Lebanon's Request for Observation and New Political Precedents, 1952

On August 1st, 1952, the DEA’s Defence Liaison Division (DL1) notified Acting Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs MacKay that members of the Lebanese government approached the NATO Standing Group requesting to attend the upcoming SHAPE autumn maneuvers. It was understood that the Chiefs of Staff were “apparently unconcerned about establishing a precedent and would raise no objection to Lebanese attendance” and instead regarded their invitation as a “desirable” enhancement for public relations. Although DL1 did not explicitly rule against the Standing Group, they hinted of the potential problems with other countries having the same “military curiosity” and eventual consequences on SACEUR’s “need to know” rule. It seems that they hoped that Mr. MacKay would, at the very least, make clear that Canada would “want to have the opportunity, in every case, to examine whether there existed political considerations which would make the attendance of any non-NATO observers undesirable” [CDEX00008]. Nevertheless, when Mr. MacKay wrote to Deputy Minister of National Defence Drury a week later to signal Canada’s official response, he instead stated that he “would like it to be recognized that future requests will likewise be approved” although he mentioned that Canada would still like to retain “an opportunity to express our views” [CDEX00009].

Yet, a change of heart by NATO’s headquarters was swift: by September, SACEUR and the Standing Group rejected the Lebanese request in full. They regarded it as an “undesirable” precedent regarding which non-NATO countries may observe an exercise, and made it clear that non-NATO countries’ request for observation ought to be denied [CDEX00016]. This encounter illustrates some of the initial rules NATO had to contemplate and work through as it evaluated the intersection between security and political considerations.