FOR A PERSON OF STATURE AT NATO, HIRE THATCHER

(Washington, D.C.): With the resignation today of its
Secretary General, Willy Claes, under a cloud of scandal, the
Atlantic Alliance has an extraordinary opportunity to restore
vigor, direction and a raison d’être to NATO: The
obvious candidate for the job is Lady Margaret Thatcher, former
Prime Minister of the most important and reliable European member
state, the United Kingdom.

No one still active in political affairs on either side of
the Atlantic begins to compare with Lady Thatcher’s sense of the
importance of the trans-oceanic security partnership that is at
NATO’s core. Few have been more forceful exponents of the
principles of individual freedom, democracy and free market
economic opportunity that the Alliance has so splendidly defended
for forty-six years. And practically no one has more passionately
and correctly analyzed the importance of NATO playing a forceful
role in resolving the worst conflict on the European continent
since World War II, Bosnia.

Fortunately, the Clinton Administration is reported to be
interested in entrusting the leadership of NATO to a “person
of stature.” The bad news is that the list of candidates
under consideration confuses past or present occupancy of high
office with genuine stature and leadership ability. It is
comprised of a gaggle of past and present premiers and cabinet
ministers whose careers have largely been distinguished by
pan-Europeanism and other diplomatic debacles.

It is, of course, predictable that a Thatcher candidacy would
be opposed by those who do not really want to strengthen
NATO — let alone enlarge it. Similarly, it would not be
favorably received by those who want as Secretary General a toady
who will claim, wrongly, that the answer to the Bosnian conflict
is 20,000 U.S. troops on the ground and that, in their absence,
NATO will self-destruct.

If, though, the object of the exercise is to reinvigorate the
Alliance, to ensure that its forces are employed in the Balkans
in a manner that is both consistent with Western values and
efficacious and to ensure that NATO survives long into the
future, then the choice is clear: Hire Margaret Thatcher.