![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
Abstract
Britain's participation in the process towards the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), between the Warsaw Pact's Budapest Appeal in 1969 and the opening of the CSCE in 1972, has been insufficiently studied. The British analysis of European security in the late 1960s and early 1970s informed Britain's response to calls for a conference and led them to believe that the CSCE was not the right forum for advancing their security goals. British and Western interests would also not be served by rejecting negotiations or participating in a conference held on Soviet terms. This prompted the British to contribute constructively to preparing a conference and to transforming Warsaw Pact appeals into the basis for genuine discussions. In the run up to the CSCE, British objectives settled on defending Western unity, securing the propaganda advantage, and achieving some small but meaningful steps to improve European security.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Dr. Kristina Spohr for commenting on earlier drafts and for her useful advice.
Notes
1 Various names were used to refer to the potential negotiations before 1972. For the sake of simplicity, this article will only refer to the CSCE.
2 See D.C. Thomas, The Helsinki Effect (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001).
3 See O. Bange and G. Niedhart, eds. Helsinki 1975 and the Transformation of Europe (New York; Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2008) and D. Möckli, European Foreign Policy during the Cold War (London: I.B. Taurus, 2009).
4 See A. Romano, From Détente in Europe to European Détente: How the West Shaped the Helsinki CSCE. (Brussels: Peter Lang, 2009).
5 Phillip Williams, ‘Britain, détente and the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe', in European Détente: Case Studies of the politics of East-West Relations, ed. K. Dyson (London: Pinter, 1986), 221, 229; B. White, Britain, Détente and Changing East-West Relations (London: Routledge, 1992), 13, 130.
6 See L. Ratti, Britain, Ost- and Deutschlandpolitik and the CSCE (1955–1975) (Bern; Oxford: Peter Lang, 2008), 216–218; Luca Ratti, ‘Britain, the German Question and the Transformation of Europe: From Ostpolitik to the Helsinki Conference, 1963–1975’, in Helsinki 1975 and the Transformation of Europe eds. O. Bange and G. Niedhart (New York; Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2008), 93. (This is not the same argument made by Hamilton, who shows that it was not Britain's objectives at the CSCE that changed in 1974, but their confidence in achieving them. K. Hamilton, The Last Cold Warriors: Britain, détente and the CSCE, 1972–1975 (Oxford: European Interdependence Research Unit, St Antony's College, 1998), 7, 17; Keith Hamilton, ‘Cold War by other means: British diplomacy and the conference on security and cooperation in Europe, 1972–1975’, in The Making of Détente: Eastern and Western Europe in the Cold War, 1965–1975, eds. W. Loth, and G. Soutou (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), 172, 175. Brown also argued that Britain's attitude towards the CSCE was hesitant and cautious, and found little evidence of any ‘visionary’ expectations regarding its outcomes. Martin D. Brown, ‘A very British vision of Détente: The United Kingdom's foreign policy during the Helsinki process, 1969–1975’, in Overcoming the Iron Curtain: Visions of the End of the Cold War in Europe, 1945–1990 eds. F. Bozo et al. (Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2012), 122.
7 Romano, European Détente, 22, 74, 151.
8 Möckli, Foreign Policy, 9, 99, 117. Edward Heath's pro-European outlook and rapprochement with the French gave momentum to the EPC project. Romano, European Détente, 22, 74, 151, 46.
9 Hamilton, ‘Cold Warriors’, 5, 21; Hamilton, ‘Cold War’, 170, 172, 178.
10 The National Archives (TNA) FCO 41/453 276 Brimelow to D. Wilson 17/7/1969.
11 Csaba Békés, ‘The Warsaw Pact and the CSCE process from 1965 to 1970’, in The Making of Détente: Eastern and Western Europe in the Cold War, 1965–1975, eds. W. Loth and G. Soutou (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), 202.
12 Geraint Hughes, ‘British policy towards Eastern Europe and the impact of the ‘Prague Spring’ 1964–1968.’ Cold War History 4, no. 22 (2004): 116.
13 Geraint Hughes,'British policy towards Eastern Europe and the impact of the ‘Prague Spring’ 1964–1968.' Cold War History 4, no.22 (2004), 116, 130–1, 133–4.
14Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series III, vol. I, Britain and the Soviet Union, 1968–1972 (London: HMSO, 1997), No. 22 D. Wilson to Stewart 9/12/1968.
15 TNA, FCO 41/743 314 ‘Record of Official Talks on European Security Held in Sir T. Brimelow's Office at 16.30 On Wednesday 14 May’.
16 Georges-Henri Soutou, ‘Convergence theories in France during the 1960s and the 1970s’, in The Making of Détente: Eastern and Western Europe in the Cold War, 1965–1975, eds. W. Loth and G. Soutou (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), 25–6.
17 Gottfried Niedhart, ‘Peaceful Change of Frontiers as a Crucial Element in the West German Strategy of Transformation’, in Helsinki 1975 and the Transformation of Europe, eds. O. Bange and G. Niedhart (New York; Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2008), 41–3; Soutou ‘Convergence theories’, 33.
18 Hughes, ‘British Policy’, 116, 118–119, 132.
19DBPOIII/I No. 12 ‘General Observations by the Foreign Office on certain problems associated with the promotion of further co-operation with the Soviet Union’ 18/6/1968.
20DBPO III/INo. 29 D. Wilson to Mr. Peck 15/4/1969; Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series III, vol. II, The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, 1972–75 (London: HMSO, 1997), No. 11 G.G.H. Walden to H.A.J. Staples 4/8/1972.
21Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Vol. 39, European Security 1969–1976, 44.
22 TNA, FCO 41/545 375 ‘Draft Paper on European Security’ 1/10/1969.
23 Hughes, ‘British Policy’, 116, 118–119, 132.
24 TNA, FCO 41/543 276 Brimelow to D. Wilson 17/7/1969.
25 TNA, FCO 49/299 18 ‘European Security’ 2/9/1970.
26 TNA, FCO 41/543 276 Brimelow to D. Wilson 17/7/1969.
27DBPO III/I No. 31 Stewart to D. Wilson 15/5/1969 Enclosure ‘The longer term prospects for East-West relations after the Czechoslovak crisis’.
28 TNA, FCO 41/541 150 Brimelow to J.N. Henderson 21/5/1969.
29DBPO III/I No. 31; TNA, FCO 41/545 375 ‘Draft Paper on European Security’ 1969.
30DBPO III/I No. 17 Mr. Stewart to Certain Missions and Dependent Territories 29 October 1968.
31DBPO III/I No. 31.
32DBPO III/I No. 31
33 TNA, FCO 41/541 150 Brimelow to Henderson 21/5/1969.
34DBPO III/I No. 31.
35 TNA, FCO 41/743 313 Brimelow to R.H.G. Edmonds 14/8/1970. TNA, FCO 41/545 375 ‘Draft Paper on European Security’ 1/10/1969, TNA, FCO 49/299 18 ‘European Security’ 2/9/1970. The key forums for which were NATO and the EEC which Britain had sought to join under Harold Wilson, and then made a key policy priority under Edward Heath. TNA, FCO 41/545 375 ‘Draft Paper on European Security’ 1/10/1969'. Within this framework, London envisaged tying the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe into the world trading system so that they would be less likely to behave dangerously or irresponsibly. DBPO III/I No 31.
36DBPO III/I No 31.
37 TNA, FCO 41/743 331 P. Craddock to D. Bendall 15/7/1970.
38 TNA, FCO 41/743 313 Brimelow to Edmonds 14/8/1970.
39DBPO III/I No 31; Niedhardt, ‘Peaceful Change’, 41–43.
40DBPO III/I No 31.
41 Niedhardt, ‘Peaceful Change’, 41–43.
42 TNA, FCO 41/545 375 ‘Draft Paper on European Security’ 1/10/1969.
43 Romano, European Détente, 97.
44 TNA, FCO 28/903 28 ‘Visit of Prime Minister to Washington and Ottawa: 26 – 28 January, 1970. European Security. Brief by Foreign and Commonwealth Office’.
45 TNA, FCO 28/903 28 ‘Visit of Prime Minister to Washington and Ottawa: 26 – 28 January, 1970. European Security. Brief by Foreign and Commonwealth Office’
46 TNA, FCO 41/549 595A, Draft Brimelow to D. Wilson 6/11/1969.
47 TNA, FCO 41/550 623B R.Q. Braithwaite to Baker 3/12/1969.
48 PREM 13/3428 ‘Meeting between the Prime Minister and President Nixon: 3 August 1969. Brief by Foreign and Commonwealth Office’. TNA, FCO 28/903 32 D.S. Laskey to Brimelow 21/1/1970.
