Johnson and European integration: A missed chance for transatlantic power

Abstract

Focusing on the dilemmas connected to transatlantic relations and European integration in the Johnson years, this article argues, first, that Washington did not neglect the European situation in 1964–68, but a clear analysis of Allies' policies fostered growing doubts in some sectors of the administration about the wisdom of supporting them when they could directly damage the national interest of the US; and second, that though such changes help explain the general reassessment of American policies vis-à-vis Europe carried out by the Nixon administration, Johnson's policy remained pro-European and genuinely favourable to the integration process in the old continent, despite the internal doubts and the open criticism it encountered both at home and abroad.

Notes

1. On US foreign policy in those years see, for example, Diane B. Kunz (ed.), The Diplomacy of the Crucial Decade. American Foreign Relations During the 1960s (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994); Warren I. Cohen and Nancy Bernkopf Tucker (eds.), Lyndon Johnson Confronts the World. American Foreign Policy, 1963-1968 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994); H.W. Brands, The Wages of Globalism. Lyndon Johnson and the Limits of American Power (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995); idem (ed.), The Foreign Policies of Lyndon Johnson. Beyond Vietnam (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1999). For a general assessment of the Johnson Administration, see Robert A. Divine (ed.), The Johnson Years, vol.1, Foreign Policy, the Great Society, and the White House, vol.2, Vietnam, the Environment, and Science (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1987); vol.3, LBJ at Home and Abroad (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1994); Robert Dallek, Flawed Giant. Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961–1973 (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998); idem, ‘Lyndon Johnson as a World Leader’, in Brands (ed.), The Foreign Policies, pp.6–18. These and other volumes and essays are listed in Massimiliano Guderzo, Interesse nazionale e responsabilità globale. Gli Stati Uniti, l'Alleanza atlantica e l'integrazione europea negli anni di Johnson, 1963–69 (Firenze: Aida, 2000), pp.571–89.

2. Many thanks to Piers Ludlow and Leopoldo Nuti, whose effective and brilliant comments on the first draft helped focus the article in this direction. Obviously, responsibility for the proposed theses and the methodological approach to sources and bibliography on the subject remains that of the author.

3. Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin, Texas (LBJL), National Security File (NSF), Agency File (AF), NATO, box 10, vol. ‘Filed by the LBJL’, no.17a, Cleveland to Johnson, 8 Jan. 1969.

4. Ibid. See also Cleveland's answers in LBJL, Oral History Interviews (OHI), Harlan Cleveland, 13 Aug. 1969. Cf. Larry Berman, Johnson and the White House Staff', in Divine (ed.), The Johnson Years, vol.1, pp.187–213; David Kaiser, ‘Men and Policies: 1961–69’, in Kunz (ed.), The Diplomacy, pp.11–41.

5. LBJL, NSF, Files of Walt W. Rostow (FWR), box 14, ‘File - Official’, no.19d, Pope Paul VI to Johnson, 5 Jan. 1969.

6. Ibid., no.19h, Johnson to Pope Paul VI, 14 Jan. 1969, draft. On the Vietnam issue see among others Richard H. Immerman, ‘“A Time in the Tide of Men's Affairs”: Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam’, in Cohen and Bernkopf Tucker (eds.), Lyndon Johnson, pp.57–97; Robert D. Schulzinger, ‘“It's Easy to Win a War on Paper”: The United States and Vietnam, 1961–1968’, in Kunz (ed.), The Diplomacy, pp.183–218; Lloyd C. Gardner, ‘Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam: The Final Months’, in Divine (ed.), The Johnson Years, vol.3, pp.198–238; idem, Pay Any Price. Lyndon Johnson and the Wars for Vietnam (Chicago: Dee, 1995); Michael H. Hunt, Lyndon Johnson's War. America's Cold War Crusade in Vietnam, 1945–1968 (New York: Hill and Wang, 1996). pp.72–128.

7. This typical slogan-like red-pastel writing, meant to insult the President by describing him an executioner, could still be read in Pavia, in a short alley very close to the main courthouse, in the year 2000. It has recently disappeared under a layer of new paint.

