A European voice in the Arab world: France, the superpowers and the Middle East, 1970–74

Abstract

This article investigates France's policy towards the Arab world and the Middle East at a critical juncture: the first oil crisis. Based on largely untapped archival records, it demonstrates that concerns over declining power spurred Georges Pompidou's government to Europeanise this policy, taking advantage of the anxieties unleashed by the Arab use of oil as a political weapon. It also sheds light on the intricate links between the transatlantic relationship, relations between the superpowers, the Middle East conflict and Franco-/Euro-Arab ties.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Harold James, Piers Ludlow, Philip Nord, Kiran Patel, Matthias Schulz, Maurice Vaïsse, Antonio Varsori and the two anonymous reviewers for Cold War History for their comments and suggestions. She is also grateful to the Swiss National Science Foundation for its financial support.

Notes

Aurélie Élisa Gfeller received her PhD in contemporary history from Princeton University in 2008. She currently holds a post-doctoral fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation. Her research interests include transatlantic relations and European integration history. She is finishing a monograph on France's European policy during the early 1970s.

  [1] General accounts include Balta and Rulleau, La politique arabe de la France; Frémeaux, Le monde arabe et la sécurité de la France depuis 1958; Leveau, ‘France's Arab Policy’; Nouschi, La France et le monde arabe. The only monograph based on archival materials is Styan, France & Iraq.

The archives of the Levant sub-directorate of the Quai d'Orsay are subject to a 60-year declassification rule. To review documents from the 1960s and 1970s, it is necessary to apply for a special permission (dérogation), which is not always granted.

  [2] Recent reappraisals include van der Harst, Beyond the Customs Union; Varsori, ‘Introduzione – Alle origini del presente’.

  [3] Bitsch, Histoire de la construction européenne de 1945 à nos jours, 196–7; Dinan, Europe Recast; Olivi and Giacone, L'Europe difficile. La construction européenne, 130–52.

  [4] See, in particular, Möckli, European Foreign Policy During the Cold War.

  [5] Styan, France & Iraq, 50.

  [6] Nouschi, La France et le monde arabe, 122; Vaïsse, La grandeur, 644–5.

  [7] Vaïsse, La puissance ou l'influence?, 370.

  [8] Schillo, ‘La politique française à l'égard d'Israël, 1946–1959’.

  [9] Cohen, Israel and the Bomb, 73–5.

 [10] Vaïsse, La puissance ou l'influence?, 357

 [11] Bozo, La politique étrangère de la France depuis 1945, 53.

 [12] Bozo, La politique étrangère de la France depuis 1945, 53; Vaïsse, La puissance ou l'influence?, 365.

 [13] Vaïsse, La grandeur, 636.

 [14] Vaïsse, La puissance ou l'influence?, 365.

 [15] United Nations Security Council, Resolution 242 of 22 November 1967.

 [16] United Nations Security Council, Resolution 242 of 22 November 1967

 [17] de Gaulle, Discours et messages, vol. 5, 532.

 [18] United Nations Security Council, Resolution 242 of 22 November 1967.

 [19] Vaïsse, La puissance ou l'influence?, 368.

 [20] Coppolani, ‘La France et les Etats-Unis dans les négociations quadripartites sur le Moyen-Orient (1969–1971)’; Nouailhat, ‘Les divergences entre la France et les Etats-Unis face au conflit israélo-arabe de 1967 à 1973’; Vaïsse, La grandeur, 635.

 [21] Bozo, La politique étrangère de la France depuis 1945, 62–3; Vaïsse, La puissance ou l'influence?, 371.

 [22] Centre historique des archives nationales (CHAN), 5AG2 115, Pompidou to Nixon, 11 March, 1970.

 [23] Vaïsse, La puissance ou l'influence?, 35.

 [24] The only archival-based study of these preliminary talks is Möckli, European Foreign Policy During the Cold War, 68–78.

 [25] On The Hague summit, see the special issue of the Journal of European Integration History, 9, no. 2 (2003).

 [26] Vaïsse, ‘Changement et continuité dans la politique européenne de la France’.

 [27] On the Fouchet Plan, see the special issue of the Revue d'Allemagne et des pays de langue allemande, 29, no. 2 (1997). See also Vaïsse, La grandeur, 175–90.

 [28] CHAN, 5AG2 1035, Pompidou, margin comment on MAE, telegram 120-35 dated 29 January 1971.

