De Gaulle and the West

...Gaullist Europe must, therefore, be a Europe under Soviet hegemony...

...One point of view has it that de Gaulle's January actions presented Europe and North America with a wholly changed situation...

...From another point of view these events are said to have revealed much, but changed little...

...THE weakness of de Gaulle's position in the eyes of his European partners will lie not only in its basic fallacy, but in the vast difficulty of France's achieving what it must to fulfill specific portions of the program...

...From an even broader point of view, de Gaulle's Europe offers little promise of either strength or beneficial contribution to free world strength...

...Our present European defense policy is right and should be continued...

...This is as good a definition of greatness as I know...

...When French atomic warheads are developed, they will be bomber-borne...

...Among men now living and active, no one's personality makes as great, and generally beneficial, an impact on his environment as the General's...

...Our allies can hardly have very solid ideas about how they want to participate in nuclear defense until they know something about it...

...The same thing happens when a couple which has been getting along badly has a blazing public row: It reveals what was already known, but, perhaps, a little more—the depth of incompatability...

...they kept German politics continuously upset and moved German sympathy toward de Gaulle's support of German ambitions which is, perhaps, more strongly stated than unreserved...

...The Treaty of Rome was concluded between six continental states...

...He has, however, evidenced a growing distaste for it, and a desire for separation from bed and board...

...The chance that so small a force, or any of it, would be able to penetrate defenses to populous centers—"to destroy millions and millions of men in a few instants"—is not good...

...Then to alloy this incomposite unity along came Britain, about which de Gaulle remarked: "England, in fact, is insular, maritime, linked by its trade, its markets, its supply needs, to the most diverse and often the most remote countries...

...Indeed, the General clearly thinks of it as an anti-city weapon...

...As a whole, these states are, economically speaking, alike...

...Such analysis and advice seem to me not only thoroughly mistaken, but to be as unfair to de Gaulle as they are to the United States...

...To attempt this will have the most harmful consequences within its own area and to the vast external area of the free world which must live by trade with these two great markets...

...But I do not think that he is motivated by ancient European enmities...

...if such an armed attack occurs, each of them . . . will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area...

...The idea that a right course exists which will prevent difficulties from arising, or remove them if they do, rests on the assumption that all is controllable if only we knew how...

...The great rule of conduct for us in regard to [non-European] nations is to have with them as little political connection as possible...

...If French attitudes unduly delay or frustrate agreements through NATO channels to get on with the common defense, efforts should go forward directly with nations able and willing to make progress...

...The General's partners see this as plainly as we do, and most of them want no part of it...

...At any rate, the opportunity to contribute to the creation of this French force would not seem to be overly alluring to France's European neighbors...

...No one has stated it better than Jean Monnet, the father of the Common Market: "There are urgent problems which neither Europe nor America can settle alone...

...Contrasted with this, the General attributes to the Six a preference "to produce, buy, sell, and consume within their own complex...

...He expects that his force will have a measurable and, indeed, significant deterrent effect...

...Speaking of three principal goals which he had set for himself, the General described the second in this way: ". . . To contribute to the construction of Europe in the fields of politics, of defense and of economy, so that the expansion and action of this ensemble may aid French prosperity and security and, at the same time, re-establish the possibility of a European balance vis-àvis the European countries...

...If we are to oppose his course, we must understand it...

...This would be no threat to the Soviet air force...

...while France, though happily much healthier than recently, is still far from being a robust leader...

...The question is, will it...

...On May 31, 1960, it appeared in a wholly new setting: ". . . it is only in the equilibrium of the universe that one shall find peace...

...It is difficult to conceive of any government in this country undertaking so unpromising a commitment when a relatively simple effort by West European defense, integrated with the power of the U.S...

...Both views present facets of the truth...

...He has not even proposed that Europe seek a divorce from its marriage to America, which for 20 years has been one of both convenience and necessity...

...Both Great Britain and the United States are signatories of the same treaty...

...It would be a mistake to press similes too far...

...What the General says that France wants, certainly what he wants, is what he has called "an absolutely European set-up...

...This, then, is in accordance with the realities of the situation...