8. See Pascaline Winand, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and the United States of Europe (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993); idem, ‘American Support for European Integration from World War II to 1996: Not Just a European Marketplace’, in Luigi V. Majocchi (ed.), Messina quarant'anni dopo. L'attualità del metodo in vista della Conferenza intergovernativa del 1996 (Bari: Cacucci, 1996), pp.155–90; Eckart Conze, Die gaullistische Herausforderung. Die deutsch-französischen Beziehungen in der amerikanischen Europapolitik 1958–1963 (München: Oldenbourg, 1995).

9. On this topic - examined in Guderzo, Interesse nazionale, and a previous essay, ‘Globalismo, nazionalismo, federalismo e “rischio morale”: gli Stati Uniti e l'integrazione europea, 1963–64’, Storia delle Relazioni Internazionali 11-12/1 (1996–97), pp.141–201 - see Geir Lundestad, ‘Empire’ by Integration. The United States and European Integration, 1945–1997 (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), esp. pp.1–4, 58–82; idem (ed.), No End to Alliance. The United States and Western Europe: Past, Present and Future (Houndmills, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998). Cf. among others René Schwok, Les relations entre les Etats-Unis et la Communauté européenne: conflits ou partenariat? (Genève: Georg, 1992); Thomas Alan Schwartz, ‘Victories and Defeats in the Long Twilight Struggle: The United States and Western Europe in the 1960s’, in Kunz (ed.), The Diplomacy, pp.115–48; idem, ‘Lyndon Johnson and Europe: Alliance Politics, Political Economy, and “Growing Out of the Cold War”’, in Brands (ed.), The Foreign Policies, pp.37–60; idem, Lyndon Johnson and Europe: In the Shadow of Vietnam (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003); Beatrice Heuser, Transatlantic Relations: Sharing Ideals and Costs (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1996), esp. pp.5–33,90–104; Francis H. Heller and John R. Gillingham (eds.), The United States and the Integration of Europe. Legacies of the Postwar Era (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996); David W. Ellwood, ‘L'integrazione europea e gli Stati Uniti (1957–1990)’, in Romain H. Rainero (ed.), Storia dell'integrazione europea, vol.2, L'Europa dai Trattati di Roma alla caduta del muro di Berlino (Roma: Marzorati, 1997), pp.523–71; Frances Burwell and Ivo H. Daalder (eds.), The United States and Europe in the Global Arena (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999); Jeffrey G. Giauque, ‘Offers of Partnership or Bids for Hegemony? The Atlantic Community, 1961–1963’, International History Review 22/1 (March 2000), pp.86–111; idem, ‘The United States and the Political Union of Western Europe, 1958–1963’, Contemporary European History 9/1 (March 2000), pp.93–110. Cf. also Georges-Henri Soutou, ‘Was There a European Order in the Twentieth Century? From the Concert of Europe to the End of the Cold War’, Contemporary European History 9/3 (Nov. 2000), pp.329–53; Schmidt, ‘Europe and the World’, pp.355–66.

10. On Britain's first application cf. among others Wolfram Kaiser, ‘The Bomb and Europe. Britain, France and the EEC Entry Negotiations (1961–1963)’, Journal of European Integration History 1/1 (1995), pp.65–85; Simona Toschi, ‘Washington - London - Paris, an Untenable Triangle (1960–1963)’, Journal of European Integration History 1/2 (1995), pp.81–109; Rolf Steininger, ‘Grossbritannien und de Gaulle. Das Scheitern des britischen EWG-Beitritts im Januar 1963’, Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 44/1 (1996), pp.87–118; Richard T. Griffiths and Stuart Ward (eds.), Courting the Common Market: The First Attempt to Enlarge the European Community, 1961–1963 (London: Lothian Foundation Press, 1996); George Wilkes (ed.), Britain's Failure to Enter the European Community, 1961–63. The Enlargement Negotiations and Crises in European, Atlantic and Commonwealth Relations (London/Portland: Frank Cass, 1997); N. Piers Ludlow, Dealing with Britain. The Six and the First UK Application to the EEC (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997); John Newhouse, ‘De Gaulle and the Anglo-Saxons’, in Douglas Brinkley and Richard T. Griffiths (eds.), John F. Kennedy and Europe (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1999), pp.32–48; Ward, ‘Kennedy, Britain, and the European Community’, pp.317–332; Frances M.B. Lynch, ‘De Gaulle's First Veto: France, the Rueff Plan and the Free Trade Area’, Contemporary European History 9/1 (March 2000), pp.lll–35; Oliver Bange, The EEC Crisis of 1963. Kennedy, Macmillan, de Gaulle and Adenauer in Conflict (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000), pp.108–206.

