Wilhelm Mohr

PART IV – 9 April – From the Past to the Future
we now know, Parliament chose not to indict the Government. In C.
J. Hambro’s words: ’they did the best they could. In that lies their excuse,
and in that lies their sentence’. The issue at hand was quite simply that
the Government, as far as the general population was concerned, had
gradually contributed adequately; it was a time to stop looking back
and a time to look forward. In any case, the liberation seemed to
unplug a sense of ’go ahead’ spirit and optimism that called upon formidable
forces. The Labour Party was able to stay at the helm. There
was plenty to do, but everything was run down, and it may be useful
to remember the Marshall Plan aid that helped us through the initial
hardships.
The Armed Forces received their share of attention, despite the fact
that few could envision a conflict situation in the near future. Perhaps a
degree of guilty conscience contributed to this, but also the fact that the
Armed Forces acquired an authoritative political leadership. Further,
our recent experiences had fortified recognition of the Armed Forces’
stature and roots in our society. The sense of an overall unity among
the political and military leadership structure was strengthened, among
other things through a common intelligence service. We became familiar
with the concept of ’total defence’, 39 with its elements of society’s
readiness for crisis and war, and in that way assisted in a more thorough
and lengthy political decision-making process. We were able to keep
our system of conscription. We gained our Home Guard and various
defence-supportive organizations, such as Folk og Forsvar, Kvinners
Frivillige Beredskap, Norges Forsvarsforening, and Norges Lotteforbund.
However, the sense of the ’cloudless sky’ or ’we do not have any
enemies’ did not last for long. Soon, the tense situation following the
Soviet Union’s march into Czechoslovakia arose. Norway picked up the
ties woven during WWII and joined the Western defence organisation
NATO. We had our very own Royal Resolution of 10 June 1949: ’Directives
for military personnel and military commanders if an armed
39 In Norwegian: ’Totalforsvar’.
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