The Floundering Alliance-Three Articles:

...Thus, if Britain and the other countries of the European Free Trade Area prove more enthusiastic for tariff reductions than France, America may have to consider either seeking a change in the rules of GATT or forming a new free trade area with the EFTA and perhaps with nations outside Europe...

...But the Soviet leader must realize that, in the circumstances that now exist, France has nothing real to offer him...

...There is talk of "isolating" France...

...I have purposely said nothing about the implications of de Gaulle's statements for European defense policy and the Atlantic alliance: partly because they are fairly obvious, and partly because the current wild talk about the breakup of NATO seems needlessly dramatic...

...puppets, he saw himself as the only European statesman still capable of thwarting the designs of the Big Two...

...Italy and the Low Countries may press for giving Western European Union—the Brussels Treaty organization—a new role in diplomatic consultation between Britain and the Six, ignoring the probable boycott of France...

...the first 10 because he was out of office, the last 5 because of the Algerian war...

...Some onlookers frankly confess that they arc stumped by the picture, and wish it would be a little less non-figurative...

...There are, for example, signs that what the Germans are really worried about is not the anti-British, but the anti-American implication of his policy...

...But it has its importance, especially when Macmillan's own pliability toward Washington over the SkyboltPolaris deal has—in Continental eyes, anyhow—exposed him to a painful humiliation...

...Which is not precisely what the British people are being told just now by their editorialists...

...Other ways in which France could suffer punishment from its partners might be the abolition of the special status for its ex-colonies and the refusal of association for Algeria...

...Until recently, the chances that such an idyllic Europe would one day materialize have of course been rather poor...

...Sneering at the French, or trying to belittle them, is an ingrained habit with too many people here...

...The burden of historical analogy continues to be borne by the professionals of political warfare—on both sides of the Channel, for the French are not idle either...

...They like it all the less because it comes on top of domestic misfortunes ranging from mounting unemployment to the great climatic freeze-up, which predictably has upset the country's transportation system...

...De Gaulle may have overstrained the internal cohesion of the Six...

...Here it is in order to remark that he has always shown a tendency to admire and at times even to envy the British, whereas in his dealings with the Continentals he has not failed (in private at least) to display a certain disdain for his present allies...

...and 5) cancelled a gala performance in the Paris Opera of Rudolf Nureyev, the Russian refugee dancer, after intervention by the Soviet Embassy...

...In May, the General himself is to pay a state visit to Greece and probably another to Lebanon...

...In fact, he appears to enjoy it...

...The other observation has to do with de Gaulle's attitude toward Britain...

...Kennedy a token of his high personal esteem...

...There is also scope for bilateral trading agreements between Britain and individual Common Market countries...

...The conservative Sunday Telegraph, normally a restrained paper, compared the General to Hitler, and for good measure suggested that he was projecting a deal with Moscow (perhaps no contradiction...

...Although everyone now agrees that Britain must pursue every possible market outside Europe, the central problem is to start industrial expansion at home, despite the risk to Britain's balance of payments...

...To his credit, the Prime Minister has so far resisted the temptation, which to anyone with his turn of mind must be formidable...

...It is all very regrettable, though not as silly as it must sound at a distance...

...Such concessions, major and minor alike, are expected to pave the way for a great confrontation with Moscow...

...De Gaulle was persuaded that any such deal would be made at the expense of Europe...

...If he wants to attain his cherished goal—the departure of the Americans from Europe—Gallic logic demands that he first obtain a settlement with Moscow that is trusted not only by himself but by his partners and allies as well...

...The issues at stake are considerable, not the least of them being the question of what sort of "image" the British are to have of themselves if in the immediate future they are indeed frozen out of the Common Market...

...Considering the shock felt in Washington at the belated revelation that the President of France is Charles de Gaulle and not Jean Monnet, President Kennedy has so far reacted with great wisdom...

...his attitude toward Macmillan seems quite simply to have been one of disdain...

