Spaatz’s May Trip

On 2 May 1948, soon to be retired Chief of Staff/US Air Force General Spaatz landed at Northolt Airport, in Britain, for a “visit” with several heads of staffs.

The General “took the opportunity” to discuss issues of mutual defense, against Russian aggression and expansion. According to an article from the Cincinnati Enquirer, his arrival came 48 hours after “...Defense Ministers and Chiefs of Staff of Britain, France, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg appointed a sort of super-general staff to prepare a joint defense against any surprise Soviet attack.” It was part of the continuing plan for mutual assurance that became NATO.

Less than two months prior to this meeting of the minds, 25 March 1948, was the day it appears that the hornet’s nest had been disturbed. As I have begun to demonstrate this fact using this blog, it was the day General Spaatz declared the 24 hour-a-day air defense emergency. According to The Emerging Shield [by Kenneth Schaffel, 1953-1988, for the Office of Air Force History] General Spaatz’s air defense emergency lasted until early April. The rescinding of the emergency was apparently one of the first actions taken by the new Chief of Staff, General Vandenberg. What ever caused General Spaatz to order a 24-hour-a-day air defense emergency on 25 March 1948 had to have been an important topic of interest during this global defense meeting, of the early stages of NATO.

The article goes on to say, Spaatz will fly to the American occupation zone of Germany later this week. This is where most of the tension was projected by the Soviets during the “March War Scare.” The article goes on: ...The western union was also believed to have figured in conversation held by Myron C. Taylor, President Truman’s special representative at the Vatican, and British officials. Taylor left yesterday for Paris.”

                 The Cincinnati Enquirer, May 4, 1948, Page 24. via Newspapers.com (https://cincinnati.newspapers.com/article/the-cincinnati-enquirer-25marchspaatz/175874646/ : accessed July 23, 2025), clip page for 25_March_Spaatz by user bobkoford

According to the paper published in International Affairs in 1983: The Pentagon negotiations March 1948: the launching of the North Atlantic Treaty, by Cees Wiebes and Bert Zeeman (studied political science at the Department of International Relations and International Law, FSW-A, University of Amsterdam), According to official NATO historiography, the negotiations that led to the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty started on 6 July 1948 in Washington. ³ However, for a few years it has been known that negotiations on a security treaty between the United States and West European nations Had already been conducted before that date. 

Those negotiations     took place at the end of March 1948 in utmost secrecy between the Untied States, the United Kingdom and Canada at the Pentagon in Washington. One of the participants in those secret deliberations refers to ‘the crucial (and secret) “Pentagon” talks in March 1948 during which the North Atlantic Treaty was effectively conceived’ ⁴

3 See NATO Facts and Figures (Brussels: NATO Information Service, 1981, page 21

4 Lord Gladwyn, review of Escott Reid, Time of Fear and hope, in International Journal, Winter 1977/78, Vol. 33, No. 1, Page 248