ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the broad choices open to American foreign policy toward Western Europe in the near future. There was some resentment at American efforts to get the European Economic Community to lower its external tariff at once—one of the few cements of a community initially rather poor in common policies—and at American protests against the Common Agricultural Policy. American policy toward Western Europe underwent several important changes. To be sure, the conviction that there were crucial common interests persisted. American policy toward Europe has changed in tone, pace, and substance, but only partly in significance. The "Year of Europe" speech had called for a joint declaration of intent to transcend petty issues and turn toward new common problems. A positive assumption is that whatever happens in 1976, the broad outlines of American foreign policy will not disappear.