11. LBJL, NSF, Name File (NF), box 1, ‘Bator Memos’, no.20, ‘European Box Score’, Bator and Davis, undated. On general aspects of US foreign policy in 1967, cf. Dallek, Flawed Giant, pp.391–493.

12. On the topic see among others Steve Dryden, Trade Warriors. USTR and the American Crusade for Free Trade (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995); Diane B. Kunz, ‘Cold War Dollar Diplomacy: The Other Side of Containment’, in idem (ed.), The Diplomacy, pp.80–114; idem, Butter and Guns. America's Cold War Economic Diplomacy (New York: Free Press, 1997).

13. LBJL, Office Files (OF), Ernest E. Goldstein, box 13, ‘White House Luncheon for European Ambassadors’, no.2 ff., memo, Rostow to Johnson, 14 Nov. 1967.

14. Cf. Robert A. Divine, ‘Lyndon Johnson and Strategic Arms Limitation’, in idem (ed.), The Johnson Years, vol.3, pp.239–79. See also Glenn T. Seaborg, with Benjamin S. Loeb, Stemming the Tide. Arms Control in the Johnson Years (Lexington, MA: Heath & Co., 1987).

15. LBJL, OF, Ernest E. Goldstein, box 16, ‘Western Europe’, no.4, ‘Regional Analytical Survey for the Western European Area’, USIA/IAE, 15 Sept. 1967.

16. Ibid.

17. Ibid.

18. LBJL, NSF, Country File (CF), France, box 173, vol.11 (memos), no.160, Bohlen to Rostow, 23 May 1967; no.159, Bohlen to Rostow, 24 May 1967.

19. Ibid., NF, box 1, ‘Bator Memos’, no.29b, memo, Rusk to Johnson, 11 Feb. 1967. On monetary issues, cf. CF, Germany, box 188, vol.13 (memos), no.128a, memo of conversation between K. Schiller and Rostow, 27 April 1967. Among other recent works, see G. Grin, ‘L'évolution du système monétaire international dans les années 1960’, Relations Internationales 100 (1999), pp.377–92; on the Six's association policy, cf. Anna Bedeschi Magrini, ‘Dalla Convenzione di Yaoundé ai Trattati di Lomé’, in Rainero (ed.), Storia dell'integrazione europea, vol.2, pp.261–83.

20. LBJL, NSF, NF, box 7, ‘Rostow Memos’, no.160a, Schaetzel to Rostow, 16 Feb. 1967.

21. Ibid., National Security Council Meetings File (NSCMF), box 2, vol.4, tab51, no.6, memo, Bator to Johnson, 3.5.1967.

22. Ibid., no.3, memo, ‘Problems ahead in Europe’, undated. On nuclear issues see, among other recent works, Beatrice Heuser, ‘European Strategists and European Identity: The Quest for a European Nuclear Force (1954–1967)’, Journal of European Integration History 1/2 (1995), pp.61–80; Laurence Hubert, ‘La politique nucléaire de la Communauté européenne (1956–1968). Une tentative de définition, à travers les archives de la Commission européenne’, Journal of European Integration History 6/1 (2000), pp.129–53. On the ‘Harmel Study’ see LBJL, NSF, AF, NATO, General, box 36, vol.5, no.4, CIA Intelligence Memorandum no.1680/67, “The Harmel Study: NATO Looks to Its Future”, Washington 7 Dec. 1967; cf. among others Frédéric Bozo, ‘Détente versus Alliance: France, the United States and the Politics of the Harmel Report’, Contemporary European History 7/3 (Nov. 1998), pp.343–60.