...The General may be deeply, indeed, tragically, mistaken—as I think he is in this case— but he is neither unintelligent nor sinister...

...But de Gaulle surely means more than this...

...Far be it from me to say the enmities, ancient or modern, have no effect on de Gaulle's thoughts or decisions...

...The six nations referred to—France, Germany, Italy and the Benelux countries—are united, de Gaulle said, because not one of them is tied to any outside power by any special political or military pact...

...They are wholly in accord with French interests as he sees them...

...If this were done, the discussion of what is popularly called a "NATO" or "European" nuclear force would be revolutionized...

...In the strict sense of the words, this is difficult and useless to deny...

...This treaty had not escaped the General's attention...

...The fact of the matter is that France's military position is very weak indeed, and is likely to remain so for a considerable period...

...Some factors support the de Gaulle appraisal: The population of NATO Europe—which is larger than the Six—is slightly larger and, probably, more industrially competent than that of the Soviet Union...

...American policy toward the Common Market from its inception has been that with low external tariffs and other barriers such an arrangement was good...

...with high ones, bad...

...Here are endeavors in which de Gaulle can join without embarrassment or inconsistency...

...and consequently...

...One would hope that this truth is well and widely understood...

...Many voices seem to counsel making what they call compromises with General de Gaulle, since they see his star in the ascendant...

...The occasion for it all, the British application to the Common Market, is now in unpredictable limbo...

...On the solidarity between Germany and France depends not only the security of the two peoples but also] "the destiny of the whole of Europe, from the Atlantic to the Ural Mountains...

...In this contrast de Gaulle was quick to see a conflict of leadership and conception, deeply rooted in history...

...Thus, so the argument runs, without the burden of either conventional or nuclear forces of any size, they could protect themselves from the disconcertingly powerful eastern portion of a Europe extending from the Atlantic to the Urals...

...At present the Germans have 12 divisions, which could, and doubtless will, be much better than they are...

...What we need is an infusion of salt water...

...In Western Europe the difficulty now, and in the future as in the past, lies in stimulating and coordinating the wills of separate peoples and governments...

...It is not the supposed uncertain availability of American nuclear power in the defense of Europe which really bothers de Gaulle...

...Indeed, he refers to that power as "the essential guarantee of world peace...

...The question remains, why...

...It must be admitted that the entry of Great Britain first and then that of those states will completely change the arrangements as a whole...

...It consists in applying constant pressure toward developing a conventional defensive position which, as it grows in strength, continually makes clear to the Soviets that to attain their ends by threat or pressure of force increasingly presents them with resort to nuclear war...

...It is perfectly true [he said in January], that the quantity of nuclear arms we can furnish ourselves will far from equal the mass of those of the two giants of today...

...So it seems to me plain that the conception of a Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals is a conception wholly at variance with the North Atlantic Treaty so long as the Soviet Union maintains anything like its present purposes and attitudes...

...Let us have a brief look at the French military situation, which requires an entirely new conventional force and an entirely new nuclear establishment...

...Furthermore, it should be added that from the point of view of their economic development, their social progress, and their technical capacity, they are all in step and march in a very similar manner...

...could deny the USSR conventional superiority in Europe and present it with the necessity to resort to nuclear war to impose its will by force...

...The Trade Expansion Act, passed in the last session of Congress, is founded on this conception...

...But to advise making a compromise with the General is another matter...

...But it is not true that all is controllable, or that difficulties come only from errors...

...for if a structure, a firm, prosperous and attractive organization, can be created in Western Europe—then there reappear the possibilities of a European balance with the Eastern states and the prospect of a truly European cooperation, particularly if, at the same time, the totalitarian regime ceased to poison the springs...

...He began this way...

...This multilateral force would be used to defend Europe and would be under the American command of NATO...

...Also, there is no political disagreement between them, no boundary questions, no domination or power rivalries...

...It has been wisely said that "the mode by which the inevitable comes to pass is effort...

...Fruitless as they have been, with no real concessions made, they seem to the Germans to edge toward increasing recognition of the East German regime...

