A Study On American Policies Towards De Gaulle’s France (1958-1969)

In 1958, De Gaulle returned to power and established the Fifth Republic of France, which became a major turning point in post-war French foreign policies. De Gaulle began to change the French Fourth Republic’s Atlanticist policies which rely on the United States, to pursue France’s "Independence" and "Great", and to challenge American hegemony in the Atlantic alliance. As two major powers of the Western world, the development of bilateral relations between the United States and France also affect the stability and unity of the Atlantic alliance.This dissertation investigates how the government of United States dealt with De Gaulle’s challenges and maintained the stability of the Atlantic alliance. De Gaulle challenged American hegemony mainly from the following aspects:building the "Europeans’Europe" which was led by French and was separated from American control; opposing the "Multilateral Nuclear Force"; insisting on the independent nuclear power; and withdrawing from NATO’s integrated military organization. De Gaulle’s actions impacted the American’s leadership in the Atlantic alliance and undermined the unity of the Atlantic alliance, but the US administrations took carrot and stick measures to deal with the French challenges and to maintain a stable alliance. The Eisenhower administration rejected De Gaull’s requirements of sharing the leadership of the Atlantic alliance. The Kennedy administration wanted to incorporate the united Europe into the US-led Atlantic Community, and also advocated the development of the "Multilateral Nuclear Force" to achieve the management and control of the Atlantic alliance’s nuclear power. The Johnson administration dealt with the NATO Crisis in 1966 with a restrained, moderate attitude, maintaining the Atlantic alliance’s unity and taking this chance to reconstruct NATO.This paper concludes that United States relatively successfully dealt with De Gaulle’s challenges, the battle between America and France maintained within a certain extent. The reasons were manifold:First, there were great disparities in strength between the two countries, while French goals were beyond its national capabilites. Second, America sought to multilateral cooperation with other allies to deal with De Gaulle’s challenges, in order to weaken the negative influences. Third, French policies of challenging American were leeway, which opposing American hegemony as well as maintaining their alliance relation. Meanwhile, America’s way of dealing with the contradictions and disagreements within the Atlantic alliance is in sharp contrast with that of the contemporary Soviet Union. Different results are caused, which provide us some reference to correctly handle the cooperative relationship with other countries in the future.