Britain, France and the Alliance

...But the central point remains to obtain a cease-fire...

...I think the accusation is unjust...

...To UNDERSTAND France's position and role it is clearly necessary to understand President Charles de Gaulle's policies, his view of the contemporary world and his abiding conception of diplomacy...

...he is seeking to exploit Europe's national politics so that he may appear as the spokesman not only of France but in a certain sense of the whole Continent...

...Moreover, Macmillan and several other British ministers are animated by a vigorous and obstinate hostility to the Common Market...

...But basically, when de Gaulle demanded a place in the Atlantic directorate, neither Bonn nor Rome agreed...

...Secondly, General de Gaulle has undertaken to provide France with atomic arms...

...And this is the great difficulty...

...And in conformity with an unwritten law of French politics, it is entirely possible that the very men who most fiercely opposed the unification of the Europe of the Six will be responsible for its realization...

...General de Gaulle is too intelligent to spell out explicitly this grand design—great plans should be realized and not discussed—but there is not a shadow of a doubt that this is pretty much what he has in mind...

...What is important is not the descriptive term, but the fact that the Common Market members treat each other differently from others, and this will probably impose some difficulties for British exports to the Continent...

...Stagnation is a statistical phenomenon...

...Nevertheless, current developments indicate that the official French declaration of September 16, which Aron analyzes here, remains the basic policy document...

...Of course, many things can happen which we cannot foresee...

...But there is a far greater difficulty: To find out what the Algerians really want assumes that they will have free elections...

...The Western powers are not going to break away from each other, the Atlantic Alliance is not going to disintegrate, and inter-allied relations will continue to conform to the tradition described by General de Gaulle—that is, they will remain as bad as is normal among allies...

...And yet, at the same time that he advances this cynical doctrine about the nature of foreign policy—which comes down to a question of power and power rivalries—he constantly advances claims for France not on the basis of power (which it lacks), but on the basis of its rights...

...3) He is seeking the reorganization of the Atlantic alliance to obtain, informally if not officially, a place alongside the U.S...

...The trouble with the General's foreign policy is that it perpetually oscillates between a traditional Machiavellianism and pretensions that are difficult to justify in terms of that very Machiavellianism...

...But within the European framework, France has no manifestly higher status than Germany or Italy...

...However, Khrushchev is coming to Paris and de Gaulle may conceivably modify his position on the question...

...These semi-conflicts within the Western world do not, in my opinion, place in question the ultimate cohesion or unity of the West...

...What vision dominates them...

...De Gaulle's September 16 policy declaration on Algeria was so conceived that it could be interpreted as changing nothing or everything...

...How are they to be arranged...

...To be sure, the Prime Minister did not overlook the electoral advantages he might eventually derive from his trip...

...Economists assert that if Soviet production increases at an annual rate of 8 per cent, and British production at an annual rate of .5 per cent, Soviet prosperity 15 years hence will vastly surpass British prosperity...

...And that is where the difficulty begins...

...But he believed that the Soviet demands on Berlin might be quite serious and that Moscow could make life difficult for the West in Berlin...

...And the declaration did not spell out the consequences in the event that the demon of independence will not have been exorcised...

...In other words, either it will lead at least to secret negotiations, or it represents a definite refusal to negotiate...

...The day that sees the return of peace to North Africa and France's establishment of tolerable relations with the Moslem world and with the five other countries of the Common Market will also witness the recreation of something like the unity of Western Europe and of the Mediterranean basin...

...If foreign policy is a jungle—and I am ready to subscribe to this view without illusions—it is difficult to understand how France can make demands on the basis of its past, its historic role or the endowments of its people...

...Unfortunately, until now events have had a certain logic and that logic does not allow us to count with certainty on an end to the war...

...Britain is presently enjoying a period of conservatism, prosperity and almost general satisfaction...

...Nor will the conferees be able to find some magic wand with which to stabilize the new states of Africa and Asia...

