Europe and the Struggle for Leadership: Britain and France, 1945-1975

276 Pages·2017·4.63 MB·English

by  Anthony P. Adamthwaite

Britain, France and Europe, 1945–1975
To Geraldine

Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Preface: Distrust and Verify
Introduction: A Tale of Two Cities
Part I Chosen Peoples
1 Anglo-Saxon Attitudes
2 Vive la France
3 Strangers
Part II Reversal of Fortunes
4 New Look
5 De Gaulle Redux
6 Unmerrie England
7 Running on Empty
Part III Bids
8 Unshakable, Constant, Effective
9 Supermac
10 Another Harold
11 Bash on Regardless
Conclusion: Endgame
Timeline
Appendix 1. Britain and French Governments, 1944–75
Appendix 2. Foreign Secretaries and Foreign Ministers
Appendix 3. Foreign Office and Quai d’Orsay
Appendix 4. European Economic Growth, 1950–80
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
Illustrations
4.1 The March of Time: The New France 1946
5.1 General de Gaulle walking down the Champs Élysées, Georges Bidault a step behind on
left, 25 August 1944.
5.2 Foreign Minister Michel Debré with his predecessor Maurice Couve de Murville, 2 June
1968 82
8.1 Winston Churchill in Paris, with his daughter Mary and British ambassador Alfred Duff
Cooper, 1945.
8.2 French foreign minister Bidault and British foreign secretary Bevin sign Anglo-French
alliance in Dunkirk, 4 March 1947
8.3 French foreign minister Robert Schuman and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, 27
May 1952.
9.1 British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and French Prime Minister Guy Mollet, 9
March 1957
9.2 Prime Minister Macmillan and Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd welcomed to Paris by
General de Gaulle, 30 June 1958
11.1 Probing the Dutch in the Hague, foreign secretary Brown and premier Wilson, 27
February 1967 – note the body language.
11.2 Sir Christopher Soames, UK ambassador to France, 22 September 1968
Acknowledgements
Britain, France and Europe explores post-Second World War hopes for London–Paris
partnership and a Franco–British Europe. There are a number of reasons for writing. It has
not been done before, and there is the attraction of doing something for the first time. For
sure, there are numerous overviews of interactions between the whale and the elephant from
the Sun King on, but no recent book length study of the relationship in the decisive mid-
twentieth century decades.1 Another motive for writing has to do with the bridges between
past and present. Spats over post-war European integration may seem like ancient history.
Strong continuities persist, however. The rows fuelled Euroscepticism and, ultimately, the
UK Brexit referendum of 2016. Shared leadership after 1945 could have fashioned a different
and perhaps more satisfying Europe.
In novelist David Lodge’s Changing Places Professor Morris Zapp has the ambition to kill
Jane Austen forever as a subject of criticism and research by dealing with each and every
topic that could possibly arise out of reading her novels. I have no ambition to provide
saturation coverage of the Franco–British couple. A wide-angle lens contrasts attitudes and
cultural baggage, peoples as well as elites. I’ve profited from French sociologist André
Siegfried’s experience: ‘never have I succeeded in understanding the British and French
points of view simultaneously. All I can do is sometimes understand them one after the
other.’2 The two neighbours are profiled in separate chapters.
‘The Californian atmosphere is unhelpful for the true comprehension of European affairs’,
groused a member of the French delegation at the foundation conference of the United
Nations in San Francisco, April–June 1945.3 Readers will judge whether my
‘comprehension’ is persuasive or not. Distance while not always lending enchantment
certainly puts Europe in a global perspective. Location offers special advantages: the archival
riches of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the intellectual vibrancy of
Berkeley’s Institute of European Studies, pulsing with visiting scholars, workshops and
colloquia. Pacific Rim colleagues, graduate students and undergraduates share a lively
curiosity and enthusiasm about Europe which has nurtured the writing. The book builds on
the foundation of earlier research on the cross-channel relationship. Several of the chapters
debuted as public lectures, conference presentations and articles. Feedback from audiences
and readers helped tremendously.
Thanks are due to the University of California at Berkeley for financial support in funding
the archival research, in particular the University Committee on Research; the Institute of
European Studies; the Department of History for Shepard Fund grants. A University
Humanities Research Fellowship enabled me to spend a study semester in Europe. Grateful
acknowledgement is made to the following archives for assistance and for permission to
quote material. In the UK: the National Archives; The Bodleian Library, University of
Oxford; Churchill College Archive Centre, University of Cambridge; Trinity College,
University of Cambridge; British Library of Political and Economic Science, LSE; The
Liddell Hart Centre, King’s College London; The Royal Institute of International Affairs;
The Brotherton Library, University of Leeds. In France: Archives nationales; Archives
d’histoire contemporaine, Fondation nationale des sciences politiques; Archives
diplomatiques, Ministère des Affaires étrangères et du Development international;
Assemblée nationale, Service des Archives; Fondation Guy Mollet; Ministère de l’Economie,
des Finances et de l’Industrie; Comité pour l’histoire économique et financière de la France;
Institut Pierre Mendes France; Centre des archives contemporaines, Fontainebleau. In the
United States: The Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Stanford University, California;
the Lauinger Library, Georgetown University, Washington DC.
Former policy-makers generously talked to me and responded to written queries: Sir Guy
Millard; Sir Frank Roberts; Sir Evelyn Shuckburgh; Lord Sherfield; Etienne Burin des
Roziers; Etienne de Crouy-Chanel; Jean Donnedieu de Vabres; Louis Joxe; Rene Massigli;
Christian Pineau. Special thanks are due to archivists and librarians: the late Yvon Lacaze,
Ministère des Affaires étrangères, Paris; Chantal Tourtier de Bonazzi, Archives nationales,
France; Colin Harris and Helen Langley, Bodleian Library, Oxford; Odile Gaultier-Voituriez
and Dominique Parcollet, Centre d’Histoire de Sciences Po, Paris.
Early drafts of the manuscript benefited from the insightful comments of colleagues John
Connelly and Peggy Anderson. I am indebted to my Bloomsbury editors, Rhodri Mogford
and Laura Reeves, for advice and encouragement. Over the years the friendship and writings
of colleagues have provided inspiration, especially Maurice Vaisse, Robert Frank and Yoichi
Kibata. Finally, I can’t resist mentioning a schoolmaster ancestor. In the early 1800s the
Reverend John Adamthwaite DD of Brough, Cumbria, advertised his school in The Times,
promising ‘no vacations at this school’. Welcome back holidays!
Abbreviations
BBC British Broadcasting Corporation
BOT Board of Trade
CAP Common Agricultural Policy
CND Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
CO Cabinet Office
DEA Department of Economic Affairs
EC European Community
ECSC European Coal and Steel Community
EDC European Defence Community
EEC European Economic Community
EFTA European Free Trade Association
ELDO European Launcher Development Organisation
ENA Ecole nationale d’administration
ETC European Technological Community
EU European Union
FCO Foreign and Commonwealth Office (from 1968)
FO Foreign Office
FTA Free Trade Area
GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
GDP Gross Domestic Product
IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
IMF International Monetary Fund
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
OECD Organization for European Economic Cooperation
Quai Quai d’Orsay, French foreign ministry
UN United Nations
WEU Western European Union