In 1949, powerfully placed one-worlders in the U.S. government succeeded in creating NATO, one of the most harmful international agreements ever entered into by the United States. Government officials and the mass media have convinced most Americans that NATO saved the West from communism and continues to protect America’s interests in these perilous times.
The work of Secretary of States Dean Acheson and his successor John Foster Dulles, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was sold to Congress and the American people as a much-needed alliance formed to prevent additional Soviet advances into Western Europe. But NATO has always been a subsidiary of the United Nations whose real purpose is to aid in the creation of a UN-led world government. The pact would see to it that no member nation could engage in any military action not approved, and therefore controlled, by the UN.
The NATO Charter, agreed to by 12 nations at its 1949 outset has grown to 29 member nations, many of which can hardly claim having any ties to the “North Atlantic.” NATO’s Charter pledges all signatory nations to consider an attack on one to be an attack on all. The alliance derives its very existence from the UN Charter’s Chapter VIII headlined “Regional Arrangements.” In that portion of the Charter, the UN’s permission for NATO to exist is granted and a following stipulation notes that the UN shall be the boss: “The Security Council shall at all times be kept fully informed of the activities undertaken or in contemplation under regional arrangements.”
Before the pact won acceptance, Senator Robert Taft (R-Ohio) raised legitimate concerns about involving our nation’s military in undeclared wars. He criticized the Truman administration for assuming that “we are a kind of demigod and Santa Claus to solve the problems of the world, and that attitude is more and more likely to involve us in disputes where our liberty is not in fact concerned.” But in a speech to the Senate, Secretary of State Acheson revealingly described NATO as “an essential measure for strengthening the United Nations.” The Senate approved entry into NATO on July 12, 1949 with only 13 senators agreeing with the concerns raised by Taft.
Eleven months later, Soviet-backed North Korean troops invaded non-Communist South Korea. President Truman immediately called for U.S. intervention. There was no declaration of war as required by the U.S. Constitution, and Truman had no intention of requesting Congress to issue one. Asked where he got the authority to commit U.S. forces to war in Korea, Truman stated that if he could send troops to NATO, he could send troops to Korea. He added that the war in Korea was “a police action,” a term employed earlier by John Foster Dulles during the 1945 Senate hearings leading to approval of the UN Charter.
The Korean War (1950-1953) saw UN flags flying over American troops. NATO’s existence gave Truman and Acheson illegitimate permission to fight an undeclared war. The president said that NATO gave him permission to send troops to Europe and, if he could do that, he could also send U.S. forces to Korea. After a cease-fire agreement in 1953, U.S. generals testified to Congress that they were not permitted to win.
The Korean War has never been settled. Tens of thousands of U.S. military personnel are still posted in the southern half of the Korean peninsula. They serve at the pleasure of the United Nations and their overall commander is the world body. The so-called legality of this arrangement stems from the NATO agreement and the placing of U.S. forces under UN and/or NATO commanders.
During the three full years of fighting (1950-1953), our nation suffered 33,746 battle deaths, 103,284 wounded, and 8,177 missing in action. Ultimate responsibility for these casualties belongs to Dean Acheson, John Foster Dulles, and Harry Truman. Refusal to acknowledge the roles played by these men, and by NATO and its United Nations parent, indicts the controlled media, incompetent or devious historians, and political leaders over several decades who are ignorant or willing collaborators in the plan that has our nation’s military controlled by the UN and its subsidiaries.
The United States should withdraw from both NATO and it parent United Nations. But today’s congressional leaders have no intention of doing so. Instead, they have invited current NATO secretary general, Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg, to address a joint session of Congress as part of a celebration of the 70th anniversary of NATO’s existence. In more sane times and with truly patriotic congressional leaders, there would be a celebration marking America’s departure from the grip of the United Nations and its NATO subsidiary.
Will the information presented above be on the agenda of the congressional leaders when they meet to welcome Secretary Stoltenberg? Of course not. What is needed is a rising tide of Americans who want to end the takeover of our nation by the United Nations and the agencies it has created. Are there enough Americans willing to force U.S. leaders to preserve our nation’s hard-won independence and obey their solemn oath “to support and defend the U. S. Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic?” Time will tell. But alerting fellow citizens about the peril of remaining entangled in the UN and its NATO stepchild should be a must for all who carry the name “American.”
John F. McManus is president emeritus of The John Birch Society.