...It is true that the offer of such a choice was vague and hedged with reservations...

...IF UNITED STATES leadership is coming to an end, what is the situation of the two other major Western powers, Britain and France...

...In a period of full employment, great business activity and high wages, people do not get upset if production does not increase over a period of two or three years...

...This situation is untenable for long...

...At first glance, it is true the new policy does not appear to be fundamentally different from that of past French governments, for it continues to demand that the rebel National Liberation Front (FLN) accept a cease-fire...

...but the man in the street is not sensitive to such statistical considerations, and the so-called stagnation of the last three years has not embittered British public opinion...

...It is all too easy to assert that it changed nothing, as when Socialist leader Guy Mollet advanced his triple formula of cease-fire, elections, negotiations...

...It is doubtful that in the coming six, eight or 12 months the country will be wholly pacified (even the military leaders do not predict this), especially since one part of the FLN is located outside Algerian territory and it is difficult to keep some arms and men from crossing into Algeria from their bases in Tunisia and Morocco...

...Of course, this is not so far-reaching as to make them consider a revision of British diplomacy...

...2) He intends-to provide France with atomic armaments, so that it may enter the nuclear club and be recognized as one of the four great powers...

...Moreover, eight to 10 months before the elections the Government had voted a budget which assured a renewal of economic expansion...

...Thus, the prospects appear to be pretty much as follows: If the idea of self-determination was proposed in order to evade negotiations with the FLN, it is likely that the task of pacification will be prolonged...

...To say to Italy and Germany that we wish to achieve with them a European community—this is a policy...

...As for General de Gaulle's atomic politics, it sets him in opposition to the whole world—to the African nations, who, perhaps demagogically but nonetheless effectively, are protesting the scheduled explosion of an atomic bomb in the Sahara...

...This dilemma is so sharp that it is difficult to imagine how the formula of self-determination will be applied...

...Moreover, there is no chance that the FLN will accept a cease-fire without some precise understanding of how self-determination will be carried out...

...Essentially, General de Gaulle believes that a country's rulers must make "national ambition" the first priority of policy, to which all domestic politics must be subordinated...

...If they decide to create a peaceful climate, they will be able to find some sort of compromise on Berlin without too much difficulty, and they will be able, even without an explicit disarmament agreement, to refrain from further atomic tests...

...He views foreign policy as a kind of jungle where no one can rely on anyone but himself...

...This is perhaps true, if improbable...

...Since he has been in power, de Gaulle's foreign policy has consisted of the following elements: First of all, in December 1958 he called for the establishment of a kind of Atlantic directorate, composed of the United States, Britain and France, whose task would be to guide the alliance...

...For on the day that the Common Market comes into existence, with a common tariff, fiscal and exchange policy, each member of the European community will have lost its independence in economic matters, and Europe will have become far more than the creature of supra-national authorities whose functionaries are impotent to impose their will on governments...

...Thus President de Gaulle's policy, motivated by national ambition, puts him at odds with Britain on some matters pertaining to the Common Market, with the Big Three on nuclear questions and perhaps even on Berlin...

...It is a word that can set events in motion...

...It is entirely possible that it will reach no satisfactory agreement and that the statesmen will disperse with a declaration that the detente continues more than ever and that coexistence is becoming more and more peaceful...

...Fourthly, de Gaulle has established close and cordial relations with German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, and he will rigorously adhere to the letter and spirit of the European treaties on the Common Market and Euratom...

...In short, it is clear to all today that the two worlds have no desire to fight and that they are unable to arrive at a European settlement that will satisfy the demands of both sides—so both Germany and Berlin will remain divided...

...And this can become in a matter of 20 years, with the aid of oil from the Sahara, a great thing indeed...

...What, then, is the summit conference going to discuss...

...A regular contributor to the Paris daily, Le Figaro, Aron is author of The Opium of the Intellectuals...

