Over the past several years, the news from the Netherlands has caused many Americans to wonder: Whatever happened to the sturdy Dutch? At The Hague, thousands of citizens have demon- strated against their government's belated decision to allow its allies to deploy NATO cruise missiles on Dutch soil. In Amster-dam, squatters have tossed rocks and bottles at the police. In the capital, sex shops and cafes that openly sell marijuana do a brisk business. In Utrecht, demonstrators greeted John Paul...
cabinet debated whether or not to allow the United States, under the terms of a 1979 decision by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), to deploy 48 Tomahawk cruise missiles on Dutch soil. For the Netherlands, this was, in the words of New York
Times correspondent James M. Markham, "the most momentous and tormenting national security decision in postwar history."
For professional rather than political reasons, Mr. Bik probably hoped the missiles would be approved. The edition...