Study On American Policy To The CSCE(1954-1975)

It is generally acknowledged in academic circle that the origin of the CSCE was the proposal of European collective security that was offered by Soviet delegate in the four foreign ministers' meeting of 1954. After that, Soviet put forward the proposal of European Security Conference for more times until it was agreed by the West. After a long and boring negotiation and preparation,35 nations from the West and the East and the neutral countries signed the Final Act of the CSCE in Helsinki on August 1,1975. The Detente reached the peak at that time. America formed its own policy to the CSCE during the period of the origin of the CSCE and acted its special role and impact.In the four foreign ministers' meeting of 1954, Eisenhower's administration declined the proposal of the European Security Conference which was firstly by the Soviet for it demanded that America withdrew all troops in Europe and dismissed the European Defence Community and the NATO and turned the Europe to The European's Europe that against the American policy of Rearmament of West Germany and strengthening the West. In 1955, the Soviet put forward the proposal of the European Security Conference again in the Summit of Geneva for preventing the establishing of the European Defence Community. America proposed the claim that finishing the reunification of Germany firstly and then signed the European Security Treaty as the reply. This claim became the rule to the CSCE of the West.With the Detente developing in the 1960's, the Soviet put forward the proposal of the CSCE again. More and more West European countries became to welcome the Soviet's proposal. The NATO announced the Hamel report for the detente with the support of America which wanted to strengthen the unity between the America and the Europe and to improve the detente in Europe. And then, the NATO proposed the Mutual and Balance Force Reduction as the reply to the Soviet in the Reykjavik communique of 1968. For getting over the passive situation of the diplomacy after the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1969, the Soviet put forward the CSCE proposal again and didn't against America attendance in the CSCE. The passion for the CSCE was increasing among the West countries.America agreed to hold the CSCE with preconditions to control the pace of detente for it worry being isolated and disadvantage the West unity. So American put forward a series of document such as NSSM38?NSSM138. NSDM162 and formed its own policy to the CSCE. America combined the CSCE with other negotiations by the linkage rule in its policy and set out two preconditions of the CSCE such as the quartet of Berlin and the MBFR. America demanded that holding the CSCE must have the results of these two negotiations. Following by the success in the quartet of Berlin and getting the consensus of the MBFR between America and Soviet, the CSCE began in the Helsinki in November 1972.America's standpoint in the MPT of the CSCE was that following the standpoint of the West allies and not talking with the Soviet to discuss the CSCE openly and keeping the aloof attitude for preventing from involving in the debate.America kept the indifference in the second negotiation phase in Geneva for supporting its allies and encouraging them to explore the discussion topics which could help the West and ensured the limited damage in the negotiation. In the last phase of negotiation, For the reason of getting more benefits from other fields by Soviet's concession, American government involved in negotiations actively and impress on all parties for ending up the conference and holding the SummitAfter having formed the Final Act in Helsinki, there were more criticisms in America which thought there were too more benefits for the Soviet and few for America in the Final Act to sign the document. More stress on Ford administration by these criticisms let Ford hesitated whether to go to Helsinki for signing the Final Act. For Keeping the unity of the West and the demand of detente, Ford went to Helsinki at the end. But the Ford administration faced more misunderstandings and criticisms and even getting the failure in the president election because of the decline of the detente.In general, there were three characteristics in the policy to the CSCE during the Nixon and Ford period, the first was that the CSCE was the important tool by using the linkage rule to detente with Soviet. In despite of less interests in the CSCE, America regarded it as one of the forms that using the linkage rule and it became the practical edge tool in the negotiation with Soviet because the Soviet like it more. The second was that the American policy to the CSCE was a reduction of the complex relations between America and the Europe for holding the CSCE couldn't without any help of America, the CSCE was one of main reasons of the divergence between America and the Europe and keeping the unity relations between America and the Europe was the guarantee of the success of the CSCE.The Third was that Kissinger's idea and style gave more impacts on American policy to the CSCE.From the whole process of American policy to the CSCE, American Government always held the traditional security concept which based on the force from Eisenhower to Ford. With this concept, the main part of American European policy was building the force to against Soviet and the Soviet's CSCE proposal was regarded as a strategy of defeating America, so America declined soviet's CSCE proposal. Moreover, American attitude to the CSCE seem aloof in this period that was satisfied the demand of the whole American strategy for detente in fact. In face of the Soviet's detente and the European passion to the CSCE, the policy of America was not satisfied with Soviet,but held the CSCE in the whole strategy of American containment policy and got more benefits by using linkage rule and having the optional detente.