...Until now, the General, who had been suspected of wanting to resume his 1944 journey to Moscow, to dissolve the Atlantic Alliance, and to play the lone wolf on the world scene, has been the best and firmest European in his resistance to Soviet demands...

...For this is precisely what the two worlds have been doing for the last 15 years—coexisting...

...But if the statesmen so decide, we will be able to live peacefully with the conflict—or at least in verbal and psychological peacefulness—as we have for the last 15 years lived with an apparent tension which, happily, has not exploded into total war...

...and in the latter case, military operations may continue for a very long period...

...Moreover, he believes that all states are what he once called them, quoting Nietzsche, "cold monsters"—that is, he believes in the permanent, essential and congenital cynicism of their rulers...

...The whole world knows that this word, "self-determination," has been uttered in this connection at the United Nations and that it conforms to what de Gaulle himself calls the spirit of the age...

...Thus, the basic elements of the world we have known for the last 15 years will not be modified...

...It is true that for some years there has been no economic expansion, but I think that economists delude themselves about the psychological repercussions of what they call stagnation...

...He believes that the new Number One in the Kremlin wants gradually to modify the Soviet regime and establish more tolerable relations with the West...

...For England, then, to remain isolated in the face of a united Little Europe is to accept the status, even more than is currently true, of an American satellite...

...So long as virtually the whole French Army is based in the Mediterranean, there remains a striking and extreme disproportion between France's national aspirations and its strength...

...Thus, at the forthcoming summit meeting, de Gaulle will probably find himself in opposition to the other three on nuclear matters...

...But if it was put forth so that its psychological impact would allow for an approach to clandestine negotiations with the FLN on the means of achieving a solution acceptable to all, then the September 16 declaration was a veritable milestone...

...But if the French Army withdraws and the nationalist guerrillas take charge, the French will assert that the election is not free...

...and the USSR—which it already is in any case—but even in comparison with the Six...

...To realize this national ambition, he is simultaneously employing three means: (1) He is trying to project himself to the Anglo-Saxon world as the representative of the states of Western Europe...

...These are the pieces of the puzzle...

...The fact is that the word implies that the nationality of the Algerians is in a state of suspension...

...The condition of the Western world cannot be fully comprehended without taking into account the Algerian problem...

...He is already at odds with Britain on the Common Market, to which the latter is hostile because it evidently militates against Britain's economic interests...

...From a reading of the third volume of his Memoirs, I have concluded that de Gaulle's ultimate goal is to give France as important a role as possible on the world stage, to insure that France be treated, and act, like a great power...

...And if it comes about, Britain will sink to the level of a second-class power, not merely in comparison with the U.S...

...The Common Market means that German and Italian goods are handled differently at France's frontiers than those of England...

...But should peace return to Algeria and a confederation agreement be made with Tunisia and Morocco and, finally, the lines be maintained with Black Africa—then de Gaulle's grand design, to which he alluded in the third volume of his Memoirs and which he retains today, will be transformed from a megalomaniacal ambition into a reasonable policy...

...In addition, Macmillan doubtless thought that it is possible to achieve with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev—if not a tranquil, 19th-century-style peace—at least better relations that really reflect the coexistence accepted by everyone...

...If, moreover, the Common Market is transformed into a European economic community, Europe—with no supranational authority—will become a reality...

...Here, Aron continues his argument with an examination of the fundamental diplomatic policies of America's two great European allies...

...These two countries may make some concessions to French vanity by permitting it to play a more publicly striking role than they in world councils—because Germany is a former defeated enemy and Italy was, for some years during the war, on the wrong side...

...Seen from London, this internal crisis is represented by the Common Market...

...this is what the British call "discrimination" and what we call "differentiation...

...The most revealing source for such understanding is the third volume of his Memoirs, for there he explains the situation in which he found France and the objectives he set for its foreign policy upon his return to power...

