The Stakes for De Gaulle
HERALD, GEORGE W.
GAMBLING WITH NATO The Stakes For De Gaulle By George W Herald Paris It would take exactly 10 minutes for a missile launched from East Germany to hit a city in northern France. General...
...He rekindles the historical German fear of being taken into a pincer between France and Russia and becoming the victim of a new Einkreisung...
...He may also advance the date of the general elections-now slated for spring 1967-or even stage another referendum in order to obtain a "massive popular approval" of his secession...
...Why, then, did de Gaulle walk out of NATO...
...Many of the installations on French soil were financed by other countries...
...Until now de Gaulle left two divisions and various small air units in the NATO fold...
...One of his arguments, reportedly, is that Russia could not afford to wage war against a country where 25 per cent of the voters are Communists...
...Applying de Gaulle's own logic, the Germans want them to be put under German command...
...If France now wants to take over these sites it will have to indemnify the investors...
...He also knows that to oppose the technological fact of continental vulnerability with the notion of "national sovereignty" in defense is, as elder statesman PaulHenri Spaak has said, about as relevant as "singing a ballad to the moon in protest against the landings of astronauts...
...If the Allies exasperate him, he may adopt a true neutralism and conclude a new non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union...
...French commentators were unanimous in rejecting this CBS portrait as a product of "wishful thinking...
...Specifically, here are some of the more perplexing questions that will have to be faced: NATO alert system...
...In fact, it is easy to misjudge the temper of the French people...
...he answered: "The entire Left would rise in favor of de Gaulle...
...This means that, at the present time, a large majority of Frenchmen are at heart with the General on that point...
...Several Bonn politicians have already announced that they would oppose the continued stationing of these troops on German soil under French national control...
...HERE INDEED LIES the biggest weakness of de Gaulle's new policy...
...According to de Gaulle's entourage he was deeply disappointed when the other 14 NATO partners rejected his position as "too romantic...
...By preaching French nationalism, he revives their own nationalism and puts them in a position where they can make bigger and bigger demands of the United States...
...No "cumbersome NATO commands and U.S...
...NATO installations...
...The NATO charter gave us the right to negotiate, not to chase from France the Supreme Allied Headquarters and all American soldiers, except those who rest in the cemeteries because they wanted to liberate us...
...At any rate, the possibility of Russian attack now appears to him no more likely than an attack by Canada on Mexico...
...When a knowledgeable Paris editor-not a Gaullistwas asked what he thought would happen if the French Army, disenchanted by de Gaulle's pro-Soviet policy, "pulled a Sukarno" on him...
...As he confided to intimates, he simply no longer believes in the threat of a Soviet attack on Western Europe, notably France...
...No doubt these words expressed the feeling of large numbers of the French high bourgeoisie who still control important sectors of the nation's life...
...Henceforth, they will need special authorizations from each neighbor...
...But this was not the only reason for the General's withdrawal...
...By taking France out of NATO, he is giving the Germans a political leverage they could not have hoped for in their wildest dreams 20 years ago...
...It is not certain that the NATO countries will grant such permits...
...Jean Lecanuet, head of the Democratic Center, has pointed out that France's move "leaves Germany with only one course of action: either to become the privileged ally of the United States, or to negotiate with Moscow over our head, as it once did at Rapallo...
...Such a response, it is argued, would cut the enemy front-line troops from their hinterland, and they could be "cleaned up" in a conventional battle...
...The man who was carried back to power by the Algerian 'ultras,' would become a revolutionary hero.' This mood may change, though...
...Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara has replaced it with a strategy of "gradual response," which would counter a limited Soviet offensive against Western Europe with a limited defense, and would escalate to the atomic level only after all chances of negotiating a truce had been exhausted...
...Since 1960, U.S...
...He concluded that there was no point for him to stay on in a defense setup whose strategy he so emphatically disapproved, and that France might be safer outside than inside...
...The newspaper Le Monde wrote that his decision raises "innumerable problems of a practical order for which no solution is so far in sight...
...Many reasonable Frenchmen are asking themselves the same question...
...The local air space is much too small for their training flights...
...And, again, he is persuaded that the Americans are proclaiming this far-fetched Soviet peril only in order to perpetuate their "domination over Europe...
...The other NATO countries are determined to keep their integrated defense structure with or without France, and they will seek to thwart the General at every turn...
...Moreover, if it became apparent to the man in the street that the General's moves strengthen the hand of Germany rather than France, opposition leaders would not hesitate to denounce his course, and the whole venture might boomerang...
...This is a solution de Gaulle cannot possibly accept, not only because the French people would not understand it but because he would be unable to explain it to his Moscow hosts in June...
