Europe learning lessons of Greenham Common

By Richard Blystone
CNN Correspondent

LONDON -- In November 1983, U.S. cruise missiles arrived at Britain's Greenham Common air base, burying the notion of détente between the West and the Warsaw Pact.

It was a countermove in the Cold War chess game. The Soviet Union had been deploying new SS-20 missiles in the East. To some Europeans, that meant the U.S.S.R. was preparing for nuclear war on European soil. Their soil.

West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt tried to rally the European allies.

"The mere thought that Germany thought it was important meant that it was important," says Lord Owen, the former British Foreign Secretary. "You could argue the pros and cons, but here was a front-line country, bearing most of the brunt, worried about the continued build-up of SS-20s."

To reassure Europeans that the Atlantic Alliance would protect them, Washington offered new medium-range U.S. missiles -- low-flying, target-seeking cruise missiles to Britain, others to Belgium, Holland and Italy, and to Germany new Pershing II missiles.

But the missiles were controversial, and they might not have been deployed if the British hadn't again taken up their World War II role as what one disapproving British writer called America's "unsinkable aircraft carrier."

There were bitter political battles across Western Europe at the time. Greenham Common became the focus of a women's anti-nuclear protest that sometimes drew tens of thousands of people. But the women did not budge Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, "The Iron Lady."

"The payback was immense," says Lord Owen, "because NATO managed to ride through the public dissent and stay united. I think we forced the Russians to face the cost of rearmament at a time when they were economically weak, and we made possible the collapse of the Soviet empire."

Greenham Common has since been turned into an industrial park. The missiles that might have left there riding columns of rocket flame have been packed up like furniture and taken away. But the British remained ready to stick their military necks out for their old ally.

They were the first to rally behind the United States for Operation Desert Storm, and the only partners in the latest raids on Iraq.

But in Bosnia, right in Europe's pocket, Britain and France tried in vain to stop the carnage there for three frustrating years. NATO and the United States finally weighed in, ending much of the strife and providing a lesson for the Europeans.

"Europe has got to have a viable, valued military arm in order to have authenticity in the world," says Sir Nicholas Henderson, a retired British diplomat. "We have been reluctant to come to that conclusion because it has been a wide, constantly held view by British leaders that we must do nothing that might diminish the readiness of America to be prepared to defend Europe."

Last year a new bleeding sore developed in Europe's side: Kosovo.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair stepped out of the traditional role as deputy to the U.S. sheriff, declaring, "Europe needs to develop the ability to act alone in circumstances where, for whatever reason, the U.S. is not able or does not wish to participate."

With the French, Europe's only other nuclear power, the British declared that the European Union must be able to act "backed up by credible forces, the means to decide to use them and a readiness to do so."

When the U.S.-brokered truce in Kosovo broke down, the Europeans moved to the fore. Britain delivered a summons to peace talks in France. Not waiting for the United States, Britain and France also quickly offered troops to police a settlement.

Whether Europe can ever muster the means and the will to succeed on its own is an open question. But 16 years after the arrival at Greenham Common, Britain has bought its own cruise missiles.