23. Foreign Relations of the United States. Diplomatic Papers (FRUS), 1964–68, vol.13, doc.251, ‘Summary Notes of the 569th Meeting of the NSC’, 3 May 1967. Cf. also LBJL, NSF, NSCMF, box 2, vol.4, tab51, no.7.

24. LBJL, NSF, NSCMF, box 2, vol.4, tab51, no.4a, Fowler memo, ‘U.S.-European Relations’, 23 May 1967.

25. FRUS, 1964–68, vol.13, doc.254, memo, Fowler to Johnson, 25 May 1967.

26. Ibid., doc.257, memo of conversation between Rusk, Rey et al., 9 June 1967.

27. Ibid., doc.262, memo of conversation between Spuehler, Rusk et al., 14.8.1967.

28. On the British application see Sir Con O'Neill (ed. by Sir David Hannay), Britain's Entry into the European Community. Report by Sir Con O'Neill on the Negotiations of 1970–1972 (London: Whitehall History Publishing in association with Frank Cass, 2000). Among other books, cf. Ariane Landuyt (ed.), Europe: Fédération ou nations, (Sedes, 1999) esp. the essays by Robert Bideleux, ‘L'ambiguïté anglaise devant l'intégration’, pp.97–120; idem, ‘Le Danemark: intérêts nationaux contre idéaux fédéralistes’, pp.129–52; and Niall O'Ciosáin, ‘L'Irlande et I'intégration européenne’, pp.121–7. See also Dermot Keogh, ‘The Diplomacy of “Dignified Calm” - An Analysis of Ireland's Application for Membership of the EEC, 1961–1963’, Journal of European Integration History 3/1 (1997), pp.81–98.

29. LBJL, NSF, CF, UK, box 210, vol.10 (memos), no.156, CIA Intelligence Memorandum, “Britain and the EEC”, 16 Jan. 1967.

30. Ibid., box 211, vol.11 (memos), nos.93–93a, Rostow to Johnson, 8 May 1967 and encl. tel. 9217, Bruce to Rusk, 8 May 1967. On the special relationship cf. among others Alex Danchev, ‘Special Pleading’, in Kathleen Burk and Melwyn Stokes (eds.), The United States and the European Alliance since 1945 (Oxford: Berg, 1999), pp.271–88. On Monnet and the American Europeanists, see François Duchêne, Jean Monnet. The First Statesman of Interdependence (New York: Norton, 1994) esp. pp.330 ff.; Clifford P. Hackett (ed.), Monnet and the Americans. The Father of a United Europe and His U.S. Supporters (Washington, DC: Jean Monnet Council, 1995); David L. DiLeo, ‘George Ball and the Europeanists in the State Department, 1961–1963’, in Brinkley and Griffiths (eds.), John F. Kennedy, pp.263–280. On the ECSC cf. also Raymond Poidevin, ‘La Haute Autorité de la CECA et les Etats-Unis (1950–1967)’, in Guido Müller (ed.), Deutschland und der Westen. Internationale Beziehungen im 20. Jahrhundert. Festschrift für Klaus Schwabe zum 65. Geburtstag (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1998), pp.262–9.

31. FRUS, 1964–68, vol.13, doc.253, memo of conversation between Lucet and Leddy, 19 May 1967.

32. LBJL, NSF, CF, UK, box 211, vol.12 (memos), no.139, CIA Intelligence Memorandum no.1371/67, ‘The Status of Britain's Bid for Common Market Membership’, 1 Aug. 1967. On the WEU see for instance Anne Deighton (ed.), Western European Union 1954–1997: Defence, Security, Integration (Oxford: European Interdependence Research Unit - St Antony's College, 1997).

33. FRUS, 1964–68, vol.13, doc.269, tel.4932, Bohlen to DS, 10 Oct. 1967.

34. Ibid., doc.272, tel.3313, Bruce to DS, 25 Oct. 1967.

35. LBJL, NSF, CF, UK, box 211, vol.12 (memos), no.115a, CIA Intelligence Memorandum no.67–75, ‘The Impact of Britain's Devaluation of the Pound’, 20 Nov. 1967. Cf. Tim Bale, ‘Dynamics of a Non-Decision: The “Failure” to Devalue the Pound, 1964–7’, Twentieth Century British History 10/2 (1999), pp.192–217.

