‘A great list of potential mistakes’: NATO, Africa, and British efforts to limit the Global Cold War

Abstract

The scholarly consensus on why NATO adopted a ‘non-policy’ towards the non-North Atlantic world rests on the logic of the Cold War. But British diplomats and officials did not see NATO’s policy towards Africa through a Cold War lens. NATO’s ‘non-policy’ towards the world beyond the North Atlantic was not the product of an allied Cold War consensus among the allies. Instead, it was the result of a determined British effort to channel growing pressure for NATO action into a bureaucratic dead-end in an effort to keep the Cold War out of Africa.

Notes

¹ Matthew Connelly, “Taking Off the Cold War Lens: Visions of North-South Conflict During the Algerian War for Independence,” The American Historical Review 105, no. 3 (June 2000): 741–42.

² On this tension, see John Kent, “NATO, Cold War and the End of Empire,” in A History of NATO: The First Fifty Years, ed. vol. 1, Gustav Schmidt (New York: Palgrave, 2001), 141–152; Douglas T. Stuart and William T. Tow, The Limits of Alliance: NATO out-of-Area Problems since 1949 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), 108–13. It was partially resolved in the late 1960s: see Saki Dockrill, Britain’s Retreat from East of Suez: The Choice between Europe and the World (New York: Palgrave, 2002).

³ Frode Liland, “Keeping NATO out of Trouble: NATO’s Non-Policy on Out-of-Area Issues During the Cold War,” Forsvarsstudier, no. 4 (1999): 8. Frode Liland “Explaining NATO’s Non-Policy on Out-of-Area Issues During the Cold War,” in A History of NATO: The First Fifty Years, ed. vol. 1, Gustav Schmidt (New York: Palgrave, 2001), 173–191.

⁴ Elizabeth Sherwood, Allies in Crisis: Meeting Global Challenges to Western Security (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 184. Sherwood and Liland’s argument has been particularly influential in articles concerning NATO’s post-Cold War transformation. See Veronica M. Kitchen, “NATO’s out-of-Area Norm from Suez to Afghanistan,” Journal of Transatlantic Studies 8, no. 2 (2010).

⁵ Evanthis Hatzivassiliou, “Out-of-Area: NATO Perceptions of the Third World, 1957–1967,” Cold War History 13, no. 1 (2013).

⁶ Liland, “Explaining NATO’s Non-Policy,” 187–8; Sherwood, Allies in Crisis, 184.

⁷ Pace Louis and Robinson, who argue that, after Suez, the United States pressed its allies to consult more closely and coordinate their policies outside the North Atlantic area: W.M. Roger Louis and Ronald Robinson, “The Imperialism of Decolonization,” The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 22 (1994): 486, n. 186.

⁸ Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007). For a good introduction to the connections between the Cold War and decolonisation, see Mark Bradley, “Decolonization, Revolutionary Nationalism, and the Cold War, 1919–1962,” in Cambridge History of the War, ed. Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 173–191. On Africa, see Elizabeth Schmidt, “Africa,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Cold War, ed. Richard H. Immerman and Petra Goedde (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 265–285.

⁹ For the history of the North Atlantic Treaty, see Lawrence S. Kaplan, NATO 1948: The Birth of the Transatlantic Alliance (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007). On non-military cooperation in NATO, see especially John Milloy, The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 1948–1957: Community or Alliance? (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006).

¹⁰ Robert J. McMahon, Colonialism and Cold War: The United States and the Struggle for Indonesian Independence, 1945–49 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1981).

¹¹ Memorandum of a Conference with the President, White House, Washington, October 27, 1956, 11 a.m. FRUS, 1955–1957, XVI, 387.

¹² Unger to General Norstad, November 18, 1958, Papers of Lauris Norstad, box 104, folder: Memorandum for Record 1957-1958-1959 (4), Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, Abilene, KS.

¹³ For the overall story of German integration into NATO is On German rearmament, see Saki Dockrill, Britain’s Policy for West German Rearmament 1950–1955 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010). Note the Korean War was not responsible for transforming the North Atlantic Treaty into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization: Lawrence S. Kaplan, NATO Before the Korean War: April 1949–June 1950 (Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2013).

¹⁴ Dionysios Chourchoulis, The Southern Flank of NATO, 1951–1959: Military Strategy or Political Stabilization? (New York: Lexington Books, 2015), 1–28.

¹⁵ Lawrence S. Kaplan, NATO United, NATO Divided: The Evolution of an Alliance (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004), 22.