...According to reliable Paris sources, de Gaulle received a French counter-intelligence report of alleged secret talks between Washington and Moscow...

...Meanwhile, Britain is determined to maintain the closest possible economic and political links with its sympathizers inside the Common Market...

...It is not the Government alone, but the whole nation which (literally and metaphorically) has been feeling the draft...

...But even among those who have never had any illusions about de Gaulle's fundamental attitudes, few expected that he would himself force a rupture so early, or reveal his motives with such brutal clarity...

...Aneurin Bevan used to ask...

...Some cynics already suggest that de Gaulle has really done the British a favor by taking the blame for a breakdown which was inevitable anyhow...

...True, many of them favor Britain's entry in the Common Market—but they do not exactly want to see a situation where Britain has one foot inside Europe while preserving its cherished "special relationship" with the United States...

...By disclosing his hand so early, de Gaulle has divided the rest of the Common Market into two camps—those, particularly in Germany, who are prepared to play along with him as non-committally as possible in the belief that both he and Adenauer will disappear before they can do any serious harm...

...But in the short run he has compelled the British Government to manifest before all the world that its entry into the Common Market was indeed envisioned as part of a much vaster AngloAmerican operation to create an Atlantic Community that incorporates Western Europe...

...nor does he realize that most Frenchmen at the moment display far more confidence in the future of their country than he does...

...A few weeks ago, however, de Gaulle had reason to believe that they had suddenly grown worse than ever, and that his whole scheme might collapse before it even got off the ground...

...But it cannot be ruled out, if only because the regime which replaces de Gaulle could conceivably be a popular front under Communist leadership...

...Now that good will has disappeared, it is quite likely to collapse—especially since it was primarily devised to provide an outlet for French farming surpluses...

...after all, no great achievement for Britain to have been allowed to pay for its own share of a so-called independent deterrent which is to be integrated in an American-controlled NATO fleet...

...The General's ambitions must be measured by his king-size personality...

...Still, one wonders...

...3) authorized the French TV network to broadcast a special interview of Nikita Khrushchev and Marshal Rodion Malinowsky on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Stalingrad...

...The present writer, after long years of residence in England, cannot recall many instances when French affairs were reported in the press, on the BBC or in the newsreels in what most people on the Continent would regard as a proper manner...

...In his vision, the Europeans were bound to revolt against this American plan as soon as they became aware of it, thus opening the door to Communism...

...the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes...

...It may or may not be inevitable, however, that the Foreign Office and its loyal brigade in Fleet Street should try to improve on the occasion by drawing sinister parallels between the French President and his various monarchical predecessors...

...He has, however, come to the conclusion that they are too inclined to play a double game, and that their fair words conceal a nefarious design to isolate France within Europe while reserving the place of honor in the Atlantic Community for themselves...

...president, or how the American people will feel about Europe at that time...

...It is worth pointing out, however, that America may be better off in this situation than if Britain and the rest of the EFTA had joined the Six, thus putting their tariff policy at the mercy of a French veto...

...Kennedy will leave the White House in 1968, and the General is trying to cope with problems that will become really acute only after 1970...

...These beliefs may be unfounded, in which case it is a pity that Macmillan, during his visit to Rambouillet last December, did nothing to discourage them...

...Their spokesmen are busy putting it about all over Europe that Britain is "America's Trojan Horse...

...But there are people in London who believe that de Gaulle may have done the British a favor by rendering the whole exercise irrelevant...

...If he and his colleagues thought that this was the way to impress de Gaulle with their sincerity and goodwill, they now have the answer...

...aid in case of aggression, but try to take care of its own nuclear defenses...

...Now he is itching to get back into the game himself...

...This will have the effect of strengthening the argument that if disengagement comes about in Central Europe it is most likely to come through agreement between the Warsaw powers and NATO as a whole under reciprocal military guarantees, a far more attractive prospect for the Soviet Union than anything France alone can offer...

...Chief Executive...

...In these circumstances, de Gaulle decided to act faster than he had originally planned...

...missile bases in Europe and a nuclear test ban...

