America and Europe: A Re-examination

...Eisenhower's victory over Taft at the 1952 Republican Convention showed that isolationism had been defeated not only in the party of Roosevelt and Truman hut in the Republican party as well...

...The first step was the tragedy of France's rejection of the European Defense Community...

...and Red China during the Korean War...

...A number of events marked the birth of the Atlantic concept: Roosevelt's "rendezvous with destiny" speech, Lend-Lease, the "arsenal of democracy" principle...

...nity, of expanding consultation and extending cooperation from the purely military into the socio-economic and political fields...

...To be sure, Britain also acted as mediator at that time—but she acted from a basic community of interest forged in the blood of the Korean battle...

...Despite the opposition of the GOP's diehard isolationists, the nation chose as its leader a man firmly committed to implementing America's obligations to its European partners...

...To these people, America's best friends in Europe, the basic fact of the last decade and a half has been the end of U.S...

...Europe's function was to exercise a certain influence so that the final decision would reflect a greater degree of consensus in cases of disagreement...

...The firm rebukes which these threats drew from President Eisenhower and General Gruenther reduced matters once more to their essentials: Any Russian threat to Europe is a threat to the United States, and any Russian gain in the Middle East is a loss for both Europe and America...

...But it is equally true, although less obvious, that there can be no end of isolationism without an Atlantic Community...

...Tho United Slates did not want satellites in Europe, but a continent strong enough to stand on its own feet and halt the Soviet advance...

...Yet, it soon developed that the phrase represented more than a threat but a basic re-thinking of American policy toward Europe...

...It is precisely this viewpoint which is today most disturbing to those Europeans who from the start have been the staunchest supporters of the Atlantic Community...

...and, so long as Nehru distrusts America, all the latter's efforts to improve her standing by opposing England and France in the Middle East are doomed to failure...

...They must have American support...

...American newspaper headlines seemed more concerned about Suez than Budapest, while Washington took an equally tough attitude toward both "aggressors," despite the enormous distinction Europeans made between the limited Anglo-French action at Port Said and Moscow's brutal suppression of the Hungarian uprising...

...isolationism and the rise of the Atlantic Community...

...Her position between Egypt and Britain was much like that which Nehru occupied between the U.S...

...It will mean disaster for Europe, neo-isolationism for America, and a vast expansion of Soviet power...

...I have no intention of dwelling upon the aversion all European democratic groups feel toward Egypt's dictator Nasser, who has violated all his country's moral and legal obligations toward Britain, Israel, the Suez Canal Company and the United Nations...

...Europeans, so long accustomed to charges of "neutralism" and "appeasement" by some Americans, awoke one morning to find that the United States was outdoing them all in those transgressions, conducting an independent foreign policy without consulting the wishes of her allies...

...Even if one concedes that the timing and manner of Anglo-French intervention in Egypt were ill-chosen, one must remember the frustration engendered in England and France by the shift in American policy...

...5. In the struggle for survival with the Kremlin, America's only safe allies are the European countries, with which she is bound by the same concept of democracy, the same cultural heritage, and similar economic institutions...

...For the United States cannot possibly exchange its European allies for Asian allies—there are no Asian allies worthy of the name...

...For the first time since World War II, even the most stubborn supporters of the Atlantic Community clearly saw that Europe had somehow a sharper democratic sensitivity than America, that America had forsaken the moral leadership of the free world and was launching her own form of international power politics under the guise of anti-colonialism...

...With the dust temporarily settling in the Middle East, but new storms looming on the horizon, one can draw certain conclusions: 1. European nations cannot conduct an independent policy on problems of world scope...

...It has always been obvious that the Atlantic Community is impossible without the end of isolationism...

...But now something has happened to change this relationship— something for which the United States is largely though by no means entirely responsible...

...Throughout the war, with the backing of General Marshall and over the protests of General MacArthur, the United States based its global strategy on "Europe first...

...The Americans were clearly dealing with the Kremlin over Europe's head...

...At the same time, their faith in the solidity of American-European ties prevented them from taking the "agonizing appraisal" threat very seriously...

