ABSTRACT
The basic political purpose of French nuclear forces is to ensure French independence. West Germany can be the channel whereby France meshes its national interests with broader Alliance concerns. Many things that would be perceived in France as illegitimate in dealing with the Americans appear to be legitimate in dealing with the Germans. The breadth of the consensus to deploy nuclear weapons is evident, its fragility is less so, but rests in the inability of French policy-makers to confront directly the broader European concerns bound up with the modernization of French nuclear forces. The French are creating another decision-making center in the Western Alliance that can execute nuclear strikes against Soviet military forces in Eastern Europe. Such a French capability clearly will complicate Soviet attempts to control escalation in the European theater. The political impact of French security policy on Soviet interests has been ambiguous.