...As a member of his entourage explained, de Gaulle has long suspected that American big business might try to take over Western Europe from within, and shape it to the needs of "U.S...

...Since the Cuban crisis, the General has had great respect for the U.S...

...At the same time, America and Britain would further strengthen Europe's confidence in their commitment if they followed up the assignment of part of their strategic nuclear forces to the NATO command with new proposals for giving Europe greater influence over how they are to be used in a crisis...

...Given the present angry breach between London and Paris, it is probably inevitable that both sides should hurl their propaganda hatchets...

...IN A few months, all this may come to look like a mere tempest in a teapot...

...At a time like this it is a great relief to be able to take refuge in xenophobia, and no one can deny that full advantage has been taken of this remedy in the weeks which began with Dean Acheson's now famous speech on December 5. The pendulum has swung to and fro...

...It was his conviction then, as it is his evident conviction now, that he stood for a principle while the British stood for nothing more elevated than opportunism...

...Denis Healey, a regular contributor, is Labor party Spokesman for Commonwealth and Colonial Affairs...

...His suspicions were further strengthened by the withdrawal of American missiles from Italy and Turkey, as well as by certain remarks the Soviet Ambassador, Sergei Vinogradov, made to him about Berlin...

...he believes that Western Russia is more truly a part of Europe than Britain and that the steady growth of the threat from China will unify both parts of Europe...

...he wants to make up for lost time and crown his achievements by creating, before his departure, the Europe of his dreams...

...The reader of de Gaulle's war memoirs (especially volume II) can easily discover for himself what the General thought of his British partner...

...but in that case it would have been more tactful if Whitehall had used the Skybolt episode as an opportunity to adopt a frankly "European" attitude...

...According to de Gaulle, Britain can participate in the new Europe only if it breaks its links with the outside world...

...George Lichtheim, whose reports from London have appeared in these pages for many years, is author of the forthcoming Europe Today and Tomorrow, to be published by Praeger...

...As a result, the Common Market is unlikely to acquire any political content so long as de Gaulle is alive...

...The General is 72, and if he is able to keep going as long as Chancellor Adenauer has, he could still be in office in 1978...

...What does fascinate de Gaulle is the interplay of power...

...For one thing, France is likely to veto any extensive program of tariff disarmament by the Common Market...

...All this belongs to the region of political conjecture— rarely a safe occupation beyond the next fortnight, as any past fortnight should have taught us...

...Aux Ecoutes, the conservative French weekly, affirms that de Gaulle would like to transform the whole Mediterranean into a sort of Mare Nostrum, where American influence will find it increasingly difficult to penetrate (except, presumably, by Polaris...

...Living with de Gaulle's Europe," to quote a headline from one of the serious journals, may shortly become a necessity—at least for some years...

...Possibly the day of national deterrents is over, at any rate in Europe...

...This is a point on which many Europeans critical of de Gaulle for different reasons are very dubious...

...On the other hand, de Gaulle knows that he cannot ask the U.S...

...He is convinced that, as the sole major World War II figure still in active politics, he is better equipped to preside over the final peace settlement than anyone else...

...Already there are those who draw comfort from the approaching end of the Adenauer era and the presumed intentions of his probable successor...

...He already has put out feelers to Sweden and Denmark, though so far without much success...

...2) granted the Soviet Union the most-favored clause for the import of a long list of articles, while the same clause was denied the U.S...

...Congressmen are talking in these terms, the Administration seems to realize that, on the contrary, now is the time to give even greater priority to NATO as a political and military instrument of American policy...

...It is...

...The real difficulty, as the London Times has pointed out...

...In October he will be feted in Teheran by the Shah of Iran, and his Foreign Minister will try to arrange a meeting for him with Franco late this year or early in 1964...

...While he, too, was in favor of breaking the deadlock between the West and the Soviet Union, he was determined that it must not be broken over the heads of the European powers...

...But de Gaulle, who is not too robust a man physically, feels that his time is measured...

