41 Facts About Joseph Luns

Joseph Luns is the longest serving Secretary General of NATO, having served in the position from 1 October 1971 until 25 June 1984.

Joseph Luns was conscripted in the Coastguard of the Royal Netherlands Navy serving as a warrant officer from June 1930 until July 1931.

Joseph Luns applied at the University of Amsterdam in July 1931 majoring in law before transferring to the Leiden University in November 1932, obtaining a Bachelor of Laws degree in June 1933 and graduating with a Master of Laws degree in July 1937.

Joseph Luns applied at the London School of Economics of the University of London in January 1938 for a postgraduate education in economics, obtaining a Bachelor of Economics degree in June 1938.

In September 1971 Joseph Luns was nominated as the next Secretary General of NATO.

Joseph Luns resigned as a Member of the House of Representatives the same day he was installed as secretary general, serving from 1 October 1971 to 25 June 1984.

Joseph Luns was born in a Roman Catholic, Francophile and artistic family.

Joseph Luns's father, Huib Luns, was a versatile artist and a gifted educationalist who ended his career as professor of architectural drawing at the Delft University of Technology.

Joseph Luns opted to become a commissioned officer of the Dutch Royal Navy but registered too late to be selected.

Therefore, Joseph Luns decided to study law at Amsterdam University from 1932 to 1937.

Joseph Luns joined the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands in 1933 and left three years later but when questioned about it in later years, never admitted that it might have been "a youthful misjudgment".

Joseph Luns joined the Dutch Diplomatic Service in 1938 and, after a two-year assignment at the Private Office of the Foreign Minister, was appointed as attache in Bern in 1940.

In 1949, Joseph Luns was appointed as deputy Dutch permanent representative to the United Nations.

Joseph Luns worked closely with his new chief, Von Balluseck, a political appointee without diplomatic experience.

Joseph Luns was sceptical of the importance of the United Nations for international peace, believing it at times to be more like a forum for propaganda than a centre for solving international conflicts.

Joseph Luns's co-minister was Johan Beyen, an international banker not affiliated to any political party but the protege of Queen Juliana.

Joseph Luns was responsible for bilateral relations, Benelux and international organisations.

Joseph Luns believed that Western Europe could not survive the Cold War without American nuclear security and so he promoted strong and intensified political and military co-operation in NATO.

Joseph Luns accepted American leadership of NATO as such but expected better co-operation between the United States States and its allies since, he thought that the United States too often acted independently of its allies, particularly in decolonisation issues.

Joseph Luns could be critical of US foreign policy, and, in bilateral relations, he defended Dutch national interests strongly and expected American support in the bilateral difficulties with Indonesia.

In 1952 Joseph Luns expected to improve relations with Indonesia without transferring the disputed area of West New Guinea to the former colony.

When, in 1960, it became obvious that allied support for this policy, particularly from the United States, was waning, Joseph Luns tried to find an intermediate solution by transferring the administration of the territory to the United Nations, but that attempt to keep West New Guinea out of Indonesian hands failed as well.

Joseph Luns was more successful in the normalisation of the bilateral relations with West Germany.

Joseph Luns shared Dutch public opinion in demanding that Germany recognise the damage it had caused during the Second World War, and so a mea culpa required.

Joseph Luns demanded that before any negotiations on other bilateral disputes could start, the amount of damages to be paid to Dutch war victims had to be agreed upon.

Joseph Luns made concessions and so the Dutch parliament threatened not to ratify the agreement.

In March 1957, Joseph Luns signed the Treaties of Rome establishing the EEC and Euratom.

Joseph Luns made British membership of the European institutions conditional for his political co-operation.

Joseph Luns played a vital role in the negotiations unwinding French participation and continuing its political membership of the Alliance.

Joseph Luns owed this to his personal style in which duress, a high level of information, political leniency and diplomatic skills were combined with wit, gallant conversation and the understanding that diplomacy was a permanent process of negotiations in which a victory should never be celebrated too exuberantly at the cost of the loser.

Joseph Luns regarded himself as the spokesman of the alliance and he aimed at balancing the security and political interests of the alliance as a whole.

Joseph Luns was in favour of negotiating with the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact members on the reduction of armaments if the Western defence was kept in shape during such negotiations.

European members of NATO, according to Joseph Luns, should understand that the United States carried international responsibilities while the latter should understand that in-depth consultation with the European governments was conditional to forging a united front on the international stage, which could be accepted and endorsed by all members of NATO.

Joseph Luns convinced American leaders that it undermined the credibility in Western Europe of their nuclear strategy by neglecting European fears of a change of strategy which would leave Europe unprotected in case of a Soviet nuclear attack.

Joseph Luns was successful in the conflict between Great Britain and Iceland, the so-called Second Cod War not by pressuring the Icelandic government to end its aggressive behaviour against British trawlers but by convincing the British government that it had to take the first step by calling back its destroyers to open the way to negotiations.

Joseph Luns failed however in the conflict between Greece and Turkey over the territorial boundaries and Cyprus.

Joseph Luns retired as secretary-general in 1984, staying in office for almost 13 years, more than anyone else.

Joseph Luns was awarded many high-ranking awards during his lifetime, among them the Grand Cross of the Legion d'Honneur in 1954, Member of Order of the Companions of Honour by Queen Elizabeth II in 1971 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then President Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Joseph Luns married Baroness Lia van Heemstra, from the Van Heemstra family.

Joseph Luns remained a practising Catholic throughout his life and was generally sympathetic to the traditionalist Catholic position but never affiliated himself with dissident groups.

Joseph Luns visited the Tridentine Mass held by the Assumptionist priest Winand Kotte, who opposed the modernising policies of the Second Vatican Council, in St Willibrord's Church, Utrecht in August 1971.