Ferment in NATO French Socialists Ask Allied 'New Look'
BOSWELL, GEORGE H.
French Socialists Ask Allied New Look' By George B. Boswell Paris The french Socialist leaders, Premier Guy Mollet and Foreign Minister Christian Pineau, have made a concentrated effort in recent...
...It is within the framework of a fortified and more solidly united NATO alliance that Mollet envisages a policy of willingness to negotiate with the Russians...
...Moscow, he believes, will never voluntarily permit the Western camp to be reinforced by a reunified, armed Germany before a genuine disarmament effort is initiated...
...After a violent election campaign against the former moderate-MRP majority, the Socialist leaders felt the need to assert a new foreign policy which, while remaining free of American tutelage, would still maintain strong ties to the Atlantic alliance...
...The French proposals are specifically aimed to counter European and Asian reactions to the new Soviet peace offensive...
...And such a common policy must to a certain extent conform to the internal requirements of each of the member nations...
...Both he and Pineau have pointed to economic friction in the Middle East and Vietnam among the Allies...
...Similarly, Mollet has reaffirmed his government's determination to establish a European atomic-energy community...
...If the Moslem population continues to increase at the present rate, economic aid to Algeria would have to treble within the next fifteen years merely to keep the spread between the native Algerian living standard and that of the French Algerians from increasing...
...These French initiatives should not be considered a threat to the Western alliance...
...the general public has acquired the impression that Washington is primarily responsible for the recent failures of negotiations between East and West...
...But these Socialist leaders are saying in effect that Moscow is doing a better job than the West of convincing the world of its peaceful and humanitarian intentions, and that the West must immediately adopt new policies to win the trust of non-Communist peoples...
...Mollet attributed this to the succes-of NATO and Western rearmament, He clearly called for maintaining and strengthening NATO in the coming period of negotiations and coexistence, in order to be able to negotiate from a position of strength...
...Although the Socialist leaders have called for renewed efforts to negotiate with Russia...
...lacked both restraint and fairness...
...They undoubtedly want to avoid a recurrence in North Africa of the situation that has opposed French and American interests in Vietnam...
...On the other hand, these attacks may yet serve the Western cause by showing certain Asian leaders, such as Nehru, that alliance with the United States does not oblige a nation to be subservient...
...A more positive reaction, stressing Americans peaceful purposes, would have had a broader impact...
...As a first initiative in this direction, Pineau proposed that the SEATO conference at Karachi create an economic commission to study the needs and requirements of member nations...
...Similar criticisms of State Department policies have been voiced in the past, not only by foreign commentators but by such American specialists as Hans Morgenthau and George Kennan...
...Domestic politics certainly influenced Mollet and Pineau...
...No policy, however well-intentioned, should be considered above review...
...The EDC experience should show clearly the dangers of insistently pursuing policies which key elements are politically unable to support...
...The program would be financed by all the "have" nations, thus preventing them from engaging in a major economic war to capture the allegiance of the less favored nations...
...Mollet has repeatedly declared that the pursuit of peaceful coexistence with Russia does not in any sense imply a willingness to cooperate with domestic Communists in a popular front...
...Mollet has therefore stressed that the reinforcement of the North Atlantic alliance must proceed together with renewed efforts to negotiate with the USSR...
...He may also request economic aid for Algeria to help him implement needed social and economic reforms...
...Nevertheless, these leaders have tried to outline a positive and comprehensive foreign policy firmly placed within the context of France's present alliances...
...Russia could either support such a program impartially or refuse to engage in it in order to reserve her efforts for propaganda purposes only...
...The French Government has requested that Article II of the North Atlantic Treaty, providing for economic coordination, be brought into application...
...The diplomatic program of the French Socialist leaders is designed to prevent Russia from posing as the sole benefactor of mankind...
...These and similar statements should stand as ample evidence of the loyal support given NATO by the Mollet Government...
...Mollet has also given repeated assurances that France remains solidly attached to NATO and that his government is merely trying to establish a new orientation for the joint policies of the Western democracies...
...Mollet and Pineau both assert that Western strategy has failed to evolve with the times...
...All blame was placed squarely on Washington's shoulders, and no consideration was given to France's share of responsibility...
...The positive aspects of this program would be complemented by an active effort to present to the Russian people, through cultural exchanges and missions, the Western concepts of freedom, democracy and justice...
...His government is also making an insistent effort to reach settlement of all outstanding issues with Germany...
...Both Mollet and Pineau are aware of the dangers inherent in any overall settlement and disarmament agreement with the Soviet Union...
...The French economy cannot extend aid indefinitely on this scale...
...Pineau has suggested a worldwide program of economic aid to underdeveloped nations administered by the United Nations...
...While Russia obtains the maximum propaganda results from promises of bounteous economic help to underdeveloped nations, and Communist parties forcefully identify themselves as fighters for peace, the West still clings to policies which emphasize defense and rearmament...