...He disclosed some long-range plans which must be opposed and which, if intelligently opposed by pressing on with better ones, have not much chance of getting very far...

...Moreover, this Community, growing in this manner, would find itself confronted with all the problems of its economic relations with a host of other countries, and primarily with the United States...

...As for a strategic nuclear force in Europe, a multinational approach is the best one in principle...

...If the General attempts to stimulate it, his Russian colleagues will stop it: if they stimulate it on their own, they will dispose of him—and, perhaps, more...

...The desirability to Soviet Russia of destroying it before it left the ground would be great enough to suggest that, on balance, the risks of destruction which such a force might pose would be considerably greater in France than in the Soviet Union...

...The time has come to stop it and state our intentions unequivocally...

...Only former French African colonies which he wishes to bring into a community for which Britain was too exotic...

...On top of this heavy and inescapable budget demand must be imposed the bill for the nuclear deterrent, the force de frappe—or, as the London Economist put it, "More Frappe for a Franc...

...and its agriculture is infinitely superior...

...It is also a lengthy, difficult, and very costly process, as German experience (ahead of France's) has so poignantly reminded us through DeiSpiegel affair...

...To achieve this equilibrium it is not enough that power factors should not invite disequilibrium...

...It is to be anticipated that this would soon destroy the coherence existing between all the members, which would be very numerous, and that in the final analysis a colossal Atlantic Community subject to and directed by America would appear, which would make short work of absorbing the European Community...

...Furthermore, whatever is done to remake the French armed forces is a necessary prelude to any effective participation...

...It is now time to repair that and get on again with building up...

...Western Europe cannot and will not be stimulated within Gaullist Europe to increase its power without destroying Gaullist Europe...

...A convalescing patient well on the road to recovery may be irritatingly cantankerous in asserting his new sense of strength and independence, as well as resentment at his former dependence...

...Carefully selected officers and civilians should be given every opportunity to learn the detailed costs of a nuclear establishment, the intricacies of the deployment, protection, targeting, and control of strategic nuclear weapons, as well as something of the operation of various types of weapons...

...We must now consider the utility of the force, as the General is doing in the passage quoted, wholly apart from any involvement of American power...

...Some months ago a German friend said to me, "The Six are too parochial for their own and the general good...

...thermonuclear ones are not scheduled until the 1970s, and missile vehicles may be a long way off...

...At present, no one can clearly see what will happen...

...This fact cannot but influence, at least somewhat, the intentions of such a possible aggressor...

...The Soviet Union is directed by a monolithic autocracy, which will not be susceptible to any attempt by de Gaulle to reduce its power...

...This is so not only because of the quantitative and qualitative disparity, but because no possibility exists within this proposed society to change this disparity...

...When de Gaulle looks beyond the Continent, what does he see...

...These are, to my mind, the monetary stability of the West, the organization of agriculture in an increasingly industrial world, help to the developing countries to speed their growth, and, of course, the freeing of trade to be negotiated between yourselves and the Common Market...

...Its activities are essentially of an industrial and commercial nature and it carries on very little agricultural activity...

...General de Gaulle's manifesto declaring French policy, his vetoing of British entry into the Common Market, the Franco-German Treaty, and his reaffirmation of France's aim for an independent nuclear capability constitutes what can be called the January crisis...

...At Athens the United States gave clear assurances that it would react with nuclear weapons to a Soviet nuclear attack or to a Soviet conventional attack which could not otherwise be resisted...

...But here important factors shift to the East...

...General de Gaulle, with characteristic candor, does not overstate what a French force de frappe could do, but I think he does overestimate its significance...

...Politically, the events of January carry a clear and stern warning of the penalty we pay in our relations with Germany for failure to face up to unequivocal decisions on policy toward Central Europe and the reunification of Germany...

...Crises and difficulties are with us today not because the right policy or action eludes us, but from the very nature of human life and of the situation we face...

...Rather, I believe that de Gaulle is turning General Washington's advice around and giving it to his European partners...

...In these passages the de Gaulle conception of Europe is set out with admirable clarity...

...as "outside powers" tied by this special relationship...

...Nevertheless, the General said...