49 TNA, FCO 41/538 30 FCO to UKDELNATO 2/4/1969. The Warsaw Pact offered to accept US and Canadian participation in return for Western agreement to the participation of the GDR at the Conference of the Warsaw Pact foreign ministers held in Budapest in July 1970. The Warsaw Pact also agreed to put cultural cooperation on the agenda for the first time. Békés, ‘The Warsaw Pact’, 214–5.
50 TNA, FCO 41/544 305 Brimelow to C.S.R. Giffard and J.P. Waterfield 28/7/1969.
51 TNA, FCO 41/543 282 Brimelow & D. Greenhill, handwritten note on Waterfield to Brimelow 15/7/1969; Marie-Pierre Rey, ‘France and the German Question in the Context of Ostpolitik and the CSCE, 1969–1974’, in Helsinki 1975 and the Transformation of Europe eds. O. Bange and G. Niedhart (New York; Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2008), 60. Brimelow was essentially right about French motives. By insisting on a bilateral dialogue with the USSR, Pompidou sought to postpone the convening of a conference whilst simultaneously improving relations with Moscow. Takeshi Yamamoto, ‘The Road to the CSCE, 1969–73: Britain, France and Germany’ (Unpublished PhD Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2007), 78.
52 TNA, FCO 41/549 595A Draft Brimelow to D. Wilson 6/11/1969.
53 TNA, FCO 41/541 150 Brimelow to Henderson 21/5/1969.
54 PREM 13/3428 ‘Meeting between the Prime Minister and President Nixon’; TNA, FCO 41/740 72 Brimelow to Mr. Reddaway 3/2/1970.
55 Helga Haftendorn, ‘The Harmel Report and its Impact on German Ostpolitik’, in The Making of Détente: Eastern and Western Europe in the Cold War, 1965–1975, eds. W. Loth, and G. Soutou (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), 109.
56 TNA, FCO 41/739 6 Waterfield to Mr. Haydon 10/12/1969.
57 TNA, FCO 41/453 276 Brimelow to D. Wilson 17/7/1969.
58 PREM 13/3429 ‘Record of the Prime Minister's meeting with Sir Duncan Wilson, H.M. Ambassador in Moscow, at 12 Noon on Friday January 16, 1970’.
59 TNA, FCO 41/549 595A Draft Brimelow to D. Wilson 6/11/1969.
60 TNA, FCO 41/743 313 Brimelow to R.H.G. Edmonds 14/8/1970; TNA, FCO 41/549 595A Draft Brimelow to D. Wilson 6/11/1969.
61 TNA, FCO 41/544 317 Brimelow to B. Burrows 28/7/1969.
62 TNA, FCO 41/740 88 Brimelow to A.M Palliser 11/2/1970; TNA, FCO 41/743 314 ‘Record of Official Talks on European Security Held in Sir T. Brimelow's Office at 16.30 On Wednesday 14 May’; TNA, FCO 28/903 28 ‘Visit of Prime Minister to Washington and Ottawa: 26 – 28 January, 1970. European Security. Brief by Foreign and Commonwealth Office’.
63 TNA, FCO 41/631 1 FCO to Moscow 28/5/1970.
64 Yamamoto, ‘The Road’, 74–5.
65FRUS, 47.
66 TNA, FCO 41/624 4 Waterfield to Bendall 8/12/1969 ‘Declaration of the North Atlantic Council’ http://www.nato.int/docu/comm/49-95/c691204b.htm, accessed 17/4/11; CAB 128/44. Cabinet conclusion, 11 December 1969. NATO was the leading organisation for formulating the West's CSCE policy until mid-1972. Daniel Möckli, ‘The EC Nine, the CSCE, and the changing patter of European security’, in Origins of the European Security System: The Helsinki Process revisited, 1965–75, eds. A. Wenger, V. Mastny and C. Nuenlist (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), 149.
