The Legacy: France, NATO and the Alliance, 1949–81

Abstract

It is difficult to overemphasise the importance of French relations with NATO before 1981 in shaping and conditioning French policy thereafter. The policies of de Gaulle in particular served as a point of reference for his successors. This chapter seeks to tease out the main strands of the Alliance policy which was to be inherited by Francois Mitterrand. It is divided into three sections. The first seeks to clarify the nature of French relations with NATO from the signing of the Washington Treaty in 1949 to the election of Francois Mitterrand in May 1981. French Alliance policy, however, was not conceived of in isolation from other aspects of French external policy, but rather formed part of a broader whole. Section Two of the chapter, therefore, investigates three elements of French foreign policy that helped shape and were in turn shaped by NATO policy. These were: the pursuit of national independence; French defence policy and, finally, initiatives aimed at promoting the creation of European security structures either to rival or to complement NATO. The final section critically examines French NATO policy during this period, investigating the success or otherwise of France in achieving its stated objectives. The Chapter outlines a policy increasingly locked into a series of contradictions and ambiguities, though one which, for much of the period before 1981, provided considerable benefits for France.