...Yet recovery marks success, not failure...

...The French atomic force will, from the beginning of its organization, have the sinister and terrible capacity to destroy millions and millions of men in a few instants...

...But, for us, in this situation, integration is something that cannot be imagined...

...In 1945 two bombs, which were elementary, caused the capitulation of Japan, which could not retaliate...

...While the January offensive began on the supposedly economic front, and did a good deal of damage, I see no reason why the war should go on there...

...But it does seem to me a waste of time to chase its distant implications of control and command to drily logical extremes before there is anything to control or command...

...General de Gaulle has not declared war on the AngloSaxons, as he calls the British and ourselves...

...In other directions, there is room and need for cooperation with him in important work...

...By December 29, 1961, enthusiasm and rhetoric had receded to the sober statement that de Gaulle would be sympathetic to negotiations between the "major Western powers and Soviet Russia," provided the Kremlin ceased its threats and that "the discussion be that of re-establishing a balance in Europe, not of extending Moscow's hold over our continent " But by his press conference of May 15, 1962, the idea was again full blown...

...In the light of this analysis, what should be the response of United States policy to the events of January...

...The place to begin is with what he said at his January 14 press conference, where he excluded the British from the Common Market...

...Recently, Per Jacobsson, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, observed that "perhaps the best thing that can happen to the underdeveloped countries is the pursuit of active expansionary policies in the more industrial countries" and suggested that this be done cooperatively through the Fund and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris...

...Because this grouping and these ties are so pronounced what they have to produce, to buy, to sell, to consume, they prefer to produce, buy, sell, and consume within their own complex...

...In the Bahamas, the United States and Great Britain concluded an agreement, and we were asked to adhere to it...

...The convidions on which he is now acting he has held and expressed for some time...

...Soon, again, he returns to this obsession...

...Then Europe, the whole of it, no longer cut in two by the ambitions of ideologies . . . shall again become the home and center of civilization . . . and obligate the great countries which on other continents march toward power to take to cooperation rather than the temptations of war...

...It did some damage...

...It should not assume, as some of the press has, that all is lost because General de Gaulle has starkly revealed long-standing opposition to commonly favored policy...

...If by some such method de Gaulle seeks the best of all worlds, he surely allocates to the United States the worst...

...Why is this so...

...an armed attack against one or more of them [the member states] in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all...

...Hence we should envisage the setting up of another Common Market...

...If it should cease to maintain them, the treaty would cease to be of importance...

...General de Gaulle's démarche has changed very little, though it has shown the intention and capacity to slow some things up...

...under the circumstances of assuming the treaty obligations as he would conceive them are too great...

...No doors should be closed to French participation and cooperation...

...Here the General comes back again to the basically disqualifying characteristic of the British application— its tendency to involve the Continental elite with America...

...The French force can have very little deterrent effect if its weapons would have little chance of reaching any targets...

...Britain, it was claimed, was an island...

...Our task under these circumstances would require the mutual incineration of the Soviet Union and the U.S...

...It is a matter of establishing an atomic force, called multilateral...

...Only then can we hope for really wise planning with our allies for the common defense, with the function and deployment of the various arms determined in relation to the problem, and not to national prestige, pride, or suspicion...

...Thus, principles and realities are in accord in leading France to provide itself with an atomic force of its own...

...It looked outward, linked by trade with "the most remote countries," its "activities . . . characterized by very singular and distinctive practices and traditions...

...Perhaps a few of them nourish the hope, which I discern now and then in official French utterances, that they might have the best of both worlds by terminating, or attenuating, the American presence in Europe but still retaining the guarantee of American defensive protection...

...This contemplates an internal equilibrium wholly within the area...

...The power of the U.S...

...On the contrary, they are united in the first place because of their awareness that together they possess a large part of the sources of our civilization and also with respect to their security, because they are Continentals and are faced with a single identical menace from one end to the other of their territorial complex...

...Not because he does not want both, but because the risks and hazards to the U.S...

...The contrast between this statement and the narrow preference for a Europe seeking an economic existence within its own complex gives some measure of the harm which the announced policy of the General's January press conference portends...