...This is expected to become one of the thorniest issues...
...Even anti-Gaullist Frenchmen, for instance, were surprised to learn of a recent CBS-TV program on France which conveyed the impression that a majority of Frenchmen were slowly turning into U.S.type middle class Babbitts who could not care less for de Gaulle's policy of grandeur, who like their cars and their comfort and are invading the big department stores with the battle cry: "Galeries Lafayette, nous voici...
...Yet he is an old man in a hurry who before leaving power wants to create an irreversible new order in Europe...
...French troops in Western Germany...
...Thus de Gaulle's headaches are only beginning...
...One of the general's most outspoken critics, veteran diplomat Andr?© Fran?§ois-Pon?§et, a member of the French Academy, wrote in Le Figaro of March 11: "De Gaulle's measures mean that France has renounced the solidarity, trust and friendship that had marked her relationship to the United States...
...Let us also remember the HitlerStalin Pact...
...As much as the workers may welcome his challenge to NATO, he may no longer be able to secure 55 per cent of the popular vote...
...Remembering that he had been right against his own Army brass twice before-in 1939 and 1959 -he felt that he knew better than anyone else...
...That is why there is a consensus in Paris that Charles de Gaulle, by challenging NATO, has engaged in the last big poker game of his career, and that the stakes have never been higher...
...Estimated cost to France: $300-$400 million...
...They consider that a quarrel with the Americans would be, from a sentimental point of view, a not very honorable disavowal of the past and, from the material point of view, a disaster...
...It incidentally crowns a long series of vexations, so that one understands that the Americans are wondering whether France is still their ally or has moved into the camp of their adversaries...
...De Gaulle's own concept of defense was explained by his Chief of Staff, General Charles Ailleret, as early as 1964...
...It is a deeply wounding step that betrays a sentiment of veritable hostility...
...In case of a major attack against Western Europe, he would launch immediate nuclear reprisals against the aggressor's homeland and especially his big cities...
...Ex-Premier Paul Reynaud, 85, the man who "discovered" de Gaulle 30 years ago, commented bitterly on the General's stand: "Voil...
...General de Gaulle knows this just as well as any other military leader...
...Since his re-election as head of state in December 1965, social unrest has steadily grown in France...
...It is hard to think of a greater disservice the French leader could render his fellow Europeans, whether in the West or the East...
...Many observers charge that he acted above all out of vanity, hurt pride, resentment and blind emotional nationalism, which was imbued into him early in his career by the writings of Charles Maurras, editor of the extreme-reactionary Action Fran?§aise...
...Stressing that one does not have to be a partisan of Gaullist "grandeur' to be in favor of national independence, they pointed out that even opposition leader Fran?§ois Mitterand endorsed, with a few reservations, de Gaulle's defection from NATO...
...French government spokesmen affirm that the General might never have left NATO if it had not altered its original strategy of "massive nuclear reprisals" promoted by John Foster Dulles-the only strategy ever officially endorsed by the NATO Council...
...George W. Herald, a previous contributor here, is a veteran foreign correspondent based in Paris...
...stockpiles" would be needed for that battle...
...Allied observers in Paris believe that the General, by denouncing his NATO obligations, may have invited more trouble than he can cope with at his age...
...While de Gaulle might win this test if it were held rapidly, his longrange prospects are less reassuring...
...by a single stroke, Germany installed at the head of Europe through the good offices of a France left alone, discarded and disavowed by all...
...In General de Gaulle's eyes, this strategy could lead only to "the total destruction of Europe over 3,000 miles in depth...
...However, political analysts warn the West not to overrate such voices in present-day France...
...If connections to it were cut off, the French Air Force, in case of an emergency, would never even get around to defending its country's "national independence.' French supersonic planes...
...Up to now, they were free to use the air space of all NATO partners...
...Only a united Europe, which is economically and militarily integrated can balance in the Atlantic Alliance the power of America...
...It could be fought-and won -by the national Army of France alone...
...It requires the permanent maintenance of many more conventional troops, weapons and planes on the Continent than a strategy of massive reprisals, and according to the General serves as a pretext for the United States to remain on the Continent in strength and keep the Europeans indefinitely in a "state of subordination...
...The London Sunday Times expressed the view of most Europeans when it wrote editorially on March 13: "By seeking to disintegrate NATO, President de Gaulle risks destroying the reassuring political and military framework within which West Germany's leaders have so far been content to make their contribution to West Europe's defense...
...IS there any reasonable explanation for his abrupt move...
...French public reaction to General de Gaulle's moves has been divided...
Vol. 49 • March 1966 • No. 7
