With an eye to the likely deployment of missiles in the NL., the proposal from the Sofia meeting might suggest refraining stationing nuclear weapons in nations that do not already have them.

Disarray, disability and a death in the Kremlin had forced postponement of the Warsaw Pact’s biennial summit meeting for nearly a year. So by the time convoys of ZIL and Chaika limousines were finally streaking through the yellow brick streets of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, the meeting last week…

Foreign Minister Van den Broek, who visited Moscow, said that Gromyko seemed unwilling to make any concessions or any effort to understand the Dutch point of view.

For a month Ronald Reagan had been playing something of an unaccustomed role: the overanxious suitor. At nearly every opportunity, he betrayed his eagerness to meet with his Soviet counterpart. Two days after Mikhail Gorbachev was named Soviet Communist Party leader, Reagan invited him to a tete-a-tete in the…

The Dutch decision pleased neither the U.S. nor the peace movement: if Soviets add even a single SS-20 missile to their present arsenal, The NL will accept the full complement of cruises.

Hoping for a show of unity, Reagan takes his record on the road

It is the sort of sentimental journey most tourists can only dream of: the successful American’s triumphal visit to the land from which obscure forebears set out for the New World generations ago. And so Ronald Reagan’s…

Soviet Defense Minister Dmitri Ustinov warned that the new NATO missiles “increased the probability of a nuclear conflict.” The Soviet warning was certain to heighten anxiety in the NL.

Moscow issues plenty of bluster but no word on Sakharov

“In Washington, they are not interested in reaching agreement. They only speculate in general terms about the usefulness of dialogue.” That note of scorn in Soviet Leader Konstantin Chernenko’s remarks to West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher last week was…

For the first time, politicians were predicting that when the deployment plan comes up for parliamentary approval in June, Lubbers will almost certainly fall short of the required majority.

Britain ends a protest as The Netherlands hesitates over missiles

At the first light of a chilly dawn, 350 British police and bailiffs converged on the main gate of the Royal Air Force base at Greenham Common. For nearly three years, a ragtag band of women demonstrators had captured headlines…

P.M. Lubbers, who transformed The Netherlands into a European leading belt tightener, is convinced that the deployment of the missiles is necessary, though a decision is yet to be made.

The crunch and the cruise

Britain’s no-nonsense Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher stopped by The Hague not long ago to call on her Dutch counterpart, Ruud Lubbers. As conversation turned to their mutual attempts to impose economic austerity, the Dutch Christian Democratic leader outlined his bold program of budgetary cutbacks. Thatcher…

At a huge peace demonstration in The Hague, protesters held up a banner: Today Grenada, tomorrow Woensdrecht! The site of the NATO airbase where cruise missiles are to be installed.

Europeans say no to the invasion, but still yes to missiles

Sweeping down from low, dark clouds, the giant U.S. Air Force Galaxy transport rumbled to a landing at Greenham Common air-base in Britain. It was bearing a historic and controversial cargo: the first cruise missile launchers (minus as yet…

Bush toured Europe hoping to reassure allies. Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers proclaimed that he would judge progress at the INF talks by “only one criterion: the zero option.”

Hoping to reassure allies, Bush tours Europe and Shultz visits Asia

Vice President George Bush was in West Berlin, the Communist-encircled outpost where American leaders often enjoy ovations. In the mirrored ballroom of the Inter-Continental Hotel, his delivery was crisp, almost inspirational, as he told some 650 politicians, businessmen and…

Wim Bartels, which helped organize an antimissile demonstration of 350,000 persons, promised to pursue his campaign for the elimination of both the Soviet and American missiles.

Schmidt fails to convince Brezhnev that the U.S. wants serious arms talks

The conversation in the grand, neoclassic Beethoven dining room of Bonn’s 18th century Redoute palace hushed as the ailing, 74-year-old guest rose ponderously from his chair. While his host, West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, unceremoniously popped a stick…

Opposition to the new U.S. missiles in the Netherlands, where deployment is planned, is 68% and favor unilateral disarmament.

Nuclear foes would change the course of Europe

It began quietly in 1979, almost as an echo from a bygone generation. Pastors delivered sermons on the virtues of peace. Antiwar groups, some with their roots in the ’50s, passed out petitions and organized small demonstrations. Communist parties drummed up predictable…

Time correspondent Rademaekers saw young Dutchmen protesting against the deployment of new U.S. missiles on European soil, and saw the antinuclear movement take root and grow.

When TIME Senior Correspondent William Rademaekers returned to Europe last spring after a four-year absence, he was struck by the profound changes in European attitudes toward the Atlantic Alliance and the U.S. Growing numbers of people, mostly young, were protesting the deployment of new U.S. missiles on European soil and…

Opposition socialist parties managed to put the Dutch Parliament as opposing the missile plan. Premier Van Agt dashed off to Washington, Rome, London & Bonn in search of a compromise.

The allies vote to strengthen Europe’s strike force with new missiles

A few miles south of the Brussels headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization lies the field of Waterloo. The famous battle that took place there in 1815 was, as the victorious Duke of Wellington said afterward, “a damned…

The Netherlands, which has been the most reluctant to endorse deployment of nuclear weapons. There is pacifist and left-wing opposition to arms modernization measures.

Meting Moscow’s Threat

Western Europe prepares to counter the Soviet juggernaut

The unavoidable geopolitical fact of life for Western Europe over the past quarter-century has been the threat from the East. The Soviet Union and its satellite states have assembled one of the most powerful military juggernauts in world…