...His hope is that his personal authority in the area will soon be big enough to arbitrate even the Arab-Israeli conflict...

...In reality, de Gaulle is of course neither pro-Fascist nor pro-Communist, but simply pro-European...

...George W. Herald is a veteran foreign correspondent bused in Paris...

...Through this month and March, he is dispatching four Cabinet ministers to Madrid and two to Lisbon to explore new French investment possibilities and learn to what extent the Spaniards could contribute atomic ores to France's nuclear effort...

...In this endeavor, de Gaulle has begun upsetting all the hitherto cherished notions of cold war politics...

...For this to become possible would imply so great an upheaval in the pattern of interest set up by the Six over the last five years that the Common Market itself could not survive in anything like its present form...

...Moreover, he actually felt it his duty to keep the old Continent from being "gobbled up" by the two giants...

...But few expert observers believe that, whether or not Kennedy has the juridical power to abolish tariffs, there are going to be sweeping tariff reductions in negotiations between America and Western Europe as a whole...

...Even the sober Sunday Times came out with a massive counterblast at the "French Emperor," slightly marred by a verbal slip-up suggesting an imperfect grasp of French syntax...

...His aim is to put his house in order without further delay, so that he can leave behind a solid political structure on which his people can go on building in the 1970s and '80s...

...The final expulsion of NATO from French territory has little attraction for Khrushchev if this means a strengthening of Germany's role in the Alliance, and dc Gaulle cannot deliver the one thing Khrushchev really wants—the removal of NATO forces from Germany...

...At first it was the Americans who had to take the blame: currently it is the French...

...Why look into the crystal ball when you can read the book...

...A man of de Gaulle's stature does not let his personal likes or dislikes influence the conduct of his foreign policy...

...Now that the chips are down, two rather tactless observations are in order...

...He cannot know who will then be the U.S...

...On this subject the British press, after a brief shock, is now relapsing into its familiar illusions...

...Meanwhile, it serves to fortify the French in their conviction that the British are not yet prepared to play the European game according to the rules...

...Minister of Economics Ludwig Erhard...

...If Reginald Maudling, Chancellor of the Exchequer, again fails to obtain international cooperation in strengthening Britain's reserves, even the Conservative Government may be forced into extreme measures of exchange control and import limitation—the alternative of devaluation has little support...

...The most difficult problem facing America is how to revise its foreign trade policy in the light of the collapse of President Kennedy's Grand Design...

...Purportedly, de Gaulle's aim is the creation of a Mediterranean Common Market as an accessory to the EEC...

...Feeling he had to forestall irrevocable events, the General took no time to consult his Common Market partners, not to speak of his other allies who, as he told U.S...

...General Ailleret, the French chief-of-staff, has also gone to Spain to prepare common army maneuvers and discuss the lease of military bases on the Canary Islands...

...This applies even should the Common Market refuse to reciprocate...

...It has not yet dawned upon the average Briton that, viewed from the Continent, his own country at times looks like a museum of antiquities...

...It will reduce American capital investments on the Continent to a strict minimum...

...It is noteworthy that so hard-headed and well-informed a British journal as the Statist—better reading, in the opinion of many people, than the more glamorous Economist whose judgment has lately seemed somewhat erratic—has throughout been pessimistic about the outcome of the talks...

...economic imperialism...

...A great deal depends on how Premier Khrushchev reacts to the new temptations from Paris...

...Thus, a settlement with the Russians constitutes an integral part of his plans, and he has already started creating a favorable climate for it...

...this is rubbish and will come to nothing, though the Six may go through the motions of putting pressure on Paris to let in the British...

...is that nothing will change dramatically as a result of the Brussels fiasco, while Hugh Gaitskcll's tragic death may appear to have reduced the political pressure on the Government to take drastic action...

...Nor is it likely to evolve any positive economic functions beyond those directly flowing from the industrial Customs Union...

...In order to improve his posture as an interlocuteur valable, he is now going out of his way to broaden the circle of France's friends, regardless of ideology...