...Finally, de Gaulle has been the firmest of the Western leaders on the Berlin question...

...Alliances exist, but within them rivalries persist...

...seen from Paris, it revolves, above all, about France's position in the West and the possibility of achieving a common policy for the West...

...In this atmosphere of conservatism and prosperity, Great Britain desires to reach a modus vivendi with the Soviet Union...

...But with one difference: If the ceasefire is accepted, the Algerians will have the right, after four years of peace, to choose independence...

...I do not believe these difficulties are as great as London asserts, but it is quite natural that the British lose no love for the Common Market...

...For if the others really want to negotiate a new status for Berlin, French policy until now has been not to submit to Soviet demands...

...LIKE ALL FRENCHMEN, de Gaulle is tired of Algeria and passionately hopes to end the war there not only because it is horrible and because peace is indispensable to the stabilization of French institutions, but because the national ambition that he nourishes can be satisfied only on the basis of peace in Algeria...

...I believe that former Foreign Minister Georges Bidault was right when he said that nine million stateless persons had been created: They have been told, provisionally, that they are going to be Frenchmen, but that some years after the end of the war they may decide not to be...

...it is hardly a perceptible individual experience...

...The policy declaration, to the extent that it was elucidated by the Premier, excluded negotiations with the FLN on everything but a cease-fire...

...It should be noted that his discussion of Algeria antedated President de Gaulle's clarifying statements last November...

...Essentially, Berlin and disarmament...

...If the referendum is supervised by the French Army, then the Algerian nationalists will assert that the election is not free...

...Leadership...

...Thirdly, Premier Michel Debre has demanded that our allies support French policy in Algeria...

...To use the classic language of history and sociology, I would say that de Gaulle believes in the unconditional primacy of foreign policy over domestic policy, and he expresses this view in terms resembling those employed by German historians of the last century...

...This, of course, is not a radical departure in policy, for the governments of the Fourth Republic had already agreed to it in principle...

...and to Britain, which, though it continually declares that it has no objection to France's production of an atomic bomb (Britain could not speak otherwise, having itself produced one), does not especially anticipate the accession of a fourth member to the nuclear club...

...Condition of the West—II BRITAIN, FRANCE AND THE ALLIANCE By Raymond Aron Last week, in the first of two articles adapted from a recent address, Raymond Aron, the distinguished French political analyst and sociologist, discussed the reasons for what he called "The End of U.S...

...To give life to the European community there must be one policy for the Europe of the Six, and not a French policy that exploits the five other nations to advance France's gloire...

...But the desire to play an independent diplomatic role, to reach some sort of agreement with the Soviets, is related to the crisis within the Western world...

...This is de Gaulle's conception of France's role: the leading power on the Continent, playing a world role precisely because it would be more than France—it would be Europe...

...The Conservatives have won the election for the third time...

...From time to lime I can't help feeling sympathetic, regardless of my own preferences, with those who must conduct the pacification operation, which may end, ironically enough, in Algerian self-determination...

...When Prime Minister Harold Macmillan went to Moscow, it was said that this visit was an electioneering stunt...

...and it is no less difficult to envision what satisfactory guarantees de Gaulle can give...

...Actually, it is not so important to know what conclusions the conference will arrive at...

...to the U.S., which seriously desires an agreement with the USSR, at least for the suspension of atomic tests...

...and Britain among the leaders of the West...

...Macmillan believes it is possible today to progress from coexistence within a bellicose atmosphere to coexistence in a pacific atmosphere...

...On War and France: The New Republic...

...The great difficulty with this policy is that it presupposes that other nations will submit to it...

...These are the elements of the General's foreign policy...

...I know very well that equivocation is necessary in order to obscure the point where military pourparlers end and military negotiations begin...

...But words sometimes have prodigious strength...

...From what is known of the confidential memorandum which de Gaulle circulated to the allies, he also demanded that the use of atomic weapons any place in the world be subject to the approval of America's allies...