Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!olivea!oliveb!veritas!amdcad!amdcad!military From: mdlouie@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Michael D. Louie) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: NATO briefing (long) Message-ID: <1991May8.034946.12129@amd.com> Date: 7 May 91 23:55:52 GMT Sender: military@amd.com Organization: University of Texas at Austin Lines: 124 Approved: military@amd.com From: mdlouie@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Michael D. Louie) For those of you that have been waiting so long that you forgot about this, here it is...finally. I posted it once before, last month, but it never made it. I haven't had enough time to deal with it until now, of all times...finals!!! Here is a summary of the NATO briefing that I attended on March 26th, here on the University of Texas at Austin campus. The school's ROTC and Government departments, in particular, were contacted by SACLANT (Supreme Allied Command Atlantic) as to whom would be most interested. I am enrolled in an American Foriegn Policy 1945-present class, which is basically the US/USSR cold war thing. --- Anyway, SACLANT headquarters, based in Norfolk, VA, sent three officers to conduct the briefing: Capt. Fitch (U.S. Navy, director of Strategic Concepts and Policy) , Capt. Jose (Royal Netherlands Navy, Asst. Chief of Staff, Warfare) and Commander Mahlert (Federal German Navy, Strategic Inteligence Officer). The last officer had all the information and numbers. He claimed that when he went back home next year, he would be integrated into the UNITED German Navy. They all joined up with SACLANT between 1988 and 1990, serving two-year tours with their respective branches. The briefing team from SACLANT headquarters tours North America to explain what NATO and the Allied Command Atlantic are and do. They held a thirty-minute slide presentation to emphasize the history, goals, military strategy, mission of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The purpose is that of a mutual-security alliance, assembled to preserve peace and order, through not only military, but a variety of other means, such as political and economic ones. Originally, in April of 1949, when it was formed, NATO was to keep the Soviets in check. This has since changed with the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the collapse of Eastern European communism. One of the briefers explained that the membership is flexible and can take in whomever, but not the USSR right now. He said E. Europe, excluding E. Germany, is being considered, but I believe the nation must petition to join. Right now, there are sixteen members: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Next, they discussed the NATO command and control structure. There are three military zones: Allied Command Atlantic, Allied Command Europe, and Channel Command. The first one is responsible for all operations in the Atlantic Ocean. The second one concerns the European continent and the Mediterranean Sea. The last one is responsible for the use and protection of the North Sea and English Channel. The NATO primary headquarters is located in Brussels, Belgium. Each nation's foriegn minister, including Secretary of State James Baker, goes there to mutually inform other nations on current policy. This was apparent during the Gulf action (the briefers mentioned it, but I don't think they used the word "war"). There is a huge chain-of-command trickling down from Brussels. Each sector has it's own head. The one that is based in Norfolk, VA (SACLANT) is headed by an American admiral. Right at this moment, he is Admiral Leon Edney (CinC, US Atlantic Command). This sector is responsible for keeping control the vital sea lanes from the North Pole to the Tropic of Cancer to the coastal waters of North and South America, Europe, and Africa, which is about twelve million square miles of ocean. Its primary purpose is to carry out forward NATO defense. SACLANT is divided down into three geographic regions, Western (WESTLANT), Eastern (EASTLANT), and Iberian Atlantic (IBERLANT). There is also Supreme Allied Command, Europe. This is forward defense of the Continent. I suppose this is what Operation Reforger, the joint ground operation conducted the last few years. The head of SACEUR ground forces is an American general. Each officer serves a tour, so I don't think they get to stay there forever. I believe Gen. Eisenhower was CINC-SACEUR once in the '50s. As for the Channel Command, it covers the English Channel and the lower portion of the North Sea. There is a British admiral in charge of this zone. Next, they discussed the future for the alliance. Now that our primary threat, the Warsaw Pact is gone, our forces can be scaled down and put in a more constabulatory role. Not a bush-war police action-type force, but not really too far from the massive ground war-type action in Germany, as originally planned, decades ago. As stated above, new members are being considered, but who is considered? I don't know. I believe NATO will become part of the European Community's defense force...since there will be a united continent, economically, why not militarily, still? In actuality, NATO came before the EEC. The goals for the future are optimistic and flexible. The alliance did work quite well in the Gulf. Although NATO didn't send actual forces, the forces sent by individual nations worked well together. They've had a lot of practice, with huge practice campaigns, such as Operation Reforger, in Germany, and the sort, where they trained together. This helped for better rapport between the individ That was it for the briefing. As mentioned before, Germany is now totally integrated. The Soviets are pulling their troops out of what used to be East Germany to move home. The officer briefing this segment (they switched out according to their specialties) said that the homefront for incoming soldiers is pretty dismal. Prior to the Conventional Forces Europe agreement (CFE), there were 60 Soviet and Warsaw Pact divisions on the front line, not to mention 85-90 more divisions in European USSR and 50-60 divisions in the rest of the USSR, they have to integrate all of that into the interior. That's hard. Someone asked about our divisions, since we will be moving about 3 2/3. He said they will be either reassigned to new home bases, or disbanded and demobilized. That is just as hard as the Soviets, except on a lesser scale. That's all. I felt honored to actually see a real NATO briefing. They conduct these periodically in order to keep the public informed of NATO's activities and achievements. All opinions are mine and mine alone. I do not work for NATO or the Federal government, nor the Government department of the University of Texas at Austin. Most of this information was dredged from memory, but the rest came from supplementary material provided to my government professor by SACLANT. Please E-mail me if you have any questions. -- Michael Louie Univ. of Texas at Austin mdlouie@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu