ABSTRACT
As usual, the French are a special case: both de Gaulle and Pompidou were against European integration, and neither of them believed in détente in the same sense as American or British leaders. They both feared that the kind of détente sought by Kennedy, Johnson or Nixon would lead either to excessive concessions to the USSR or to an American-Soviet condominium over Europe. As for Europe, they drew an important distinction between Western Europe, which was a reality that had emerged with the Cold War, and Europe as a whole, including, at least potentially, Russia, which remained an historical and cultural heritage they cared for and kept in mind, probably more than other Western leaders at the time. For both of them West European integration was inseparable from Atlantic integration under American leadership – so-called ‘Europeans’ were in their view actually Atlanticists – and as such would antagonize Moscow and prevent any meaningful détente and any eventual overcoming of the Cold War division of Europe.