...After the Mideast War America and Europe: A Re examination By Renato Giordano WALTER LIPPMANN wrote in a recent column that American foreign policy is compelled to "ride two horses" at once—"what with our ties to Western Europe and our sympathies with the revolt against colonialism...

...The European countries, if only on the basis of power relationships, acknowledged Washington's right to the final say on major international issues...

...The recent Suez crisis is only the culmination of a process which has been under way for some time...

...The Atlantic Community was originally formed, and must be further strengthened, on the basis of these unifying elements...

...4. The United States cannot hope for Afro-Asian friendship unless she abandons her entire policy toward China...

...Indian Prime Minister Nehru, who is the key to neutralist Asia, cannot be won over so long as Washington backs Chiang Kai-shek against Peking...

...American interest and support, so long denounced in some quarters as "interference," gave way to aloofness and passivity...

...Secretary Dulles's immediate reaction was his remark about an "agonizing reappraisal"' of U.S...

...One thing above all stands out clearly in the Suez mess: Soviet Russia's new major role in Middle Eastern affairs...

...Busy upholding Egypt against "Anglo-French colonialism," the Americans did not realize that they were clearing the way for Soviet infiltration...

...It was the Geneva "summit meeting" in 1955 that first startled Europeans into an awareness that something important was changing in Washington...

...The Marshall Plan and America's unswerving support of all projects for European integration had constituted one of the most farsighted chapters in U.S...

...Yet, the chief problem of the Atlantic Alliance has always been that of transforming it into a true eommuRenato Giordano, who is attached to the European Coal and Steel Community, works closely with Jean Monnet in the Committee for the United States of Europe...

...Its supporters have bent all their efforts toward creating a common view which would assure a united response to any international problem of whatever nature...

...It is our interest," he declared, "it is our duty to be at once ally of the West and its principal mediator...

...3. Moscow's threat, at the height of the Suez crisis, to bomb London and Paris out of existence and enter the Middle East in force with "volunteers" provided the basis for a new drawing together of the Western alliance...

...When EDC was defeated, its supporters felt that a grave injustice had been done to the United States and a severe blow struck at the Atlantic Community...

...They cannot accept the idea that Europe is henceforth to be merely another "horse," to be changed whenever the United States feels the desire for a new mount...

...Here Washington has shown by its diplomatic actions how little importance it attaches to its European allies...

...I want only to stress the crucial fact that, during last summer's long and difficult negotiations, Britain and France were painfully aware that the United States was approaching the problem not as a member of the Atlantic coalition but as an "impartial arbiter...

...During the Korean War, when the alliance was subjected to its greatest strain, a common front was still maintained, and Britain's role as "moderator" often rendered great service to the Western cause...

...relations with Europe...

...The situation was sufficiently disturbing so that even Le Monde, a newspaper I regard as largely responsible for the growth of French neutralism and anti-Americanism, described America's Geneva policy as evidence of a dangerous rift between the United States and her European allies...

...it can merely abandon its European allies and fall back upon isolationism once more...

...It will be a sad day when America decides that Europe is merely another "horse" to be cast aside at will...

...Furthermore, when the magnificent Hungarian Revolution burst forth, many Europeans had the feeling that America, after so much talk of "liberation" and "rollback," was not reacting with the same spontaneity and fervor as Europe...

...In all these years, American leadership in Europe was never a matter of dispute...

...Now we are confronted with the Middle Eastern crisis, in which America's retreat from her responsibilities has been most glaringly apparent...

...Even a man with the keen political insight of George F. Kennan, the author of the containment theory, had come out for a neutralized Germany with all foreign troops withdrawn ¦—a scheme Europeans had always identified with Moscow rather than Washington...

...The same principle held true after the war with the emergence of the European Recovery Program and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization...

...The alliance of French neutralist and nationalist opinion with the Communists against "American interference in Europe" came as a terrible shock to the pro-European elements in die United States Government...

...Up to that time, it had been commonly said in Europe that the best "Europeans" were to be found in Washington...

...2. Long-range European and American interests coincide...

...True, British actions incurred die wrath of the "go it alone"' bloc in the United States, but it was this very situation which caused the so-called "Asia-firsters" to show their true colors as isolationists...