ABSTRACT
Given the "great power and potentiality of the West", if western statesmen were to succeed in their attempt to bring about this wider integration among western nations, then the improved military capability of the alliance would assure long-term peace in Europe and for Britain. However, Bevin stressed that by integration he meant "not so much union, [but] unity of spirit, unity of action and the comradeship between" the western nations.2 Wider integration within the Atlantic alliance appealed to the British foreign policy-making community, because such a development would they hoped end Britain's status as just another recipient of American aid, but might allow for the revival of a special relationship with the United States within the western alliance.3