67 PREM 13/3429 P. Moon to Prime Minister 17/6/1970. ‘Final Communiqué’ http://www.nato.int/docu/comm/49-95/c700526a.htm accessed 1/4/2011. Yamamoto, ‘The Road’, 109, 119.
68 TNA, FCO 41/631 1 FCO to Moscow 28/5/1970.
69DBPOIII/I, No. 46 Record of the Seventh Meeting of the Conference of HM Representatives in Eastern Europe, held at 11.00 a.m. on Friday, 8 May 1970.
70 Yamamoto, ‘The Road’, 76, 89.
71 TNA, FCO 41/633 131 FCO to Bucharest 9/6/1970.
72 TNA, FCO 41/544 354 Waterfield to Bendall 17/9/69. FRUS, 47.
73 TNA, FCO 41/743 313 FCO to Rome 15 May 1970.
74 TNA, FCO 41/743 303 Brimelow minute to Waterfield and Bendall 4/8/1970.
75 TNA, FCO 41/745 Minute by Waterfield to Bendall and Brimelow 6/8/1970.
76 TNA, FCO 41/743 331 P. Craddock to Bendall 15/7/1970.
77 TNA, FCO 49/299 18 ‘European Security’ 2/9/1970.
78 TNA, FCO 49/299 18 ‘European Security’ 2/9/1970
79 TNA, FCO 41/743 343 Bendall to Brimelow 4/9/1970.
80 TNA, FCO 41/637 346 D. Greenhill to Secretary of State 7/7/1970.
81 TNA, FCO 41/636 313 B.L. Crowe to Braithwaite 17/7/1970; DBPO III/I, No. 52 Sir A. Douglas-Home to Sir E. Peck 12/10/1970.
82 TNA, FCO 41/636 313 B.L. Crowe to Braithwaite 17/7/1970; DBPO III/I, No. 52 Sir A. Douglas-Home to Sir E. Peck 12/10/1970
83 TNA, FCO 41/743 341 FCO to UKDELNATO 11/9/1970.
84 Petri Hakkarainen, ‘From linkage to freer movement: The FRG and the nexus between Western CSCE preparations and Deutschlandpolitik’, 1969–72’, in Origins of the European Security System: The Helsinki Process revisited, 1965–75, eds. A. Wenger, V. Mastny and C. Nuenlist. (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), 169; TNA, FCO 41/633 191 Waterfield to Brimelow 23/6/1970 WOD European Security briefing 23/6/1970.
85 TNA, FCO 41/822 42 FCO to Certain Missions ‘Guidance No. 45 of 25 February 1971’.
86 TNA, FCO 41/883 71 J.E. Cable to Peck 25/1/1971.
87 TNA, FCO 41/882 28 Cable to J.N. Henderson 5/2/1971.
88 TNA, FCO 41/882 28 Cable to J.N. Henderson 5/2/1971
89DBPOIII/I No. 57 Douglas-Home to D. Wilson 1/12/1970.
90 Ratti, Britain, 152, 220.
91 Romano, 86–7.
92DBPO III/II No. 1 Britain also played an important part in negotiating Confidence Building Measures which are beyond the scope of this article.
93 TNA, FCO 41/887 ‘European Security Conference (ESC)’; TNA, FCO 41/1041 198 FCO to UKDELNATO 28/2/1972.
94 Möckli, Foreign Policy p. 61.
95 TNA, FCO 41/887 261 P. Moon to N.J. Barrington 27/8/1971, TNA, FCO 41/887 256 Moon to Barrington 24/8/1971.
96 TNA, FCO 41/887 RQ Braithwaite to Bonn ‘European Security Conference (ESC)’ 10 September 1971.
97 TNA, FCO 41/1046 613 J.L. Bullard to C.C.C. Tickell 21/7/1972. TNA, FCO 41/1041 198 FCO to UKDELNATO 28/2/1972.
98DBPO III/I No. 89 Memorandum by Sir A. Douglas-Home on policy towards the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe 29/2/1972.
99DBPO III/I No. 39 Extract from Conclusions of a Meeting of the Cabinet held at 10 Downing St. on 11 December 1969 at 10 am.
100Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series III, vol. III, Détente in Europe, 1972–1976 (London: HMSO, 2001), 197, Sir J Killick to Brimelow 22/1/1973.