 [29] CHAN, 5AG2 1035, Pompidou, margin comment on Direction d'Europe, Note, 1 June 1970.

 [30] CHAN, 5AG2 1035, Raimond, Note, 6 January 1970.

 [31] CHAN, 5AG2 1035, Pompidou, margin comment on Raimond, Note, 6 January 1970. CHAN, 5AG2 1049, Pompidou, margin comment on MAE, circular telegram 209, 3 June 1970. ‘Davignon Report (Luxembourg, 27 October 1970)’.

 [32] CHAN, 5AG2 1035, Pompidou, margin comment on MAE, telegram 120-35 dated 29 January 1971.

 [33] Fondation Jean Monnet pour l'Europe (FJM), AMK 114/4/44, Schumann, speech at the European colloquium of young parliamentarians, 16 December 1970.

 [34] Ministère des Affaires étrangères de la République française (MAE), Middle East files 1971–72, 2021, Sous-direction du Levant, Note: consultation à Six sur le Proche-Orient, 23 April 1971.

 [35] MAE, Middle East files 1971–72, 2021, Sous-direction du Levant, circular telegram 255, 6 July 1971.

 [36] FCO, minute, Douglas-Home to Heath, 7 June 1973, doc. 112, in Hamilton, Documents on British Policy Overseas.

 [37] MAE, US files 1970–5, 727, Sous-direction du Levant, Note: les Etats-Unis et la crise du Proche-Orient, 15 May 1973. FCO, minute, Parsons to Acland, 7 June 1973, doc. 111, in FCO, minute, Douglas-Home to Heath, 7 June 1973, doc. 112, in ibid. FCO, telegram 1268 to Washington, 15 June 1973, doc. 126, in ibid. FCO, telegram 1269 to Washington, 15 June 1973, doc. 127, in ibid.

 [38] CHAN, 5AG2 1015, Memorandum of conversation (Memcon) Pompidou/Heath, first tête-à-tête meeting, 21 May 1973.

 [39] CHAN, 5AG2 633, Pompidou, press conference, 27 September 1973.

 [40] Bitsch, ‘Jean Monnet et la création du Conseil européen’; Fontaine, ‘Le rôle de Jean Monnet dans la genèse du Conseil européen’.

 [41] CHAN, 5AG2 1036, President's statement at the French Council of Ministers, 31 October 1973.

 [42] See, for example, CHAN, 5AG2 1009, Pompidou to Brandt, 31 October 1973.

 [43] President's statement at the French Council of Ministers, 31 October 1973.

 [44] Quandt, Peace Process, 114. On the Cold War and the Middle East, see Khalidi, Sowing Crisis; Primakov, Russia and the Arabs.

 [45] United Nations Security Council, Resolution 338.

 [46] Quandt, Peace Process, 132–3.

 [47] Kissinger, ‘Address at Associated Press Luncheon’.

 [48] Nixon Presidential Materials (NPM), National Security Council (NSC), Institutional files, 194, National Security Study Memorandum 164, 18 December 1972.

 [49] On French responses to the Year of Europe, see Gfeller, ‘Imagining European Identity’. On the Year of Europe, see also Möckli, European Foreign Policy During the Cold War, 140–83.

 [50] Kissinger, Diplomacy, 703–4. On the Nixon administration's détente policy, see Gaddis, Strategies of Containment, 272–306; Hanhimäki, ‘Détente: A Three-Way Discussion’.

 [51] Quoted in Soutou, ‘The Linkage between European Integration and Détente: The Contrasting Approaches of De Gaulle and Pompidou, 1965–1974’. See also Mélandri, ‘La France et l'Alliance atlantique sous Georges Pompidou et Valéry Giscard d'Estaing’, 526.

 [52] MAE USSR files 1971–76, 3724, Service des pactes et du désarmement, Note: accord entre les Etats-Unis et l'URSS sur la prévention de la guerre nucléaire, 25 June 1973. MAE USSR files 1971–6, 3724, de Rose, telegram 1364-71, 25 June 1973.

 [53] On de Gaulle, see Vaïsse, La puissance ou l'influence?, 100.

 [54] On de Gaulle, see Vaïsse, La puissance ou l'influence?, 100, 35.

 [55] Bozo, La politique étrangère de la France depuis 1945, 62–3.

