--- description: The purpose of the European Army is to link German arms with those of five of her neighbors, and thus to guard against a revival of German militarism. The other five are already joined together in... title: NATO: We're Gaining image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # NATO: We're Gaining by [TIME](/author/time/) Mar 30, 1953 5:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Mar 30, 1953 5:00 AM CUT The purpose of the European Army is to link German arms with those of five of her neighbors, and thus to guard against a revival of German militarism. The other five are already joined together in NATO, where the armies of 14 countries serve side by side. Last week, on a visit to the U.S., General Alfred M. Gruenther, NATO’s Chief of Staff, issued a cheerful progress report on this mighty coalition. Said he: “We’re no longer a pushover. We’re gaining. We are better off than a year ago and infinitely better off than two years ago. There are still problems to be solved, but if the curve continues upward, we will lick the problems.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6620359/nato-were-gaining/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6620359/nato-were-gaining/"},"headline":"NATO: We're Gaining","datePublished":"1953-03-30T05:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-26T06:44:43.237Z","description":"The purpose of the European Army is to link German arms with those of five of her neighbors, and thus to guard against a revival of German militarism. The other five are already joined together in...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6620359/nato-were-gaining/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6620359/nato-were-gaining/","name":"NATO: We're Gaining"}}]}] ```