36. FRUS, 1964–68, vol.13, doc.280, tel.1011, Rusk to DS, 13 Dec. 1967. On the possibility of an American intervention, see LBJL, NSF, CF, UK, box 211, vol.12 (memos), no.147, memo of conversation between Rusk, Leddy, Cheslaw and censored names, 9 Dec. 1967; and, above all, no.148, memo of conversation between Rusk, Cheslaw and censored names, 6 Dec. 1967. In the latter document, in particular, Rusk remarked that holding bilateral talks on France might prove quite dangerous.

37. FRUS, 1964–68, vol.13, doc.283, ‘Intelligence Note No. 1020’, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Denney to Rusk, 26 Dec. 1967. On the various European countries' attitudes cf. Rainero (ed.), Storia dell'integrazione europea, vol.2, esp. the essays by Raffaele D'Agata on the FRG (pp.427–58), Massimo de Leonardis on Britain (pp.389–426), Marinella Neri Gualdesi on Italy (pp.287–338), Donatella Viti on France (pp.339–88), and Marcello Dell'Omodarme, ‘L'Europa dei Nove’ (pp.85–118). See also Landuyt (ed.), Europe, esp. the short essays by Ralph Dingemans, ‘L'Allemagne de l'Ouest et 1'intégration européenne’, pp.63–76; idem, ‘Les Pays-Bas et l'intégration européenne’, pp.85–96; Ariane Landuyt, ‘L'Italie entre l'idéal européen et l'intégration’, pp.35–47; idem, ‘La Belgique, le Luxembourg et l'intégration européenne’, pp.77–83; and Jacques Valette, ‘La France et 1'idée du fédéralisme européen’, pp.49–61.

38. LBJL, NSF, CF, France, box 173, vol.12 (memos), nos.76–76a, memo, Rostow to Johnson, 30 Nov. 1967, and encl. memo, Read to Rostow, 29 Nov. 1967; no.74, memo, Goldstein to Rostow, 1 Dec. 1967; White House Central Files (WHCF), Subject File (SF), CO 81 France, box 30, memo, Goldstein to Johnson, 30 Nov. 1967; memo, Goldstein to Johnson, 13 Dec. 1967; Monnet to Johnson, 16 Dec. 1967. On Monnet, among many other works, cf. Gérard Bossuat and Andreas Wilkens (eds.), Jean Monnet, l'Europe et les chemins de la paix (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1999), esp. pp.203–93 and pp.357–433.

39. FRUS, 1964–68, vol.13, doc.296, memo of conversation between Rusk and Erhard, 21 March 1968. On Erhard's foreign policy see for instance Horst Osterheld, Aussenpolitik unter Bundeskanzler Ludwig Erhard 1963–1966. Ein Dokumentarischer Bencht aus dem Kanzleramt (Düsseldorf: Droste, 1992); Volker Hentschel, Ludwig Erhard. Ein Politikerleben (München: Olzog, 1996), pp.435–649.

40. FRUS, 1964–68, vol.13, doc.302, tel.151414, Rusk to the Embassy in Switzerland, 23 April 1968.

41. Among recent works on these issues, see Alan S. Milward, with George Brennan and Federico Romero, The European Rescue of the Nation-State (London: Routledge, 1992); Alan S. Milward et al., The Frontier of National Sovereignty. History and Theory, 1945–1992 (London: Routledge, 1993); and other books and essays quoted in Bernard Bruneteau, ‘The Construction of Europe and the Concept of the Nation-State’, Contemporary European History 9/2 (July 2000), pp.245–60.

42. On Johnson's attitude towards Kennedy's legacy cf. for example Lyndon Baines Johnson, The Vantage Point. Perspectives of the Presidency, 1963–1969 (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1971), pp.1–41; George W Ball, The Past Has Another Pattern. Memoirs (New York: Norton & Company, 1982), pp.316–37; and Paul R. Henggeler, In His Steps. Lyndon Johnson and the Kennedy Mystique (Chicago: Dee, 1991).