France Restored: Cold War Diplomacy and the Quest for Leadership in Europe, 1944-1954 (82 page)

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Authors: William I. Hitchcock

Tags: #History, #Europe, #France, #Western, #Modern, #20th Century, #Political Science, #Security (National & International), #test

BOOK: France Restored: Cold War Diplomacy and the Quest for Leadership in Europe, 1944-1954
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Page 254
Bédarida and Rioux,
Pierre Mendès France et le mendésisme,
and Girault,
Pierre Mendés France et le role de la France dans le monde
. For a trenchant analysis, see Rioux,
The Fourth Republic,
22440.
56. Pierre Saffroy to Quai, June 23, 1954, MAE, Europe 194955, Généralités, vol. 74
*
. The French representative in the Hague, Jean-Paul Garnier, received similar messages from the Dutch government (Garnier to Quai, June 29, 1954, same dossier). Minutes of Spaak-Mendès France conversation in Pierre Mendès France,
Oeuvres,
3: 9295. Spaak kept U.S. envoy David Bruce closely informed (Bruce to State, June 18 and 21, 1954,
FRUS, 195254,
5: 97578).
57. Memorandum of Conversation, Dulles and Eden, June 27, 1954,
FRUS, 195254,
5: 985; Memorandum of Conversation, Eisenhower and Churchill, June 27, 1954, ibid., 98587; U.S.-U.K. Secret Minute, June 28, 1954, ibid., 98889. For the views of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, see Memorandum by JCS Chairman Arthur Radford, June 25, 1954, ibid., 99495. Bonnet to Quai, July 23, 1954,
DDF 1954,
1619. The British debate on whether German entry into NATO was in fact a good idea may be followed in FO 371 109576, esp. F. Hoyer-Millar (in Bonn) to Foreign Office, June 22, 1954, and Frank Roberts to HoyerMillar, June 23, 1954. Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick, the former high commissioner in Germany who had never been sympathetic to France, thought Britain should give Mendès France until the end of July and then "act promptly and decisively to unfreeze the political situation in Germany and to bring the Treaties [of Paris and Bonn] into force" (Foreign Office to Hoyer-Millar, June 25, 1954). For papers concerning Churchill's visit to Washington, see FO 371 109577.
58. Mendès France to major posts, July 6, 1954, MAE, Europe 194954, Généralités, vol. 74
*
; Memorandum of Conversation, Dulles and Mendès France, July 13, 1954,
FRUS, 195254,
5: 101823. Mendès France also felt obliged to counter the claim put forward by Adenauer that all that was required to get the EDC through the parliament was firm leadership; see his letter to André François-Poncet, July 11, 1954,
Oeuvres,
3: 11415.
59. Mendès France to major posts, August 8, 1954,
DDF 1954,
1012.
60. Churchill to Dulles, August 14, 1954,
FRUS, 195254,
5: 103739.
61. Guérin de Beaumont to Mendès France, August 6, 1954,
DDF 1954,
9699; Bruce and Dillon to State, August 5, 1954,
FRUS, 195254,
5: 102326, and August 13, 1954, ibid., 103336. The resignation from the cabinet of Koenig and another prominent Gaullist, Jacques Chaban-Delmas, on hearing of Mendès France's plans to pursue the existing treaty, did not bode well for this strategy.
62. The roll text is reprinted in
L'année politique,
1954, 63235; explanatory note from the Quai, August 13, 1954,
DDF 1954,
14750. Mendès France tried to explain his position to Dulles in a letter dated August 17, 1954, in Mendès France,
Oeuvres,
3: 23335.
63. Acting Secretary Smith to Dillon, August 16, 1954,
FRUS, 195254,
5: 104244. For the response of Benelux, see Sprouse to State, August 16, 1954, ibid., 104142; Garnier to Quai, August 14 and 16, 1954; and Rivière to Quai, August 14 and 16, 1954, MAE, Europe 194955, Généralités, vol. 76
*
. The Germans made their opposition clear as well: Haussaire to Quai, August 13,
 
Page 255
1954, same dossier; and see the British démarche of August 17, 1954, same dossier.
64. The Brussels conference was closely watched by American observers. See
FRUS, 195254,
5: 105463, esp. Dulles's telegram to Spaak, August 21, 1954, ibid., 105859; and his message to Mendès France the same day, ibid., 105960. Both reveal Dulles's determination to isolate France in Brussels. On Adenauer's behavior, see
DDF 1954,
François-Poncet to Mendès France, August 20, 1954, 18586, and Bérard,
Un ambassadeur se souvient,
56669. Some minutes of the conference have been reproduced in Mendès France,
Oeuvres,
3: 23640.
65. Parodi's note of August 21, 1954, is reprinted in Mendès France,
Oeuvres,
3: 81617. By Mendès France's own admission, Parodi's influence was decisive in turning him against the EDC; see Lacouture,
Pierre Mendès France,
268 and 27276 for an excellent account of the Brussels conference. Lacouture's judgment still seems valid: "the Brussels conference was an ambush"; the Benelux powers "served Europe badly by forcing into a position of hostility to the EDC a statesman who was trying to save whatever there was in the treaty that could be accepted by French public opinion" (276).
66. PRO, PREM 11/672, August 23, 1954; and Churchill to Dulles and Eden to Dulles, both August 24, 1954,
FRUS 195254,
5: 107779. Mendès France also made these views known to Ambassador Dillon. See Dillon to State, August 24, 1954, ibid., 107177. Mendès France's shift in strategy away from the EDC and toward the Parodi solution is evident in his telegrams to Massigli and Bonnet on August 24, 1954, in
DDF 1954,
200202.
67. See Bonnet's account of his conversation with Acting Secretary of State Bedell Smith, August 27, 1954,
DDF 1954,
22728, and his report on the trend toward isolationism in the Congress, August 27, 1954, ibid., 21819. On the Anglo-French contacts, Massigli to Mendès France, August 25, 1954, ibid., 20910, and Crouy-Chanel, Massigli's deputy, to Parodi, August 26, 1954, ibid., 217; Dillon to Dulles, August 25, 1954,
FRUS, 195254,
5: 1079, footnote 2, and Smith to Dillon, August 27, 1954, ibid., 108283. For Eden's memo to the cabinet, PRO, CAB 129/70, cabinet Memoranda, August 27, 1954.
68. The vote was actually on a procedural motion raised by the EDC opponents to cut off debate. Because some opponents were willing to let the debate continue, this final vote tally does not accurately reflect opinion in the Assembly on the EDC itself; had the vote been directly on the treaty the numbers against probably would have been higher. For an account of the parliamentary maneuvers, see Lacouture,
Pierre Mendès France,
27779; and for the text of Mendès France's remarks to the Assembly, see his
Oeuvres,
3: 25894.
69. Wall,
The United States and the Making of Postwar France,
28689.
70. PRO, FO 371 109581, Roberts memo, August 30, 1954. Kirkpatrick minuted his approval: "The French have behaved so unworthily that they deserve little consideration. But I agree." There were also encouraging signs from the EDC countries. Adenauer, angered and publicly critical of the French, appeared open to the prospect of a new solution to the rearmament question, provided that German sovereignty were immediately conferred (François Poncet to Mendès France, September 1, 1954,
DDF 1954,
24242, and Septem-

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