Crazy but Sensible

"Can a crazy military idea," mused a British Cabinet minister, "ever make good political sense?" Yes indeed, thinks the Kennedy Administration, which is convinced that the plan for a NATO multilateral Polaris fleet with mixed al lied crews is the only practical way to strengthen the Atlantic Alliance while satisfying Europe's eagerness to play a bigger role in their own nuclear defense.

Special Relations. After summer-long consultation with its allies, the Kennedy Administration has reached "preliminary agreement" with enough nations to go ahead with MLF, which would take three years to build. West Germany is already pledged to match the U.S. offer to shoulder 30-40% of the initial $2 billion cost of building the 25-ship fleet force. Other NATO members likely to participate are Turkey, Greece and--barring a sharp swing to the left at home--Italy. Belgium and probably The Netherlands also will sit in on final dis cussions, starting in Paris Oct. 7, to settle details of financing and equipping the force. The big question last week was whether Britain would join.

Though the British endorsed MLF when it was proposed as part of the Nassau pact last December, the government's domestic difficulties have since forced Harold Macmillan to back away from the project at flank speed. Defense Minister Peter Thorneycroft objects that the scheme makes no military sense; his top military advisers point out that Britain could build three Polaris submarines of its own for the $360 million it would cost to join MLF. However, Foreign

Secretary Lord Home is convinced that if Britain does reject membership in the NATO force, its exclusion may have political consequences as serious as its original decision to cold-shoulder the Common Market; inevitably, MLF will itself mark an important step toward military and political integration of Europe. Moreover, reasons Home, if West Germany is the principal U.S. partner in the undertaking, Washington may well develop a "special relationship" with Bonn that would leave Britain in even greater isolation.

No Commitment. Last week Harold Macmillan's Cabinet agreed that Britain should at least sit in on the negotiations, and even that decision marked a minor triumph for Home. In a two-hour session with Secretary of State Dean Rusk, the dogged Scot won U.S. acceptance of Britain's cautious condition that "participation as an observer is not a commitment." U.S. officials are hopeful nonetheless that when the time comes to sign the treaty establishing MLF, Britannia will want to join. "After all," hinted a British diplomat last week, "we hardly need to sit in on the talks just to find out what it's all about."

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