Britain And West German Rearmament

In the post-war era, as an important event of Western bloc, the West German Rearmament issue tied up with the West European Defense Integration. Thus, the United States and France presented their respective proposals: the 'package' proposal and the European Defense Community project. So the thesis bases on the rearming of West Germany, inspects the role of the British Attlee Government and the Churchill Government in the process of resolving the issue, and the different policies to the American proposal and the French project. Finally the author thinks the Britain 's policy for these proposals maintained the West European Defense Integration policy, which the Attlee Government had determined, stuck to the principle of association-not-membership. Meanwhile, under the influence of the United States, Britain took the initiative to make adjustment and changes for its position to the EDC, made efforts to ease the differences with the United States and West Europe. Ultimately, when the Atlantic Alliance was plunged into crisis by the French parliament had rejected the EDC project on 30 August 1954, Britain put forward the alternative solution in accordance with its own ideas, successfully solved the problem by leading the Western bloc.