In “Alliance Coercion and Nuclear Restraint,” Gene Gerzhoy argues that the Lyndon Johnson administration used brute, coercive threats to obtain West Germany's signature to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).1 In particular, Gerzhoy asserts that in February 1968 the Johnson administration threatened to abandon West Germany militarily if it did not sign the NPT and, moreover, that these threats were instrumental in prodding German leaders toward accepting the treaty. Three pieces of evidence, however, show that this interpretation is inconsistent with the historical record.
First, contrary to Gerzhoy's claim, President Johnson's national security adviser, Walt Rostow, did not threaten West Germany's abandonment absent NPT accession in a conversation with Rainer Barzel, a senior lawmaker who had traveled to Washington as a personal envoy of Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger to discuss the NPT. As evidence for a threat of abandonment Gerzhoy quotes Rostow as saying, “If you [i.e., Germany] would not...