The Paris Conference: Neutral Zone

In the notes showered on NATO members on the eve of the Paris conference, Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin dropped one calculated teaser: a proposal that both East Germany and West Germany ban the production and stockpiling of atomic weapons in their territories. If the two Germanys would agree to this, said Bulganin, Poland and Czechoslovakia would also adhere to the ban. A de-atomized zone would be created across Central Europe; tensions might be reduced.

The notion of "disengagement" of hostile forces by creating a buffer zone between them has had a long appeal, and it is still strong today among statesmen and pundits who have not yet comprehended the meaning of airpower. At the Geneva summit conference in 1955, Britain's Sir Anthony Eden proposed the establishment of a zone stretching roughly 100 miles on each side of the Iron Curtain in which the armament of both sides would be subject to inspection, and gradually reduced. Eden's plan was premised on the reunification of Germany through free elections. The dividing line would be the eastern border of a reunified Germany, i.e., the present East German border with Poland. Russia, having no intention of reunifying Germany, countered with a proposal for a 500-mile demilitarized zone on either side of the present East-West German border—which would drive U.S. and British troops off the Continent.

In military reality, the buffer-zone concept is as outdated as the medieval moat. In the House of Commons last week British Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd patiently explained: "With long-range aircraft, and missiles with ranges of 150 miles and more, it is impossible to disengage in the sense that may have been possible in the age of conventional weapons." The choice, said Lloyd, is between a clearly defined line, "it being known on both sides that to cross that line means war," and a "no-man's land, into which it may be tempting to infiltrate, to try some kind of coup in the belief that undefended territory can be taken without risk of war." Added Lloyd: "In present circumstances and on the present demarcation lines, to disengage might well lead to a greater insecurity and a greater risk of war."

West Germany's Chancellor Konrad Adenauer was more blunt. His government had studied earlier proposals for a neutral zone, he told a television interviewer, concluded that such a zone would be easily overrun in case of war. Said Adenauer: "An atom-free zone is even more than illogical, it's an illusion."