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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Feb. 6, 1963
De Gaulle Hits Peak
France has finally returned to her rightful place in the sun, thanks to Charles de Gaulle.
By blocking Britain's entry into the European Common Market, he has angered not only Britain but the other five ECM members as well. De Gaulle's idea of Western European cooperation is for the other Western European nations to cooperate with France.
BY SENDING A TRADE delegation to Russia, he has angered the West Germans. The West Germans are somewhat less than enthusiastic about someone who plays both ends against the middle, especially when West Germany is in the middle.
By sending a military delegation to Spain, he has angered the Russians. They may be willing to meet a capitalist half way. But dealing with an ally of the Fascists is too much for even Khrushchev to stomach.
By refusing to cooperate with NATO military plans, De Gaulle has angered the members of NATO and weakened the organization whose military strength is already subject to question.
By refusing to accept U.S. nuclear weapons, he has angered the United States — not that anyone has worried too much about angering the United States lately, but this does make De Gaulle's campaign a little more complete.
THROUGH A SERIES of brilliant moves affecting both individual nations and overlapping groups of nations, the paper Napoleon has trod on every significant world power except Communist China, not to mention a wide assortment
De Gaulle has done a thorough job to say the least. And he has a great future.
of less important nations.
By insisting that France be a totally independent nuclear power, he has further complicated the already complex nuclear disarmament and test ban negotiations between the United States and Russia. So far the United States and Russia have not made enough progress toward nuclear disarmament or test bans to make the French obstacle appear very significant. But as the other stumbling blocks for U.S.-Russian agreement on nuclear questions are overcome, the French obstacle grows by comparison.
IF DE GAULLE IS LUCKY, he will become the final irreconcilable factor blocking nuclear test bans, or better yet, nuclear disarmament.
This would anger the neutralist bloc and just about everyone else interested in saving the world from nuclear war. That would take care of everyone, except Communist China. But with his unusual talent in this area, De Gaulle will undoubtedly find some way to anger Mao tse Tung and Co., too.
After losing two wars with Germany and throwing away money to support military fiascoes first in Indo-China and later in Algeria, France has found a new way to fame—Gaullism. De Gaulle has proved that a second-rate power can be just as big an obstacle to the solution of world problems as the nations with real power instead of inflated egos.
Most people have quit laughing at France, the second-rate power. They are too disgusted.
- Dennis Branstiter
EUROPEAN COMMON MARKET-All the Common Market members except France want Britain to join, but De Gaulle's veto forces Britain to look for another means to the same end. The Western European Union, which includes the Common Market members plus Britain, may be this means.
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912
Extension 711, news room
Extension 376, business office
Publisher, VD, 2, 700
Member Inland Daily Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 St., New York 22, N.Y. News service: United Press International. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays, University holidays, and examination periods. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Managing Editor
Fred Zimmerman...Managing Editor
Ben Marshall, Bill Sheldon, Mike Miller,
Art Miller, Margaret Cathcart...Assistant Managing Editors
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Dennis Branstiter Editorial Editor
Terry Murphy Assistant Editorial Editor
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Jack Cannon, Business Manager; Jim Stevens, Assist. Business Mgr.; Mike Carson, Advertising Mgr.; Joanne Zabornik, Circulation Mgr.; Brooks Harrison, Classified Mgr.; Bob Brooks, National Adv. Mgr.; Charles Hayward, Promotion Mgr.; Bill Finley, Merchandising Mgr.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
"IT'S MY REQUIRED TEXTS FOR P.E. — NO READING—WE JUST HAVE TO CARRY ME AROUND."
Western European Union Possible Common Market
The blackball Charles de Gaulle dropped on Britain in the European Common Market has stunned the Macmillan government but has by no means forced the British to give up yet.
The British are now negotiating with Italy in hopes of reviving the Western European Union—with or without French participation. Britain and Italy evidently are considering the long inactive organization as a means to sidestep De Gaulle — or perhaps even step on him.
The old Western European Union membership is the same as that of the present European Common Market with one addition Britain. This is the WEU's one big edge over the Common Market.
THE WESTERN European Union was conceived in 1954 as a substitute for the European Defense Community. The EDC could not get through the French National Assembly because of its premature European superstate structure and the unbalanced strength it could have given Germany. The EDC's council of ministers, common assembly, commissariat, court of justice and common army gobbled up too much sovereignty for Britain to give up. And without British membership, the French were afraid a newly rearmed Germany might get out of hand again. So soon after World Wars I and II, the French could hardly be expected to take any chances, however slight they may look today.
Just six weeks after French membership in the EDC was
blocked in the French National Assembly, thereby killing the community. Sir Anthony Eden came up with an alternate plan acceptable to the British and even to the hard-to-please French.
EDEN'S IDEA was to expand the existing Brussels Treaty signed in 1948 to facilitate cooperation among Britain, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
This treaty called for a much looser structure of cooperation than the EDC. It was not a very big step toward European federalism, so no one was too worried about losing sovereignty. And since Britain and France were both members, Germany and Italy could be added without leaving France on the short end of the balance of power within the organization.
A lot of French deputies flew into hysteria at the thought of any sort of alliance with the hated and feared Boche, but the same Pierre Mendes-France who helped scuttle hopes for French membership in the EDC pushed hard for French membership in the Western European Union. He got what he wanted from the National Assembly, although by only a 23-vote margin.
THIS WAS eight years ago. And the Western European Union since then has gone the way of many European alliances and agreements. There was a lot of talk about it at the time, just as there had been a lot of talk about the EDC. It was widely hailed as the first step toward an end to the chaos that had characterized post-war
Europe and toward a strong,
prosperous unified Europe.
The WEU did not get far beyond this first step, however. It slipped off into that special slot in oblivion reserved for good but overestimated ideas.
What the WEU did do was integrate a rearmed and sovereign West Germany into the Western Alliance. This was quite an accomplishment in itself, but the WEU does not have either the strength or popularity of the European Common Market. The WEU has the right members but an inadequate structure. The EDM has an adequate structure but not all the right member nations.
SINCE MACMILLAN could not get France to accept the right combination of nations to make the European Common Market all it could become, he may try to start with the right combination of nations, namely the WEU, and then try to get France to accept an altered structure. This is just a roundabout way to get Britain into the ECM. so De Gaulle logically should be equally opposed to both.
However, logic has not yet become an obstacle to the mystical workings of De Gaulle-style French politics.
-Dennis Branstiter
Short Ones
The secret of being a bore is to tell everything—Voltaine
English teachers are working their way to extinction, for they no longer teach students to write. —R. L. Dennis.