Abstract
The meeting of the ministers in Brussels was accompanied by extreme public tension. Would this be the final coup de grâce to Britain’s European ambitions? Or would the Five, with Britain and America in the background, finally isolate the French? And what consequences would this have? Would there be a last minute solution, perhaps on the basis of the German compromise? What could this ‘solution’ be: a withdrawal to take stock of the situation, a suspension, a common preparation for a new round of negotiations? And how would the British and the Americans react to this?
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Notes and References
It is interesting to notice that Spaak does not mention this important incident in his otherwise fairly complete memoirs. Paul–Henri Spaak, The Continuing Battle, Memoirs of a European 1936–1966, (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1971), p. 476.
Particularly colourfully described by Nora Beloff, The General Says No, (London: Penguin, 1963). The scene was also recalled by Juliet d’Avergne Campbell in an interview with the author in October 1992.
Hermann Kusterer in an interview with the author, 7 October 1993. See also Hermann Kusterer, Der Kanzler und Der General (Stuttgart: Neske, 1995), p. 321.
AAA: Ref.200/23, Harkort’s version of the Ministerial Conference in Brussels (28–29 January), February 1963. Published as document no. 60 in Akten zur Auswärtigen Politik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 1963, (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1994). Edited by the Institut für Zeitgeschichte, authorised by the Auswärtiges Amt. Series editors include Schwarz, Morsey, Hildebrand et al. Volume editors include R. Blasius, M. Lindemann, J. Pantsch.
See Paul–Henri Spaak, ‘Hold fast’, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 41, No. 4, (July 1963), pp. 611–20.
Alfred Müller-Armack, Auf dem Weg nach Europa, Erinnerungen und Ausblicke, (Tübingen: Wunderlich, 1971), p. 79. ASD: Bahr papers, vol. 399/3.
Winfried Böttcher, Politische Aspekte des Deutschlandbildes in der überregionalen Presse Grossbritanniens 1960–1966, (PhD, RWTH Aachen, 1970).
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© 2000 Oliver Bange
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Bange, O. (2000). The Breakdown in Brussels — Purely the Fault of the French?. In: The EEC Crisis of 1963. Contemporary History in Context. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230286276_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230286276_16
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