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The defense ministers and chiefs of staff of the twelve Atlantic pact nations met in Paris last week to put final touches and a stamp of approval on "strategic concepts for the integrated defense of the North Atlantic area." This was necessary to get the first $1 billion of U.S. military aid rolling; in approving the military assistance program for the U.S.'s allies, Congress had stipulated that Western Europe's defense must be certified feasible by the military chiefs before any funds could be expended.

The military men in Paris had two quick preliminary meetings. While some of his aides went dancing on Montmartre, General Omar Bradley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, burned the midnight oil in his suite at the Crillon Hotel. At the final, plenary meeting, in the Navy Ministry, Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson presided in a sky-blue satin chair, before a cheerful blaze of oak logs. It took just four hours (including changes of spelling at British request, e.g., "programs" to "programmes") to produce a statement which revealed almost nothing of the real plans; newsmen called it the "blackout communique." It was known, however, that the "strategic concepts" had settled a long-standing controversy: they called for defense of the West on the Western European plain--not from behind the Pyrenees or the far side of the English Channel.

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