Summary record of a meeting of the Council held at NATO Headquarters, Brussels on Wednesday, 25 April 1984 at 10.15 a.m.,’ 30 May 1984.

⁶⁷ C-R(84)24, ‘Summary record,’ 30 May 1984.

⁶⁸ C-R(84)24, ‘Summary record,’ 30 May 1984.

⁶⁹ C-R(84)24, ‘Summary record,’ 30 May 1984.

⁷⁰ C-R(84)24, ‘Summary record,’ 30 May 1984.

⁷¹ NATO, C-R(84)29, ‘Summary record of a meeting of the Council held at NATO Headquarters, Brussels on Wednesday, 9 May 1984 at 10.15 a.m.,’ 8 June 1984.

⁷² ‘Deutsch-amerikanisches Regierungsgespräch in Washington,’ 8 May 1984, AAPD 1984, doc. 129.

⁷³ ‘Aufzeichnung von Pfeffer,’ 13 May 1984, AAPD 1984, doc. 134.

⁷⁴ C-R(84)29, ‘Summary record,’ 8 June 1984.

⁷⁵ C-R(84)29, ‘Summary record,’ 8 June 1984.

⁷⁶ C-R(84)29, ‘Summary record,’ 8 June 1984.

⁷⁷ RRL, Philip A. Dur Files, Box 9, ‘NATO Strategy’ folder, Shultz to Reagan, ‘Your Participation in the North Atlantic Council Ministerial, May 30–31,’ 23 May 1984. For one concurrent assessment of this ‘stalemate’ in East-West relations, see WCDA, ILS, Andreotti, Box 170, subseries 1, folder 071, MAE memorandum, ‘Stato dell’Alleanza Atlantica,’ May 1984, https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/155158.

⁷⁸ ‘Stato dell’Alleanza Atlantica,’ May 1984.

⁷⁹ M-1(84)11, ‘Washington Statement,’ 31 May 1984.

⁸⁰ C-R(84)2, ‘Summary record,’ 20 January 1984.

⁸¹ ‘Drahterlaß des Ministerialdirektors Pfeffer,’ 25 April 1984, AAPD 1984, doc. 117.

⁸² On the drafting of Reagan’s 16 January 1984 speech, see RRL, Matlock Files, Box 42, ‘US-USSR Relations Dec. 1983-Jan. 1984ʹ folder, Matlock to McFarlane, ‘Presidential Speech on U.S.-Soviet Relations,’ 20 December 2020, 1983; Matlock, Reagan and Gorbachev, 80–7; Simon Miles, Engaging the Evil Empire: Washington, Moscow, and the Beginning of the End of the Cold War (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2020), 85–8.

⁸³ Ronald Reagan, ‘Address to the Nation and Other Countries on United States–Soviet Relations,’ 16 January 1984, PPP: RR 1984, vol. 1 (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1986), 41.

⁸⁴ RRL, Dur Files, Box 9, ‘Nato Strategy’ folder, Shultz to Reagan, ‘Your Participation in the North Atlantic Council, May 30–31,’ 23 May 1984.

⁸⁵ ‘Runderlaß des Vortragenden Legationsrats I. Klasse Steinkühler,’ 4 June 1984, AAPD 1984, doc. 161.

⁸⁶ Joseph Luns remarks, reprinted in ‘North Atlantic Council Meets in Washington,’ Department of State Bulletin 84, no. 2088 (Jul. 1984): 5.

⁸⁷ M-1(84)11, ‘Washington Statement,’ 31 May 1984.

⁸⁸ M-1(84)11, ‘Washington Statement,’ 31 May 1984.

⁸⁹ RRL, European and Soviet Affairs Directorate, NSC, Box 11, ‘NATO (06/10/1983-06/05/1985)’ folder, Bureau of Intelligence and Research analysis, 27 May 1984.

⁹⁰ C-R(84)29, ‘Summary record,’ 8 June 1984.

⁹¹ RRL, Dur Files, Box 9, ‘NATO Strategy’ folder, Department of State briefing paper, ‘NATO East-West Study,’ n.d. [May 1984].

⁹² RRL, European and Soviet Affairs Directorate, NSC, Box 11, ‘NATO (06/10/1983-06/05/1985)’ folder, Bureau of Intelligence and Research analysis, 27 May 1984.

⁹³ RRL, Dur Files, Box 9, ‘NATO Strategy’ folder, Department of State briefing paper, ‘NATO East-West Study,’ n.d. [May 1984]. For a similar assessment in the press, see Bernard Gwertzman, ‘Reagan Asserts Ties With Soviets Paramount,’ New York Times, 1 June 1984.

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Susan Colbourn

Susan Colbourn is a Henry Chauncey Jr. '57 Postdoctoral Fellow at International Security Studies at Yale University. Currently, she is completing a history of NATO and the Euromissiles.