...And under what circumstances...

...under the best circumstances, it could not have been expected to contribute much more for another decade...

...While the veto of the British application was put primarily on the danger of the American Trojan Horse, it was also put on the ground of the differentness of Great Britain from the Continental societies...

...The French troop uprisings in Algeria, the OAS, the desertions and trials of senior officers are only the most dramatic indication that the French Army, which since the war has been fighting losing guerrilla wars in Asia and Africa, must be reorganized, remanned, reofficered, reequipped, and redeployed—not because NATO or Washington wants it, but because it is a pressing necessity for France...

...One would, therefore, suppose it plain that all the signatories were "tied" to one another by a very "special political [and] military pact...

...In short...

...its raw material resources and industrial productive potential are also as large or larger...

...So far as I know, the phrase crops up first in 1959, when de Gaulle observed that disarmament held no security for France unless it applied "from the Atlantic to the Urals"—an eminently sensible idea...

...But, if tempers and resentments are not exacerbated, there should be enough common interest in important areas to push on in the directions indicated by Jean Monnet...

...Much as I disagree with many of de Gaulle's policies and ideas, I defer to no one in my admiration of his character, especially his serenity, and his intelligence...

...These barriers should be removed...

...If the U.S...

...Each government has its own difficulties...

...The Common Market was welcomed not as an instrument to constrict the trade of Europe within a club under French hegemony, but as a new great market designed to expand trade with a sense of outward-looking responsibilities...

...For we would be assigned to defend Europe against the inevitable consequences of his policy— domination by the Soviet Union—while being excluded from any part or influence in establishing in Western Europe what General Washington called "a respectable defensive posture...

...This, of course, lies at the heart of policy toward Berlin...

...Europe," he said, "has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation...

...How does the General's Europe meet these criteria...

...We should understand that France, because of troubles in Asia and Africa, has made mighty little contribution to Western defenses for a decade...

...Whatever the General does to develop a nuclear capability he will do anyway, and the less time we spend worrying about it the better...

...Yet he can and does in time recognize the inevitable and adjust his conduct to it, as he did in Algeria...

...In the freeing of trade, the Treaty of Rome by 1966 will prevent any one country from blocking a course desired by the others...

...This does not of course prevent American nuclear arms, which are the most powerful of all, from remaining the essential guarantee of world peace...

...In short, they are united because not one of them is tied to an outside power by any special political or military pact...

...The conventional goal is to have at least as large and well-armed a force in Europe as the Germans have...

...In short, January was not a good month...

...Certainly they will have more...

...There are times in history when a wise and highly successful course appears to, and often does, result in almost as many difficulties as it has resolved...

...This is not only unfortunate for the NATO alliance...

...De Gaulle cannot have both the Europe of his conception and the treaty of his conception...

...This of course by no means excludes the possibility of the action of that force being combined with that of similar forces of its allies...

...Dean Acheson, whose article is adapted from a recent speech at the University of California, was Secretary of State from 1949-53 and is a frequent consultant on foreign policy to the present Administration...

...Why, by interweaving our destiny in any connection with the [United States], entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of [American] ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice...

...Monnet has urged that the leading financial countries get on with the closely related task of improving the monetary stability of the West...

...Moreover, while de Gaulle says modestly that the French force will be far from equal to those of either of the two giants, the fact is that it would be unlikely to amount to 2 per cent of either...

...The writer of Ecclesiastes has told us that there is "a time to every purpose...

...It is not possible to persuade, bribe or coerce de Gaulle from following a course upon which he is set...

...it is disastrous to any design of de Gaulle's to convince his European neighbors that he can lead them to any purely held political goals as the German one to protect Berlin and reunite Germany...

...Some American press comment treats these events as a heavy blow to common policy in Europe, at least as previously conceived in this country...

...It is necessary that inducements to harmonization of policies within this Europe outweigh the inducements to conflict...

...And the financial effort it would impose upon the French economy might well reverse the happily strong position which it has only just attained after so many years of internal and external strain and drain...

...General de Gaulle did the West a bad turn in vetoing the British application...