 [56] NPM, NSC, Country files, 679, Memcon Kissinger/Jobert, 11 October 1973.

 [57] MAE, EC files 1971–6, 3804, Pélen, Copenhagen telegram 898-905, 18 October 1973.

 [58] Kohl, ‘Energy Policy in the Communities’.

 [59] United Nations Security Council, Resolution 338.

 [60] MAE, EC files 1971–6, 3804, MAE, political director, Note pour le ministre, 30 October 1973.

 [61] FCO, brief by Middle East unit, 3 November 1973, doc. 365, in Hamilton, Documents on British Policy Overseas.

 [62] FCO, brief by Middle East unit, 3 November 1973.

 [63] MAE, Economic affairs files, 412, Direction des Affaires économiques et financières, Note: attitude des divers pays de l'OPAEP vis-à-vis de la France, 13 December 1973.

 [64] MAE, Tunisia files 1973–82, 573, Sous-direction du Levant, Note: évolution de la crise du Proche-Orient, 5 December 1973.

 [65] Yergin, The Prize, 605.

 [66] Demagny-Van Eyseren, ‘Les réactions de la présidence française face au choc pétrolier’; Lieber, The Oil Decade, 85; Venn, Oil Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century, 150.

 [67] On bilateral agreements with producers, see Petrini, ‘L'arma del petrolio’.

 [68] MAE, EC files 1971–6, 3804, Pélen, Copenhagen telegram 1009-15, 31 October 1973.

 [69] FCO, Brief by Middle East unit, 3 November 1973.

 [70] FCO, telegram 196 to The Hague, 1 November 1973, doc. 357, in Hamilton, Documents on British Policy Overseas.

 [71] FCO, minute, cable to Wright, 2 November 1973, doc. 360, in ibid

 [72] FCO, Cabinet minutes, 8 November 1973, doc. 383, in ibid

 [73] Text quoted in full in MAE, EC files 1971–76, 3804, Pélen, Copenhagen telegram 1016-8, 31 October 1973.

 [74] ‘Declaration of the Nine Foreign Ministers of 6 November 1973, in Brussels, on the Situation in the Middle East’.

 [75] For Arab-sponsored UN resolutions casting the Palestinian issue in political terms, see United Nations General Assembly, Resolution 2628 of 4 November 1970; United Nations General Assembly, Resolution 2949 of 8 December 1972.

 [76] Nouailhat, ‘Les divergences entre la France et les Etats-Unis face au conflit israélo-arabe de 1967 à 1973’, 338.

 [77] Servan-Schreiber, Le défi américain.

 [78] Gfeller, ‘Imagining European Identity’.

 [79] ’Declaration on European Identity’.

 [80] MAE, Tunisia files 1973–82, 572, Jobert, speech at the Tunis Hilton hotel, 15 November 1973. On the concept of a Euro-African partnership (Eurafrique), see Bitsch and Bossuat, L'Europe unie et l'Afrique.

 [81] MAE, International organisation files 1971–6, 2909, Jobert, speech in front of the Western European Union Assembly, 21 November 1973.

 [82] Yves Benoît, ‘Face aux émissaires arabes, le dur apprentissage de la personnalité’, L'Aurore, 17 December 1973. NPM, NSC, Presidential memcons, 1028, Memcon Kissinger/Scheel, 24 March 1974.

 [83] MAE, EC files 1971–6, 3804, Soutou, Algiers telegram 3537-41, 12 December 1973.

 [84] MAE, EC files 1971–6, 3804, CPE/MUL ETR 116A, Copenhagen, 17 December 1973.

 [85] MAE, EC files 1971–6, 3804, Sous-direction du Levant, Note: coopération Europe des Neuf – pays arabes, 29 December 1973.

 [86] FCO, telegram 110 to Washington, 16 January 1974, doc. 507, in Hamilton, Documents on British Policy Overseas.

 [87] MAE, EC files 1971–6, 3792, RM (74) 1 CP Proche-Orient: Rapport du Comité politique aux ministres des Affaires étrangères en vue de la réunion du 14 février, 7 February 1974.

 [88] FCO, Washington telegram 612, 16 February 1974, doc 555, in Hamilton, Documents on British Policy Overseas. On oil-related wealth transfers, see James, International Monetary Cooperation since Bretton Woods, 254.

 [89] Möckli, European Foreign Policy During the Cold War, 252.