...The real test of the new-found enthusiasm in Washington and among the Five for Britain's role in Europe may be the willingness of their central bankers to support the pound...

...The Byzantine complexities of this particular wrangle—involving as they do three different kinds of subsidies—cannot be analyzed here...

...The report affirmed that, in their secret correspondence, Kennedy and Khrushchev came close to agreements on the Berlin question, U.S...

...As for the popular press—other than the Beaverbrook papers, which have been running a campaign against entry into the Common Market—it, too, sounded the true note of patriotic outrage...

...But Britain may pay the price for the earlier propaganda in pressure on sterling from foreign bankers who still take it seriously...

...But free to do what...

...The nation can no longer delude itself into thinking that the painful changes in both domestic and external policy required to invigorate its flagging economy will automatically be imposed by entry into the eec...

...It may be that the polar sky currently hanging over Britain has some obscure connection with the devastating sequence of events culminating in the sudden and tragic death of Hugh Gaitskell...

...Instead Macmillan went off to Nassau for the purpose of issuing a grandiloquent joint Anglo-American communique, and then as an afterthought agreed that France should be offered a similar (but manifestly inferior) arrangement...

...Hence no doubt the barely controlled explosion of rage when President de Gaulle, in his press conference on January 14, read the British out of Europe—with what effect remains to be seen...

...Within 10 days, de Gaulle has: 1) concluded a new $100 million trade pact with the Soviet Union...

...Unless America and Britain react far more ineptly than now seems conceivable, there is no chance whatever that France can win the leadership of Western Europe...

...It has been announced that 10 French warships will visit Valencia and 20 other units the Canaries between February 14-18...

...Discounting the British as U.S...

...Thus, he cannot possibly base his policies on personal considerations and sentiments, but only on abstract political probabilities...

...Whatever annoyance he felt was presumably reserved for President Kennedy...

...To be frozen out of Europe, after being frozen up at home, was really too much...

...De Gaulle's press conference of January 14 simply confirmed all that he had previously written about France's role in Europe and Europe's in the world...

...Whether he approves or not, no one with a sense of history can dismiss this grandiose conception out of hand...

...The new Europe will firmly anchor the West German rumpstate to France, so that no neo-Nazi and revisionist tendencies can regain ground among the Germans after Adenauer's departure...

...De Gaulle can scarcely do more to sabotage NATO than he is already doing...

...First, the British still have a long way to go before they rid themselves of the remnants of their old superiority complex...

...There was, for example, an occasion in 1943, during a particularly difficult stage of the North African operation, when Macmillan (as recorded in the Memoirs) threatened de Gaulle—then merely head of Fighting France—with the loss of British and American support, "and then he will be nothing...

...In fact, his shock tactics have probably cost him much of what he hoped to gain by excluding Britain from the EEC...

...At the same time, the Western press has been full of ugly hints that he plans to meet with Khrushchev and discuss the best means of throwing the Americans out of Europe...

...But such respect could not keep General dc Gaulle from making an agonizing reappraisal—agonizing, that is, for his allies—of America's future role in Europe...

...With Russia's blessing, it will tear down the Berlin wall and obtain liberalization in the Iron Curtain regimes...

...Indeed, rumor has it that his equivocal behavior about the Skybolt-Polaris deal went far to confirm de Gaulle's darkest suspicions...

...The fact is that in trying to get into the Common Market, the British negotiators had come close to the point of accepting an arrangement which would throw open the British market—by 1970 anyhow— to European food grains at a fixed price considerably above the present level...

...At this juncture, of course, everyone asserts that the problem had been almost solved, but in that case why wasn't it settled before the General dropped his bomb...

...Although the concept of a multilateral NATO deterrent force is likely to raise more problems than it solves, it may nevertheless perform an invaluable function in compelling America's allies to face the facts of nuclear technology...

...This is also given as a reason for the generous French aid to Algeria...

...For another, now that the Customs Union is likely to remain the EEC's only substantial achievement, the technocrats in Brussels may be more anxious than ever to preserve the common external tariff as their main instrument for economic integration...