¹⁶ Christopher Coker, “The Western Alliance and Africa 1949–81,” African Affairs 81, no. 324 (1982): 320–24.

¹⁷ Memorandum from the Representative at the United Nations (Lodge) to the Secretary of State, March 5, 1956, FRUS, 1955–1957, XVIII, Africa, 442.

¹⁸ “Analysis of Trends of Soviet Policy,” Report by the Chairman of the Working Group, March 8, 1956, C-M(56)26, archives of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Brussels, Belgium [hereafter NATO].

¹⁹ “Soviet Economic Penetration,” Note by the Secretary General and Vice-Chairman of the Council, April 24, 1956, C-M(56)52, NATO. Westad, The Global Cold War, 39–72.

²⁰ Note by F.A. Warner, 5 April 1956, FO 371/120804, National Archives of the United Kingdom, Kew, United Kingdom [hereafter NAUK].

²¹ “Trends of Soviet Policy,” Trends of Soviet Policy Report by the Working Group, April 20, 1956, C-M(56)49, NATO.

²² “The Economic Penetration of the Soviet Countries in the Middle East and South-East Asia,” March 12, 1956, C-M(56)29, NATO; W.I. Combs to R.W. Bailey. British Embassy, Washington. September 4, 1956, FO 371/120808, NAUK.

²³ “State Department’s Paper on Soviet Economic Penetration,” Minute by R.A. Hibbert, August 13, 1956, FO 371/120809, NAUK.

²⁴ Washington No. 1018 to FO, April 23, 1956, FO 371/120804, NAUK.

²⁵ P.E. Ramsbotham to R.S. Swann, May 11, 1956, FO 371/120805, NAUK.

²⁶ UKDel No. 569 to FO, July 24, 1956, FO 371/120808, NAUK.

²⁷ Harold Caccia to J.E. Coulson, April 18, 1956, FO 371/120804, NAUK.

²⁸ UKDel No. 458 Saving to FO, June 19, 1956, FO 371/120807, NAUK.

²⁹ FO No. 2878 Saving to Washington, June 27, 1956, FO 371/120807, NAUK; UKDel No. 573 to FO, July 25, 1956, FO 371/120808, NAUK.

³⁰ “Note on ‘Belgian Plan’ to create a NATO special fund to counter the Soviet Economic drive in under-developed countries,” by the Economic Research Department, May 1, 1956, FO 371/120805, NAUK.

³¹ “N.A.T.O.,” Minute by Lord Hood, March 22, 1956, FO 371/124801, NAUK; “Assistance to Underdeveloped Areas and Plans for Countering the Soviet Economic Offensive,” Annex 7 to “Visit of the Federal German Foreign minister. April 30 to May 3,” undated, FO 371/120804, NAUK.

³² Harold Caccia to J.E. Coulson, April 18, 1956, FO 371/120804, NAUK.

³³ FO No. 2333 to Washington, April 29, 1956, FO 371/120804, NAUK.

³⁴ Letter from President de Gaulle to President Eisenhower, September 17, 1958, FRUS, 1958–1960, VII, Pt. 2, Western Europe, 81–3.

³⁵ The informal note was passed to the British delegation, which in turn sent it to various Foreign Office posts. Initial British reactions to the informal paper are in FO 371/131198, NAUK. The Germans distributed the document officially as “The Situation in Africa with Special Reference to Countermeasures against Communist Propaganda. Note by the German Delegation,” Committee on Africa, January 23, 1959, AC/146-D(59)2, NATO.

³⁶ “The Situation in Africa with Special Reference to Countermeasures against Communist Propaganda. Note by the German Delegation,” January 23, 1959.

³⁷ “Communist Penetration in Africa,” Note by the Chairman, Committee on Africa, March 3, 1959, AC/146-WP(59)1, NATO.

³⁸ As explained by the German delegation to British diplomats. United Kingdom Delegation to NATO [hereafter UKDel] No. 11 to FO, January 7, 1959, FO 371/137954, NAUK.

³⁹ “The Situation in Africa with Special Reference to Countermeasures against Communist Propaganda. Note by the German Delegation,” January 23, 1959.

⁴⁰ UKDel No. 1823 to FO, November 24, 1958, FO 371/131198, NAUK.

⁴¹ “The Situation in Africa with Special Reference to Countermeasures against Communist Propaganda. Note by the German Delegation,” January 23, 1959.

