13 - Divided Loyalties in Transatlantic Policy Toward Europe

Summary

the united states, europe, and germany: the fundamental link between european and german policy

Between the end of World War II and the end of the 1960s (and even later), both the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany perceived their respective European and German policies as intimately connected. Finding a solution to the German question was a central issue in America's policy toward Europe, a problem that, in the American view, should be resolved by the creation of a close (West) European association of nations. For West Germany, the notion of Europe represented both a central guiding concept and an ideal for a new frame of reference in its foreign policy. It promised speedy economic recovery, political rehabilitation, and a means to overcome foreign policy isolation by voluntary integration into the Western world just beyond the Federal Republic's borders. In both Bonn and Washington, the link between European policy and Deutschlandpolitik (policy toward the future of Germany as a whole) underwent significant changes that would frequently become a source of irritations and problems in the German-American relationship.

It is remarkable that neither the United States nor the Federal Republic had any clearer notion about the likely form or institutional structure of an “integrated” or “unified” Europe. When addressing this issue, Washington politicians would talk of how the United States should serve as a model and an example for Europe. America generally welcomed moves toward European unity, provided that those moves accepted the need for continued American leadership in Europe.