...He seems to be literally obsessed by the idea that the Yankee upstarts might turn the Old World, the cradle of civilization, "into a second Latin America...

...Under the existing rules of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, any tariff reductions made by the United States in negotiations with other countries must be extended to the Common Market, unless they are part of an agreement to form a customs union or a free trade area...

...and those, particularly in Italy and Holland, who so greatly fear his policies that they want to retaliate against him at every opportunity...

...The General is indeed known to possess a somewhat sardonic sense of humor, and I remember hearing him turn his savage ridicule on the "Anglo-Saxons" as far back as 10 years ago...

...De Gaulle knows, of course, that he will not be able to negotiate from a position of strength even if his first Mirage IV planes can be equipped with Abombs by the end of this year...

...As de Gaulle visualizes tomorrow's Europe, it will be "dominated" neither by the Russians nor by the Americans...

...Charles de Gaulle's Abstractions By George W. Herald Paris General de Gaulle, the Picasso among statesmen, has once more produced an abstract painting that puzzles laymen and professional critics alike...

...But superstition aside, this has been a miserable period, and it looks as though there are other shocks still to come...

...These people include the committed "federalists" who for the past four years have been urging a more rapid pace of political integration than Paris was willing to sanction...

...For 15 years, he has been forced to watch this interplay from the sidelines...

...Ambassador Charles Bohlen, "have so often omitted to consult me before major policy decisions...

...The underlying theme, however, has remained constant: The British are taking a lot of punishment, and they do not like it...

...It has always had its supporters in Germany, including perhaps Chancellor Adenauer himself...

...What can be said now, though, is that things in Europe will never be the same...

...It is superfluous to say that de Gaulle's reaction to Nassau ought not to have been one of rage...

...The Road Ahead By Denis Healey London Any real hope that Britain would achieve entry into the Common Market through the Brussels negotiations disappeared when President de Gaulle won his overwhelming vote of confidence in last autumn's French elections...

...The only thing that could give de Gaulle any hope of realizing his objectives would be a reduction in America's military commitment in Western Europe...

...Of the other Continental leaders, a French official, who probably knew his master's mind, observed the other day that they were "town councillors rather than statesmen...

...Nor are its editors alone in asking just exactly how British agriculture can be fitted into the Common Market without 1) driving up food prices in Britain beyond the point tolerable to a Government with a shaky majority, and 2) antagonizing Canada, Australia and New Zealand, to the extent of provoking a revolt in the Conservative party...

...For the present, Britain's exclusion from the Common Market will lead to an increase in its trade with Eastern Europe—particularly Poland...

...Longsighted forecasters, with their eyes on 1966 and the end of de Gaulle's presidential term, talk of a holding operation...

...He told another visitor that his first step was to blackball Britain "because there was no need for a U.S...

...For once, Right and Left were united: It was all the fault of the French, and above all of de Gaulle's megalomania...

...Of course, de Gaulle remained stubborn and won...

...This at any rate is something the General has neither said nor thought of the British...

...Now that the door is closed, British politicians and businessmen who previously argued that there was no alternative to joining the Common Market are suddenly discovering that, far from being a disaster, exclusion offers certain benefits...

...It will no longer rely on automatic U.S...

...In this context, it is important to understand de Gaulle's constant preoccupation with time, for it goes a long way toward explaining his recent abruptness...

...He is said to be confident that most of his European partners will soon understand the wisdom of his course and endorse him as their spokesman in the historical parleys with America and Russia...

...One of the reasons that he sent the Mona Lisa, France's greatest art treasure, to America on the eve of his rejection of Britain's entry into the EEC, was that he wanted to give the President and Mrs...

...4) reassured Ambassador Vinogradov that the Paris-Bonn treaty was designed to keep Germany under control...

...Above all, it will set up France and Germany as principal suppliers of consumer and industrial goods to the unsatisfied markets in the East...

