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...