Table Of ContentANGLO-AMERICAN STRATEGIC RELATIONS
AND THE FRENCH PROBLEM
1960-1963
This page intentionally left blank
ANGLO-AMERICAN
STRATEGIC RELATIONS
AND THE FRENCH
PROBLEM
1960-1963
A Troubled Partnership
CONSTANTINE A. PAGEDAS
~l Routledge
~ \.. Taylor & Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published in 2000 by
FRANK CASS PUBLISHERS
Published 2013 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY, 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 2000 C. Pagedas
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Pagedas, Constantine A., 1969-
Anglo-American strategic relations and the French problem,
1960-1963: a troubled partnership
1. Nuclear weapons 2. Great Britain - Foreign relations -
United States - 1945-3. Great Britain - Foreign relations -
France - 1945-4. France - Foreign relations - Great Britain
- 1958-1969 5. France - Foreign relations - United States -
1958-1969 6. United States - Foreign relations - Great
Britain - 1961-1963 7. United States - Foreign relations
France - 1961-1963
I. Title
327.41073
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pagedas, Constantine A., 1969-
Anglo-American strategic relations and the French problem,
1960-1963: a troubled partnership I Constantine A. Paged as.
p. cm.
Abridged version of the author's thesis (PhD) - King's College,
London.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. United States-Foreign relations-France. 2. France-Foreign
relations-United States. 3. United States-Foreign relations-
Great Britain. 4. Great Britain-Foreign relations-United States.
5. Great Britain-Foreign relations-France. 6. France-Foreign
relations-Great Britain. 7. Nuclear weapons-Government policy
France. 8. Nuclear weapons-Government policy-Great Britain.
9. France-Military policy. 10. France-Foreign relations-1958-1969.
I. Title.
E183.8.F8P34 1999
327.73044'09'046-dc21 99-38921
ISBN 13: 978-0-714-65002-9 (hbk)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or
introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the publisher of this book.
For my parents
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Foreword by Michael Dockrill
IX
Acknowledgements
Xlll
List of Abbreviations
XVll
Introduction 1
1 Convergence and Divergence: Aspects of Anglo-American
Relations with France in the 1950s 10
France and the 'Exclusive Relationship': The Aftermath of Suez 12
Anglo-American Diplomacy and the 'September Memorandum' 22
Withdrawal of the French Medit~rranean Fleet from NATO 35
British Planning: Thoughts on Europe and America 43
Conclusion 49
2 Idees Fixes: American Insensitivity and French Isolation 56
The Tripartite Option 58
Multilateralism vs Nuclear Sharing 69
Conclusion 85
3 British Uncertainty: The Afterlife of Blue Streak and the
'Grand Design' 92
Blue Streak: Life, Death and Rebirth 93
t
Planning for the Future: The Grand Design 112
Conclusion 123
4 An Old Problem and a 'New Relationship' 129
The New Administration and Acheson's Report on NATO 130
The Washington Meeting, April 1961 142
Kennedy's Visit to Paris, May-June 1961 149
Anglo-American Relations and the French Problem
Rocketry, Tripartism and Anglo-French 'Staff Talks' 158
Conclusion 167
5 Conflict and Compromise: The Origins of the Breakdown
of Anglo-American Relations with France 176
What Price Europe? 177
The Problems of British and French Independent Deterrents 183
The British Enigma and the Prime Minister's Initiative 197
Conclusion 216
6 Denouement: The December Meetings of 1962
and the General's Veto 225
A European Deterrent and Other 'Sweeteners' 228
The Skybolt Crisis 238
The Rambouillet and Nassau Meetings 244
The Aftermath of Nassau: Macmillan's Last Bid to Enter Europe 256
Conclusion 265
Conclusion 274
Bibliography 285
fu&x 3 ill
Vlll
Foreword
As Constantine Pagedas's supervisor for his excellent PhD thesis,
'Troubled Partners: Anglo-American Diplomacy and the French
Problem, 1960-1963', which he researched and wrote while study
ing for his doctorate at King's College, London, during the early
1990s, I was delighted to be invited to write the foreword to this
book, an abridged version of his thesis.
The history of Anglo-French relations over the centuries has been
one of frequent conflicts between the two countries, interspersed
with long periods of mutual suspicion and hostility. Not until the
1904 colonial convention did relations between the two countries
begin to improve - a result, chiefly, of their mutual fears about the
threat from Germany. Only reluctantly and after much heart
searching did Britain inte.rvene in the continental conflict in August
1914, and after the immense blood-letting on the Western Front
down to 1918, Britain emerged from the war determined to avoid
further military entanglement in Europe. After 1919, Britain and
France squabbled over the treatment of Germany and over the
Middle East, although, with the rise of Hitler after 1933, successive
British governments, while painfully aware that France would be
their only great power ally in a renewed continental conflict,
struggled to avoid a clear and unmistakable commitment to defend
that country from a German attack. Not until 1939 did the British,
belatedly realising the true nature of Hitler's designs, reverse their
policy and pledge all-out support to France in the event of war.
With the defeat of France in 1940, Britain, now isolated in
Europe, turned to the United States as the only hope for its survival,
and with the United States' entry into the war in December 1941, the
so-called 'special relationship' between the two countries was forged.
With the Allied victory in 1945, and with Britain struggling
economically, the question once more arose: should Britain commit