101 TNA, FCO 41/743 303 Brimelow to Waterfield and Bendall 4/8/1970.
102 Anne Deighton, ‘Ostpolitik or Westpolitik: British foreign policy, 1968–1975’, International Affairs 74, no. 4 (1998): 896–7.
103DBPO III/I No. 89.
104DBPO III/I No. 98 Record of Conversation between Sir A. Douglas-Home and Mr. Gromyko in Berlin on Saturday, 3 June 1972.
105DBPO III/I No. 89.
106 TNA, FCO 41/1036 19 Braithwaite to DJ Sleigh 13/1/1972.
107DBPO III/II, No. 1 Draft Position Paper.
108 TNA, FCO 41/1044 481 Prime Minister at Foreign Press Association 16/3/1972.
109DBPO, III/II No. 18 Brown to Staples 24/11/1972.
110 TNA, FCO 28/1678 27 Walden to Fall 14/3/1972.
111 TNA, FCO 28/1678 5 Staples to R.Q. Braithwaite 17/2/1972.
112DBPO III/II p. 8 Braithwaite to Wiggin 26/10/1971.
113DBPO III/II, No. 1.
114 Andreas Wenger and Vojtech Mastny, ‘New perspectives on the origins of the CSCE process’, in Origins of the European Security System: The Helsinki Process revisited, 1965–75, eds. A. Wenger, V. Mastny and C. Nuenlist (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), 15.
115 TNA, FCO 41/1043 405 FCO to Luxembourg 10/4/1972.
116 TNA, FCO 41/1043 367 Tickell to R.A. Hibbert 24/4/1972.
117 TNA, FCO 41/1043 367 Tickell to R.A. Hibbert 24/4/1972
118 Romano, European Détente, p.127.
119 Romano, European Détente, p. 127.
120 TNA, FCO 41/1043 367 Hibbert to Tickell 17/4/1972.
121 TNA, FCO 41/1043 367 Tickell to Hibbert 24/4/1972.
122 TNA, FCO 41/1043 367 Hibbert to Tickell 17/4/1972; DBPO III/II No. 1; TNA, FCO 41/1043 367 Tickell to Hibbert 24/4/1972.
123 Hakkarainen, ‘From Linkage’ 176; Yamamoto, ‘The Road’, 203.
124 Romano, European Détente, 127.
125DBPO III/II, No. 1.
126 TNA, FCO 41/882 97 Grattan to Braithwaite 4/3/71.
127 TNA, FCO 41/1046 632 Greenhill to C.D. Wiggin 24/7/1972.
128 TNA, FCO 41/884 144 FCO to UKDELNATO 21/4/1971.
129 TNA, FCO 41/893 526 A.D.F. Pemberton-Pigott to Bridges 17/11/1971.
130 TNA, FCO 41/743 312 FCO to UKDELNATO 24/7/1970.
131 TNA, FCO 41/883 71 Braithwaite to Cable 3/3/1971; TNA, FCO 41/883 102 Cable to Henderson 23/3/1971; Hamilton, ‘Cold Warriors’, 19.
132DBPO, III/II No. 18 Brown to Staples 24/11/1972.
133DBPO, III/II No. 17 Draft Brief for the UK Delegation to the MPT 13/11/1972.
134 TNA, FCO 41/1046 682 Tickell to Goulding 21/8/1972.
135 TNA, FCO 41/1046 624 ‘Steering Brief’, Thomson to Braithwaite 21/7/1972. Britain was in also put in charge of freedom of information and conference tactics during the Conference. Möckli, Foreign Policy, p. 13.
136DBPO III/II no. 13 Tickell to the Private Secretary 20/9/1972.
137 NATOA, C-VR(72)60 Part II.
138 TNA, FCO 41/1043 367 Tickell to Hibbert 24/4/1972.
139 Brown, ‘British vision’, 122.
140DBPO III/II, No. 1.
141 TNA, FCO 41/1042 244 Henderson to Tickell 17/3/1972.
142DBPO III/II No. 14 Brimelow to Killick 29/9/1972.
143 Angela Romano, ‘Détente, Entente, or Linkage? The Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in U.S. Relations with the Soviet Union’, Diplomatic History 33, no. 4 (2009): 705.
144 Romano, European Détente, 136–7.
145 Hamilton, ‘Cold Warriors’, 20.