 [90] On Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy, see Hanhimäki, The Flawed Architect, 324–31.

 [91] US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Records of the State Department (SD), Record Group (RG) 59, Lot files, Kissinger, 4, Memcon Kissinger/Douglas-Home, 10 February 1974.

 [92] NPM, NSC, Presidential memcons, 1027, Memcon Kissinger/Andersen, 25 September 1973.

 [93] MAE, Economic affairs files, 264, Nixon, letter to heads of government of major oil-consuming nations, 10 January 1974.

 [94] NPM, NSC, Subject files, 322, Lodal and Sonnenfeldt, Memorandum for Secretary Kissinger, 4 December 1973.

 [95] NPM, NSC, Kissinger files, Telephone conversations (Telcons), 24, Kissinger/Nixon, 13 February 1974, 11:55 a.m. NPM, NSC, Subject files, 321, Communiqué, 13 February 1974.

 [96] CHAN, 5AG2 1023, Memcon Pompidou/Kissinger, 20 December 1973.

 [97] CHAN, 5AG2 1023, Robin, Note pour Monsieur Balladur, 10 January 1974.

 [98] van Well, memorandum, 15 February 1974, in Pautsch, Akten zur Auswärtigen Politik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1974, 200–202. FCO, guidance telegram 24, 14 February 1974, doc 553, in Hamilton, Documents on British Policy Overseas.

 [99] NARA, SD, RG 59, Lot files, Kissinger, 4, Memcon Kissinger/Douglas-Home, 10 February 1974.

[100] NPM, NSC, Kissinger files, Telcons, 25, Telcon Kissinger/Sonnenfeldt, 5 March 1974, 9:06 p.m.

[101] NPM, NSC, Presidential memcons, 1028, President's staff meeting, 9 February 1974. NPM, NSC, Kissinger files, Telcons, 25, Kissinger/Sonnenfeldt, 16 March 1974, 5:05 p.m.

[102] MAE, EC files 1971–6, 3792, record of EPC ministerial meeting, 1–2 April 1974.

[103] Möckli, European Foreign Policy During the Cold War, 307.

[104] FCO, Memcon Callaghan/Sonnenfeldt, 15 March 1974, in Hamilton, Documents on British Policy Overseas.

[105] MAE, EC files 1971–6, 3792, record of EPC ministerial meeting, 1-2 April 1974.

[106] FCO, Paris telegram 296, 8 March 1974, in Hamilton, Documents on British Policy Overseas.

[107] MAE, EC files 1971–6, 3811, Arnaud, Note: Comité politique des 18 et 19 avril, 19 April 1974.

[108] MAE, EC files 1971–6, 3811, Puaux, Note: entretien des directeurs politiques français et allemand, 8 May 1974.

[109] Vaïsse, La grandeur, 32, 51.

[110] Bossuat, Faire l'Europe sans défaire la France, 217.

[111] Bozo, La politique étrangère de la France depuis 1945, 4; Dubois, ‘La conception de la présidence de Valéry Giscard d'Estaing’, 9–10; Mélandri, ‘La France et l'Alliance atlantique sous Georges Pompidou et Valéry Giscard d'Estaing’; Vaïsse, La puissance ou l'influence?; Vaïsse, ‘Valéry Giscard d'Estaing de la défense de l'Europe à la défense européenne’.

[112] MAE, Private archives, 373, Sauvagnargues, [Notes manuscrites rédigées pendant mes vacances d'août 1974 en Corse. Considérations sur la politique étrangère de la France], August 1974.

[113] On British policy, see Hamilton, ‘Britain, France, and America's Year of Europe, 1973’; Megens, ‘The December 1973 Declaration on European Identity’; Noble, ‘Kissinger's “Year of Europe”, Britain's Year of Choice’.

[114] ‘Statement by the European Council on the Middle East, London, 29 June 1977’, in Hill and Smith, European Foreign Policy Key Documents. EC countries issued further statements on the Middle East on 29 June 1977, 19 September 1978, 26 March and 18 June 1979.

[115] See, in particular, CHAN, 5AG3 169, Déclaration du Conseil européen sur le Moyen-Orient, Venise, 12–13 juin 1980 / ‘Statement by the European Council on the Situation in the Middle East (Venice Declaration), Venice, 12–13 June 1980’, in Hill and Smith, European Foreign Policy Key Documents.