...This would mean that they would do nothing to confront the Russians, instead of the U.S., with the alternative of resorting to nuclear war to deter the pressure of conventional power...

...if not a judicial separation, at least a judicious separation...

...Instead, by the development of a small national nuclear force, they would hope to be able to detonate ours...

...Since the disastrous Camp David meeting, Germans have been disturbed over our constant negotiations with the Russians under Russian threats...

...Note carefully the last paragraph...

...The Five would gladly—and in time might successfully— overbear France, if British politics were not to intervene and change the British position...

...to shape the inevitable for de Gaulle is immense...

...This they have been prevented from learning by self-defeating, excessive secrecy...

...Only a small paraphrase of the Farewell Address is necessary to state General de Gaulle's advice to Europe...

...What he finds objectionable is what he calls "the American command of NATO...

...It should rest on the further fact that the U.S...

...But the one that would be established, consisting of 11 countries and later of 13 and later, perhaps, of 18, would, doubtless, bear little resemblance to the one that the six have constructed...

...It is simply this: Resting upon the solidarity of Germany and France, Western Europe can become so organized and powerful as to balance the Eastern satellites and European Russia and open the possibility of a truly European cooperative system extending from the Atlantic to the Ural Mountains...

...For he has one, and it is not a mere cloak for French parochialism or for illusions of "grandeur...

...Before considering whether this is wise, possible, or desired by any of France's partners in the Six, let us consider for a moment de Gaulle's conception of Europe...

...American and European interests, when seen free of the fog of illusion, require reunification within a united Europe, within a closely knit Atlantic alliance...

...Hence, she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns...

...De Gaulle's nightmare is the broader American-led Atlantic Community "which would make short work of absorbing the European Community...

...It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the world [beyond Europe.]" This, I think, is what de Gaulle is saying...

...If there is any answer, it must lie in his conception of a Europe from "the Atlantic to the Urals...

...To begin with, it should be a calm response, keeping a sense of proportion, avoiding the acrimonious and spiteful...

...On our old continent the organization of a Western group, more or less equal to that which exists in the East, could one day make possible an understanding [entente] from the Atlantic to the Urals without risking the independence of anyone...

...and when they are put together, they increase geometrically...

...The Common Market, like the U.S., is too large a producer and consumer to buy, sell, and consume within its own complex...

...is strong, and is regarded as strong by friends and opponents alike...

...January last was, apparently, a time to break down in the midst of a long time of building up...

...All of its activities are characterized by very singular and distinctive practices and traditions...

...Why, in a world where terrestial space has all but been eliminated, in a century when all Europe, combined to defend itself against the then most powerful European nation, twice called for the aid of America—why, now, when Europe has no adequate defense apart from America, should General de Gaulle preach so suicidal a doctrine...

...To some, the French veto of the British application was a classic example of those European enmities against which George Washington so eloquently warned us in his Farewell Address...

...He simply chose to ignore it so far as the six Common Market countries were concerned, leaving Britain and the U.S...

...a time to break down and a time to build up...

...This is a hypothesis which may be perfectly justified in the eyes of some people, but that is not at all what France wanted to do and what France is doing and which represents an absolutely European set-up...

...The present armaments, conventional and nuclear, of the Soviet segment of this Europe are today so superior to those of Western Europe as to defy any realistic hope of equalization within the area...

...Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collusions of her friendships or enmities...

...It should be based on the knowledge that the General's position will not find favor with our common allies because it is not in the common interest...

...and the Five move vigorously toward the lowering of barriers into the great markets of Europe and America, we can shape the sort of inevitability which de Gaulle will accept...

...no one in the world, and particularly no one in America, can say whether, where, when, how, or to what extent American nuclear weapons would be used to defend Europe...

...To urge either him or this country to depart from policies in which each deeply believes does both an injustice, and is a waste of time...

...Our flirtation with Moscow, like many which have no serious purpose, has succeeded only in embittering more legitimate relationships...

...Yet all of them are signatories of the North Atlantic Treaty which provides...

...All that is claimed is that it could affect the intentions of a possible aggressor "at least somewhat...