...Despite these tactical motivations, there can be no doubt that Mollet and Pineau are expressing honest objections to State Department policies and trying to impress on their allies the necessity of revamping the orientation of Western diplomacy...
...On a more practical scale, Mollet has urged the Western nations to coordinate their economic-aid programs...
...Despite President Eisenhower's spectacular aerial-inspection plan, they point out...
...the Socialists are striving to combat this by reasserting French initiative within NATO...
...While Russia is busy cementing friendships through small but carefully planned gifts designed to stress her peaceful preoccupations, the far more generous American aid program either goes unnoticed or arouses resentment...
...Neither Mollet nor Pineau believes that Russia today is ready to accept an overall settlement with the West embodying all the guarantees needed to confidently enter an era of disarmament...
...The aid program would thus be coordinated among several recipient nations, helping some develop an industrial base while supplying manufactured goods to others...
...The Western alliance can be fortified only by having the member nations work out a common foreign policy together...
...The policy is designed to capture the trust and allegiance of the peoples of the world by having the Western democracies boldly assume leadership in the global fight for peace and prosperity...
...Mollet says that German reunification is more shadow than substance under the plan insistently proposed by the Western nations...
...French Socialists Ask Allied New Look' By George B. Boswell Paris The french Socialist leaders, Premier Guy Mollet and Foreign Minister Christian Pineau, have made a concentrated effort in recent weeks to impart a new orientation to Western diplomacy...
...The Socialist program also calls on the Western democratic nations to place themselves at the head of a dynamic movement to achieve peace and disarmament...
...In several major statements, they have strongly criticized policies currently pursued by the U. S. State Department...
...Mollet and Pineau have criticized the U. S. for giving the impression of turning down all disarmament proposals not specifically proposed by them...
...Mollet also indicated in his recent interview with U. S. News and World Report that Algeria falls within the scope of NATO and that France would expect its NATO partners to support her attempts to solve this extremely difficult problem...
...But they insist that the Western nations must emerge as the chief protagonists of peace and human welfare to capture the allegiance of peoples not yet under the Communist yoke...
...The Western nations would be in a strong position to give unequivocal evidence to the world of their peaceful intentions...
...In France today, right-wing forces are feeding on a tide of rising nationalism...
...He has furthermore specifically denied that his Foreign Minister ever stated that France intended to act as a link between East and West, since this would imply that France was no longer part of the West...
...It is clear that some of the attacks leveled at Western policies, particularly those made by Pineau...
...He has tried to assure West Germany that his plan in no way implies that the West would abandon its efforts to achieve reunification, which would be implicit in the disarmament plan itself...
...In an effort to show the West's earnest concern to achieve a negotiated settlement, Mollet has suggested that the reunification of Germany is dependent on application of an overall and controlled plan of disarmament...
...While Russia has aimed to capture the allegiance of other nations through initiatives in the economic field, Western policy still concentrates on developing systems of collective security based on military force...
...The economic program currently envisaged for 1956 represents as large an effort in proportion to France's budget and national income as the entire U. S. foreign-aid program represents in proportion to America's national income and budget...
...In addition, Western nations find themselves constantly isolated in economic rivalries, instead of working out a coordinated economic-aid program to underdeveloped countries...
...American foreign policy, which should be directed at capturing the imagination of the peoples of Europe and Asia most subject to Communist influence, should welcome the contributions of European Socialist leaders, well placed to judge the temper of public opinion in their countries...
...While asserting he did not believe that Russia would now make war...
...He has also left the door open to further negotiations on the eventual status of Germany within the framework of a disarmed world...
...While French Socialists have given Mollet's proposals their full endorsement, most conservative commentators rebuked Mollet and Pineau for publicly criticizing the U. S. Unfortunately, too much emphasis has been placed by most commentators on the negative aspects of the Mollet-Pineau declarations...
...The Socialist leaders have also made specific reference to the Socialist "aid by stages" program, in which the industrial economies of certain nations would receive subsidies to help them produce the manufactured goods needed by underdeveloped nations...
...Furthermore, after an electoral campaign stressing the necessity of peace in Algeria, the Socialists now face the uncomfortable prospect of waging war there on a broader scale than ever...
...To retain the support of their own followers among the Socialists and Radicals and to counter Communist pressures, the Socialist leaders sought wide publicity for their foreign-policy proposals emphasizing peace and welfare...
...Mollet is anxious to reverse the existing Western policy of appeasing the Pan-Arab leaders supporting the Algerian rebels...
...He thus implied that under certain conditions France might agree to the "neutralization" of Germany, which he says would not really he a "neutralization" if realized within a carefully established balance of disarmed nations...
...The new orientation proposed for Allied foreign policy can best be summed up by two key themes: peace and human welfare...
...The immediate reaction of Secrelary Dulles was to state that he thought "the finest tribute that could be paid to a country as powerful as the United States is that nobody fears to criticize us...
...Nikita Khrushchev greeted the Socialist suggestions as a step in the right direction, while French Communists interpreted them as favorable to the formation of a popular front...
Vol. 39 • April 1956 • No. 18
