‘Sole Master of the Western Nuclear Strength'? The United States, Western Europe and the Elusiveness of a European Defence Identity, 1959–64

When Chancellor Adenauer told Special Assistant for National Security Affairs McGeorge Bundy in October 1962 that the French and the British were quarrelling about leadership in Europe, Bundy remarked that for the next 15 years only one country would lead Europe, the United States of America. ¹ This statement epitomizes the inseparable connection between the European quest for a European Defence Identity (EDI) and the search for a postwar European order. This chapter analyses the different national conceptions for the politico-military reconstruction of Europe and focuses on the clash between emancipation and control—the two concepts at the base of postwar European security architecture.