PART TWO

FOR A COMMON DEFENSE

1950–1973

INTRODUCTION

I

n the summer of 1948, encouraged by the Truman Doctrine, the 

Marshall Plan, and President Truman’s initiatives to reinstitute conscription, Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg 

entered discussions with the United States that led to the signing in 

April 1949 of the North Atlantic Treaty and the establishment of the North 

Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In addition to the United States 

and the five countries that had initiated the discussions, Italy, Norway, 

Denmark, Iceland, Portugal, and Canada also signed the treaty. (See Map 

5.) The key provision of the pact was that each signatory agreed to treat 

an attack on any member state as the equivalent of an attack on its own 

soil and to render military assistance accordingly.

The establishment of NATO marked the recognition by West European 

statesmen, and the acceptance by American policymakers, that only the 

United States could counterbalance the power of the Soviet Union in 

Europe. The Europeans also realized that an alliance led by the United 

States would be based on consensus among independent, sovereign, and 

free states, whereas one dominated by the Soviet Union would involve 

coerced agreement.

NATO applied to Western Europe, but the next crisis of the Cold 

War occurred in Asia. In June 1950 the Soviet client state of North Korea 

attacked South Korea across the political line of demarcation that had 

divided the Korean peninsula since the end of World War II. Only 

American armed intervention saved South Korea from being overrun.

In the face of what they saw as open Communist aggression, the 

signatories of the North Atlantic Treaty underlined their determination 

to defend Western interests by creating a military command for NATO. 

In December 1950 the United States proposed and the North Atlantic 

partners accepted General Dwight D. Eisenhower as Supreme Allied 

Commander, Europe. Over the next several months Eisenhower established the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) near 

Paris. Its mission was to defend the territory from the North Cape in the 

Arctic Ocean north of Norway to northern Africa and from the Atlantic 

coast of Western Europe to the eastern borders of Turkey.

Because SHAPE initially had no international funding, U.S. funds 

and support were channeled through the European Command in 

Heidelberg, which furnished budgeting, funding, and accounting for all 

of the national military elements. As units were assigned to NATO, the 

United States reorganized its own military headquarters in Europe to 

clarify lines of authority. In August 1952 the Joint Chiefs of Staff activated a new command, U.S. European Command, to coordinate American 
Map 5

A

T L A

N

T I C

O

C

E

A

N

M e d i t e r r a n e a n S e a

N o r t h

S e a

Sardinia

Corsica

Sicily

I C E L A N D

D E N M A R K UNITED

KINGDOM

NETHERLANDS

LUXEMBOURG

BELGIUM 

F R A N C E

I T A L Y

P O R T U G A L

N

O

R

W

A

Y

NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION

EUROPEAN SIGNATORIES

April 1949

0

0 500 Miles

500 Kilometers

European Signatories

Postwar Germany

Future Boundary between East and West Germany
59

Introduction

support for SHAPE-NATO and to serve as the joint command for U.S. 

Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force personnel and activities in 

Europe.1 What had been the European Command was redesignated 

on 1 August 1952 as United States Army, Europe (USAREUR), responsible for all functions related to the Army. (See Map 6.) Headquartered 

in Heidelberg, USAREUR took command of a small NATO planning 

unit, the Central Army Group, and operated through the Northern, 

Southern, Western, and Headquarters (Heidelberg area) Commands in 

Germany and the Communications Zone in France. (Chart 1) The Europe 

Command and its successor USAREUR also provided logistical support 

to other agencies, including the American elements of NATO forces, the 

United States Air Forces in Europe, and Military Assistance Advisory 

Groups in Europe and the Middle East.2

Implementing a policy of common defense for the signatories of the 

North Atlantic Treaty stimulated military construction on a scale that 

Army engineers had not known since World War II. Whether in Greece, 

Chart 1: Headquarters, U.S. Army, Europe, 1953 

Special Troops

Headquarters

USAREUR

Northern

Area

Command

Southern

Area

Command

Western

Area

Command

Seventh Army

88th Counter

Intelligence

Group

USAREUR

Communications Zone

32d Antiaircraft

Artillery

Brigade

Headquarters

Area Command

513th

Military

Intelligence

Group

Berlin

Command

Bremerhaven

Port of

Embarkation

* Technical and

Administrative

Divisions

Military

Assistance

Advisory

Group, Spain

USAREUR

Audit

Agency

U.S. Military

Liaison Mission to

Commander in Chief,

Soviet Occupied Zone

of Germany

* Office, U.S.

Commander

Berlin

Units

Major Commands

Subordinate Commands

Headquarters,

United states Army Europe (USAREUR)

Dependents

Education

Group

*Staff Divisions of Headquarters USAREUR having certain assigned and attached units under the

command of the respective heads of divisions: Adjutant General, Provost Marshall, Special Activities,

Armed Forces Information and Education, Finance, Chemical, Engineer, Medical, Ordnance,

Quartermaster, Signal, and Transportation.
Map 6

Rhine R

Elbe R

E A S T G E R M A N Y

N E T H E R L A N D S

C Z E C H O S L O V A K I A

A U S T R I A S W I T Z E R L A N D

F R A N C E

FRANKFURT DISTRICT

WÜRZBURG DISTRICT

NUREMBERG DISTRICT

AUGSBURG

DISTRICT

GARMISCH

DISTRICT

STUTTGART

DISTRICT

MUNICH DISTRICT

W E S T E R N

A R E A

S O U T H E R N A R E A

N O R T H E R N A R E A

HEADQUARTERS

AREA

WIESBADEN

MILITARY POST

BERLIN

Kaiserslautern Heidelberg

Frankfurt

Munich

Erfurt

Kassel

Würzburg

Bamberg

Nuremberg

Regensburg

Karlsruhe

Stuttgart

Augsburg

Wiesbaden

Dresden

Hannover BERLIN

Bremerhaven

Hamburg

Pilsen

Garmisch

Leipzig

WEST GERMANY

U.S. ARMY, EUROPE

1 December 1952

Area Command Boundary (approximate)

District Boundary (approximate)

Area Command Headquarters

0 50

0 50 100 Miles

100 Kilometers
61

Introduction

Turkey, Austria, Germany, or France, the fundamental responsibility of 

the Army engineers remained to expand the tactical and the support 

facilities necessary to meet the new American role.