⁴² UKDel No. 1823 to FO, November 24, 1958. See also Note by the United States Delegation, Committee on Africa, February 5, 1959, AC/146-D(59)6, NATO; U/CEA memo on ‘the Soviet Bloc Challenge’, James Frederick Green to Mr Dolgin, March 23, 1960, Record Group [hereafter RG] 59, Bureau of African Affairs [hereafter BAA], Office of Inter-African Affairs [hereafter OIAA], Records of the Political-Military Advisor [hereafter RPM], 1951–1963, box 1, folder: “Communism in Africa – II,” National Archives and Research Administration II, College Park, Maryland [hereafter NARA].

⁴³ Minute by N.E.C. Bruce, November 20, 1958, FO 371/131198, NAUK.

⁴⁴ UKDel No. 1823 to FO, November 24, 1958.

⁴⁵ “Alternative to Section IV of the Paper by the German Delegation,” Note by the United Kingdom Delegation, Committee on Africa, January 28, 1959, AC/146-D(59)4, NATO.

⁴⁶ UKDel No. 1823 to FO, November 24, 1958.

⁴⁷ UKDel No. 435 Saving to FO, November 26, 1958, FO 371/131198, NAUK.

⁴⁸ Minute, author unknown, November 27, 1958, FO 371/131198, NAUK.

⁴⁹ Shuckburgh Diary entry for April 15, 1959, Papers of Evelyn Shuckburgh, MS191-1-2-5, Cadbury Research Library: Special Collections, University of Birmingham [hereafter CRL].

⁵⁰ Shuckburgh diary entry for October 6, 1969, Papers of Evelyn Shuckburgh, MS191-1-2-8, CRL. For Spaak’s radical and unsuccessful plan for a global committee system, see Telegram from the Mission at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the European Regional Organisations to the Department of State. November 10, 1959. FRUS 58/60 Vol. 7. Pt 1. 502.

⁵¹ “Discussions of the Council on Africa,” Note by the Chairman, CPA, May 28, 1959. NATO/AC/119-WP(59(65); “Procedural Questions,” Note from the Chairman to the Committee on Africa, September 14, 1960, AC/146-N(60)3, NATO.

⁵² Shuckburgh Diary entry for April 15, 1959.

⁵³ “Terms of Reference of the Committee,” Note by the Secretary, Committee on Africa, January 23, 1959, AC/146-D(59)1, NATO.

⁵⁴ McBride to Timmons, January 15, 1959; William J. Porter to Timmons. January 16, 1959, both in RG59, BAA, OIAA, RPM, 1951–1963, box 1, folder: “NATO Africa Committee, 1959,” NARA.

⁵⁵ Even by 1960, the Foreign Office was seeking ‘to avoid being drawn into an embarrassing discussion of events in South Africa and the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Similarly any assessment of how Ghana is “measuring up to its new status” is likely to be rather awkward for us’: Shattock to Smith, April 12, 1960, FO 371/146509, NAUK.

⁵⁶ UKDel No. 40 Saving to FO, January 14, 1959, FO 371/137954, NAUK.

⁵⁷ Michael L. Cahill, (Colonial Office), to R.S. Faber, February 28, 1961, FO 371/154729, NAUK.

⁵⁸ Hatzivassiliou, “Out-of-Area: NATO Perceptions of the Third World, 1957–1967.”

⁵⁹ UKDel no. 391 to FO, November 25, 1958, FO 371/131998, NAUK.

⁶⁰ Shuckburgh diary entry for September 30, 1959, Shuckburgh Diary, MS 191-1-2-8, CRL.

⁶¹ “NATO COMMITTEE OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: Countering Communist Penetration in Africa,” A.K. Potter to C. Ewart-Biggs, October 5, 1959, FO 371/137956, NAUK.

⁶² The Dutch were particularly keen on this idea. “NATO Committee of Economic Advisers: Countering Communist Penetration in Africa,” A.K. Potter to Ewart-Biggs, March 11, 1960, FO 371/146509, NAUK.

⁶³ Ibid.

⁶⁴ “Meeting of NATO Expert Working Group on Africa. November 9-12, 1964.” Memorandum by John Wilson, November 17, 1964, FO 371/176535, NAUK.

⁶⁵ Shuckburgh Diary entry for April 15, 1959.

⁶⁶ Minute by R.S. Faber on Jacket J1071/57, August 19, 1959, FO 371/137956, NAUK.

