Toward SHAPE

Said U.S. Secretary of Defense Marshall to the assembled Defense Ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization : "This is the time that we must complete a plan that will make it perfectly clear to all the peoples we represent, and also to any who plot against us, that we are organizing, training, and equipping forces that can successfully resist aggression in any form."

All week in Washington, NATO's military experts worked on the kind of blueprint Marshall had in mind. The North Atlantic chiefs of staff whipped together a basic set of recommendations for the follow-up session of the Defense Ministers. Their gist:

P: Emergency measures to apply if Western Europe were invaded within the next six months; they would pit the limited forces now available (twelve divisions) in a delaying action until NATO's full strength could be mobilized.

P: A long-range plan based on an integrated future NATO force of 50 to So divisions plus big air and naval groups.

P: Military contributions by each NATO power. The U.S. commitment would be five to ten divisions, all of NATO's strategic bombers, five to ten groups of tactical fighter planes, half the warships. U.S. regular troops seasoned in Korea would be soon available for transfer to Europe; other U.N. units could replace them in Korea. Among other commitments: France, 20 divisions; Britain, five. The British would contribute fewer warships than the U.S., but would share the major responsibility for sea power. Britain and France would also furnish tactical fighter planes.

P: A supreme headquarters for the integrated force, to be known as SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters, Atlantic Powers in Europe).

P: supreme commander, probably U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower.

NATO's Defense Ministers quickly approved the recommendations on the composition of western defense forces, referred the question of German rearmament to NATO's Military Committee.

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