7 - West Germany and European Unity in U.S. Foreign Policy

Summary

The late 1960s and early 1970s proved to be a decisive turning point in America's strategy toward Europe. American support for the further integration of the European continent, including German unification, deteriorated considerably. The international economic difficulties of the period produced a climate of severe trade competition that began to dominate America's relations with the European Community (EC). To the economic problems were added serious European-American differences over security issues and NATO's policy toward the Soviet Union. Trade and security disputes became closely intertwined and contributed to the bitterness of transatlantic conflicts. During the last two decades of the Cold War, these conflicts were strongly influenced by the gradual emancipation of Western Europe from American tutelage. Despite its support for European reconstruction and integration after World War II, the United States had never intended to nourish an independent “third force” on the European continent. Although there was something unique about the way the American “empire” developed, the United States closely resembled a traditional great power in its desire to remain the undisputed leader of the Atlantic system. In the 1970s and 1980s, transatlantic mistrust and America's growing preoccupation with its own economic competitiveness and global standing pushed the leading EC member states into ever closer cooperation with each other.