⁶⁷ Ibid.

⁶⁸ John Chadwick to E.B. Boothby, December 23, 1960, FO 371/146510, NAUK.

⁶⁹ Donal Lowry, “The Impact of Anti-Communism on White Rhodesian Political Culture, c. 1920s–1980,” in Cold War in Southern Africa: White Power, Black Liberation, ed. Sue Onslow (Abingdon: Routledge, 2009), 84–109.

⁷⁰ No. 478 from Pretoria to C.R.O., December 22, 1958, FO 371/131198, NAUK.

⁷¹ Minute by R.S. Faber on Jacket J1071/57.

⁷² J.G. Taylor to K.W. Wilford. August 29, 1959, FO 371/137956, NAUK.

⁷³ Peter Murray to C.T.E. Ewart-Biggs. December 30, 1959; C.T.E. Ewart-Biggs to P.C. Petrie, December 31, 1959. Both in FO 371/137956, NAUK.

⁷⁴ John Chadwick to E.B. Boothby, December 23, 1960.

⁷⁵ “NATO and AFRICA,” Minute by Boothby, September 6, 1960, FO 371/146510, NAUK.

⁷⁶ “U.S. Position on NATO Report on Communist Penetration in Africa,” Memorandum from Fessenden to Green and Baum, September 9, 1960, BAA, OIAA, RPM, 1951-1963, box 1, folder: “Africa-NATO, 1960–1961,” NARA.

⁷⁷ Minute by Faber on Jacket J1073/54/G. January 6, 1961, FO 371/146510, NAUK.

⁷⁸ Telegram from the Mission at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the European Regional Organisations to the Department of State, November 10, 1959. FRUS, 1958–1960, VII, Pt. 1, 227.

⁷⁹ This was clearly the view of an FO official charged with a NATO rather than African portfolio. Boothby to Chadwick, January 12, 1961, FO 371/146510, NAUK.

⁸⁰ Minute by R. Faber on J1073/46, October 3, 1960, FO 371/146510, NAUK.

⁸¹ A.K. Potter to Ewart-Biggs, January 23, 1960, FO 371/146509, NAUK. They reference AC/127-WP/42/1, NATO.

⁸² “Pénétration Soviétique en Afrique,” Note de la Delegation Belge, Comité Sur L’Afrique, February 13, 1959, AC/146-D(59)8, NATO.

⁸³ J. Shattock to H. Smith, March 26, 1959, FO 371/137955, NAUK.

⁸⁴ Minute on Jacket J1071/47, June 29, 1959, FO 371/137955, NAUK. Records of this Committee are in AC/201, Ad Hoc Study Group on broadcasts to Africa, NATO.

⁸⁵ Portuguese and French policy at the UN provided the largest hurdle to coordinated NATO policy in New York. K.M. Wilford to I.F. Porter, July 17, 1959, FO 371/137956, NAUK.

⁸⁶ Shattock to Smith, March 10, 1960, FO 371/146924, NAUK.

⁸⁷ Boothby to Chadwick, January 12, 1961, FO 371/146510, NAUK.

⁸⁸ UKDel No. 40 Saving to FO, January 14, 1959, FO 371/137954, NAUK.

⁸⁹ “U/CEA memo on ‘the Soviet Bloc Challenge’,” James Frederick Green to Mr Dolgin, March 23, 1960, RG59, BAA, OIAA, RPM, 1951–1963, box 1, folder: “Communism in Africa – II,” NARA.

⁹⁰ “NATO Ministerial Meeting. Paris, December 16–18, 1960. Brief No. 3. Communist Penetration in Africa,” Undated, FO 371/146510, NAUK.

⁹¹ Minute by R. Faber on J1073/46, October 3, 1960, FO 371/146510, NAUK.

⁹² Ewart-Biggs to Barber, February 25, 1960, FO 371/146509, NAUK.

⁹³ Letter from J.E. Coulson to R.H. Mason. September 7, 1960, FO 371/146510, NAUK.

⁹⁴ Minute on Jacket J1073/42, September 23, 1960, FO 371/146510, NAUK.

⁹⁵ Minute by R. Faber on J1073/46, October 3, 1960.

⁹⁶ Ibid.

⁹⁷ See, e.g., Lise A. Namikas, Battleground Africa: Cold War in the Congo, 1960–1965 (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2013); Piero Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959–1976 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002); Westad, The Global Cold War, 207–87.