ABSTRACT
Why did President de Gaulle publicly break off the Brussels negotiations in January 1963? Even though after fifteen months of negotiation there were still many important issues unresolved, the pattern of the negotiations had become one of accelerating and important concessions by Britain. Yet British ministers who were watching the television newscasts on 14 January 1963 might have been startled to observe the general in a press conference give his opinion at some length to the world that the United Kingdom was not ready to accept the conditions of membership. The event appears to have taken French ministers, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Couve de Murville, by surprise also. Although at first not understood in Whitehall as a final decision by the French government, it was intended to be so. As soon as de Gaulle had spoken, French officials acted as though there was nothing left to discuss and as though the Six must accept France's decision. Not until he had gone from power in 1969 was there any real possibility of British membership.
