Standing Group. NATO years As one of the original NATO war planners, he prepared the European Theater war plans on how to counter a potential Cold War invasion by the overwhelming Soviet land forces that outnumbered US and NATO conventional forces by a factor of 10-to-1. He worked the negotiation of an agreement for Germany's rearmament and for the establishment of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe (SHAPE) in Paris, France. In February 1951, Richardson accompanied General Lauris Norstad to Europe as a member of his planning staff. In July 1951, he was designated as the US Joint Chiefs of Staff representative and military observer to the European Defense Community Treaty Conference in Paris. In July 1953, he was assigned to the Plans Staff of the Air Deputy, SHAPE, when responsibility for US military advice to the European Defense Community was transferred from the US Ambassador to the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. From July 1953 to July 1955, Richardson was special assistant to Air Vice-Marshal Edmund Hudleston, Royal Air Force, Deputy Chief of Staff/Operations SHAPE, and later, the deputy director/policy, Headquarters SHAPE, serving primarily as the US Air Force member of the Inter-Allied Planning Committee (New Approach Group) that developed the concept for an atomic defense of Europe. In that capacity he wrote the original NATO atomic or nuclear war plans and became one of the US military's leading authorities on tactical nuclear warfare, strategy, and concepts. In July 1955, Richardson returned to the United States to attend the National War College, graduating in June 1956. He assumed command of the 83rd Fighter Wing (redesignated 4th Fighter Wing) flying F-86H Sabre and re-opened Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. Atomic weapons and the evolution of theater nuclear warfare From his experience thinking of and drafting NATO's nuclear war plans under President Eisenhower's emphasis on atomic defense to counter Soviet conventional superiority led him in 1955 to publish a series of articles on nuclear and atomic warfare in the Air University Review. As a result, Richardson had become an acknowledged military expert in nuclear warfare and a regular lecturer on the subject at the National Defense College and Air War College. In January 1958, he was transferred to Headquarters US Air Force, to become assistant for Long Range Objectives to the deputy chief of staff/plans and programs. He was promoted to brigadier general in May 1960. With the