...indeed, even the special relationship between Paris and Bonn is under a strain which may prove fatal...

...So far there are no signs that this will happen, but who can ever know with Charles de Gaulle...

...Raymond Aron, the political commentator, mentioned the other day that he suspected de Gaulle was secretly amused by the mischief he was causing and that he "probably didn't believe himself half of the things he was saying...

...It is not merely that he sees France as leading a third force between Russia and the United States...

...liaison officer inside the Community of the Six...

...This kind of thing is rarely mentioned in Britain at the moment...

...Economic ideologies do not interest him...

...And by making life more comfortable for the Communist societies, it will bring about a happy paradise of coexistence from the Atlantic to the Urals...

...This ranges from the vulgar abuse now showered upon de Gaulle—who is, after all, the only considerable statesman Europe has produced since Churchill left the scene—to the persistent habit of columnists and movie producers to represent France as a country uniquely occupied either with civil disturbances or poodle shows...

...Thus, the political dangers which led so many statesmen on both sides of the Atlantic to feel that Britain must at all costs join the Common Market have been greatly reduced by the manner of its exclusion...

...Stories that he has carried a grudge against Prime Minister Macmillan since the days in wartime Algiers, or that his conflict with President Kennedy is a clash of personalities, are certainly open to question...

...This, though, is not necessarily an advantage...

...Rumors that de Gaulle was about to offer Moscow a detailed plan for the demilitarization of Central Europe were vigorously denied in Paris, and for good reason...

...And it will not include Great Britain, as long as that country remains a "military satellite" of the U.S...

...At any rate, he feels he can strike a better bargain with Russia over Europe's future than the U.S...

...The Economist called it Bonapartism, (meaning in this instance Napoleon I...

...In what remains of his lifetime the power factors are most unlikely to shift sufficiently to make such a reversal of alliances realistic, let alone acceptable to public opinion...

...For Britain, the collapse of the Brussels negotiations has at least one advantage...

...It would be an error, however, to ascribe de Gaulle's contrariness to hidden personal resentments...

...Bewildered by the intricacy of the design, the forcefulness of the stroke, the possibly sinister meaning of certain motives and shades of color, everyone tends to interpret the canvas in a different way...

...France's economy itself combines private enterprise with a rigorous state-capitalist planning that would do Moscow proud...

...While some U.S...

...It is likewise noteworthy that Macmillan and de Gaulle are old wartime acquaintances...

...It is no great secret that—with the exception of Adenauer—even the faithful Germans are regarded in Paris as "provincials...

...But de Gaulle is an old man in a hurry...

...And this for several reasons...

...If Macmillan reacted to Dean Acheson's speech by recalling Philip of Spain, why should he not respond to de Gaulle's challenge by reminding people of Louis XIV...

...The General had serious apprehensions that the Big Two would present France and the rest of the world with several faits accomplis...

...Secondly, all conjectures about such talks are premature, for the General will not be ready for a discussion with Russia for months, and perhaps even years...

...The Soviet Government, for example, has just sent him a stiff note accusing France of trying to form a Madrid-Paris-Bonn nuclear axis...

...Perhaps the first step should be to restore the Douglas Amendment to the Trade Expansion Act, so that the President may have the same powers in tariff negotiations that he would have had if Britain had been admitted to the Common Market...

...Even with the goodwill of all concerned, the common agricultural policy would have been appallingly difficult to operate...

...Some observers even foresee a situation in which Britain would replace France as a member of the Common Market within two years...

...Meanwhile, the author of the masterpiece is sitting back in silence, seemingly unruffled by all the hullabaloo that is going around about his person...

...As the self-styled savior of Europe, he wanted to have "his hands free...

...to go home, as it were, so long as the Russian military threat against Europe persists...

...First of all, de Gaulle is not a man to reveal his tactics before going to the negotiating table...

...Nor are they prepared to break up the Common Market merely for the purpose of teaching the French a lesson...

...Here, then, is the psychological background against which de Gaulle's brutal intervention of the past few weeks has to be understood...