NATO Secretary General Joseph Luns at the 1974 NATO Electric Car Show | OCT 1974

In October 1974, NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium hosted an exhibition of low-polluting hybrid and electric cars. Secretary General Joseph Luns was accompanied by the US representative to the Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society, Russell E. Train, as he test drove the tiny General Motors - ES 512 Electric (GM 512E).
While electric and hybrid vehicles are familiar to us today, in 1974 low-polluting cars were radical and innovative concepts. On 22 October of that year, a very unique car show took place at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, where the visitors’ parking lot was transformed into an outdoor exhibition of cutting-edge cars.
Joining Secretary General Luns at the car show was Russell E. Train, an administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Train was originally appointed by President-elect Richard Nixon in late 1968 to chair the Task Force on Environment, where he played an instrumental role in persuading the Nixon administration to create the EPA. Nixon established the EPA by executive order in 1970, but the groundwork for the agency was laid with the adoption of the US National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 1969.
The passage of this landmark Act was concurrent with NATO’s 20th anniversary celebrations in Washington, D.C. on 10 April 1969, where President Nixon urged NATO to embrace a new social and environmental dimension to enhance its role as a positive global force. Nixon called for “the creation of a committee on the challenges of modern society… to explore ways in which the experience and resources of the Western nations could most effectively be marshalled toward improving the quality of life for our peoples.” The argument proved convincing, and the Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society (CCMS) was established at NATO the same year, heralding a major step in broadening Allied cooperation.
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[@auttark9815]

Joseph Luns used to visit family near our house and we were friends with these people in several ways. I remember the Rollse Royce and he used to make a lot of jokes. It was a big impressive man but he was a kinda a kid too and not distant like some grownups are to children . It was fun.

[@gorillaguerillaDK]

How cute!
Did you know that the car that is considered the first real electric car in the world was the 1888 Flocken Electrowagen, designed by the inventor Andreas Flocken, and build by his factory, Maschinenfabrik A.Flocken in Coburg, 🇩🇪 Germany!
It had a top speed of 15km/h!
#WeAreNATO, #NATO, #Hedgehogs

[@vitaliyvyntu4566]

Bon voyage

[@loopdelooperlouis5541]

The Tesla 0.1