Multilateral Force
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The Multilateral Force (MLF) was an American proposal to produce a fleet of ballistic missile submarines and warships, each crewed by international NATO personnel, and armed with multiple nuclear-armed Polaris ballistic missiles. Its mission would be a nuclear defence of Western Europe against Soviet threats in the Cold War while allowing NATO members besides the U.S. to play a role in nuclear warfare. The proposal was floated by the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations. It was opposed by Britain and faded out in the mid 1960s. It was never adopted.
The Multilateral Force (MLF) was an American proposal to produce a fleet of ballistic missile submarines and warships, each crewed by international NATO personnel, and armed with multiple nuclear-armed Polaris ballistic missiles. Its mission would be a nuclear defence of Western Europe against Soviet threats in the Cold War while allowing NATO members besides the U.S. to play a role in nuclear warfare. The proposal was floated by the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations. It was opposed by Britain and faded out in the mid 1960s. It was never adopted. ==MLF experiment on USS Claude V. Ricketts== From June 1964 to the end of 1965 was part of a mixed-manning experiment for the proposed MLF. Its crew consisted of 10 officers and 164 crew from the US Navy with the remainder (normally 24 officers and 330 enlisted) filled by sailors from West Germany, Italy, Greece, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Turkey. Though the MLF never was created, Secretary of the Navy Paul Nitze stated that the project on Claude V. Ricketts was successful. ==See also== European Defence Community - an unsuccessful proposal of the early 1950s to create a multinational European army Nuclear sharing - a similar policy currently in practice. ==References== ==Further reading== Buchan, Alastair. "The Multilateral Force: a study in alliance politics." International Affairs 40.4 (1964): 619-637. online Hammond, Paul Y. LBJ and the Presidential Management of Foreign Relations (1993) excerpt; pp 108–143. Kissinger, Henry A. The Troubled Partnership: A Reappraisal of the Atlantic Alliance (1965) pp 127–160. Kohl, Wilfrid L. "Nuclear sharing in NATO and the multilateral force." Political science quarterly 80.1 (1965): 88-109. online Priest, Andrew. "'In Common Cause': The NATO Multilateral Force and the Mixed-Manning Demonstration on the USS Claude V. Ricketts, 1964-1965." Journal of Military History 69.3 (2005): 759-788. ==External links== Tom Lehrer performing MLF Lullaby in the 1960s Solomon, James. The Multilateral Force: America's Nuclear Solution for NATO (1960-1965). (Abstract) Kennedy, John F. News Conference 51. JFK Library Releases 1963 White House Recordings Article and primary sources on the Multilateral Force at the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project
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