The Rapacki Plan (pronounced Rapatz-ki) was a proposal presented in a speech by Polish Foreign Minister Adam Rapacki to the United Nations General Assembly on 2 October 1957 as a limited plan for nuclear disarmament and demilitarization in Central Europe by establishing a nuclear-free zone. The plan declared that the People's Republic of Poland would not station or produce any nuclear armaments within their territory, if the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic agreed to do the same. Czechoslovakia would later include itself in support of the nuclear-free zone. The plan followed attempts by both Western Powers and the Soviet Union to de-escalate Cold War tensions and push for greater disarmament during the mid 1950s. Overview The plan was supported by all of the Soviet-dominated states of the Warsaw Pact, However, during a NATO Council meeting in Paris in December 1957, it was rejected on the basis that it would leave Western Europe vulnerable to communist conventional armies that were perceived to be a relatively greater military threat. The United States believed that supporting the plan would mean a loss of the balance of power in Europe – evidenced by the Eisenhower administration’s response. The United Kingdom also saw the plan as a threat to the security of NATO countries because of how it would enable the dominance of Soviet forces in Eastern Europe. West Germany was strongly opposed to the idea of a denuclearized zone as it was feared that the plan would diminish the state’s power and influence as a part of NATO, and further, would violate the Hallstein Doctrine through the signing of a treaty with East Germany. Not all NATO members were opposed to the plan however, with the governments of Norway, Denmark and Canada publicly expressing their support for it. Rapacki in 1958 presented several modified versions of his original plan to cater to Western concerns, but won little support from them. One iteration included a two stage plan; the first stage would ensure that no new nuclear weapons would be brought into the Central European zone, while the second stage would see NATO and the Warsaw Pact work together to eliminate all remaining nuclear armaments in the area. Support for the plan effectively lost its traction when Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev, tried to force West Germany to accept it during the Berlin Crisis of 1958–1959. Historical Context Geneva Summit 1955 Held