Alphand Urges NATO Alliance Changes

Herve Alphand, the French Ambassador to the United States, Inst night urged that NATO and the Atlantic alliance be "radically changed."

Speaking to an audience of 450 at the Harvard Law School Forum, Alphand said that "the form given to this alliance fifteen years ago" is no longer adequate because "Europe aspires to assume broader responsibilities for her own defense."

But he warned that the formation of the Multilateral Force which the United States has proposed would not be an effective transformation of the alliance. "Such a proqect," Alphard said, "the military value of which is questionable, would constitute a dangerous foment of division not only in the midst of our Alliance, but for the infant European community."

France wants an independent nuclear arsenal, Alphand said, "to deter a potential enemy, in case he decides to blackmail us in exceptional cases when our interests and your should not be exactly the same." He suggested that the French nuclear venture "cannot but interfere with the strategy of our adversaries, and therefore make it more complicated for them."

Alphand also discussed French policy in what he called "the third world," the smaller countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. "We think," he said, "that the internal quarrels of other people are none of our business."

He pointed out that in Vietnam, in Laos, and in Cambodia, France has long favored a political solution aimed at the "strict implementation and guarantee of this principle of non-intervention. The convening without preconditions, of a conference of the interested countries seems to us the best method to reach this-aim," he added.

Turning to France's long-range goals, Alphand predicted that "a day will come when, in agreement with the United States, a settlement between western and eastern Europeans can take place so as to establish a vast system from the Atlantic to the Urals."

He noted that since the Cuba affair, It has been clear that certain signs of relaxation have appeared among Communists and that we no longer face a communist monolithic block. "In the exchange of goods, of men, of ideas between the West and the East many encouraging signs can be registered each day," he said.

"The United Nations, as they are now, are not functional," the ambassador said in answer to a question after his speech. He called for a five-nation conference to "conduct a realistic appraisal of the situation."