ABSTRACT
Alexis de Tocqueville had foreseen that Russia and the United States would become the most powerful states of the world in the twentieth century. The collapse of Austria-Hungary after the First World War and of Germany after the Second, the reduction of the eastern European countries to the position of satellites of Russia, and the great advances in Russian heavy industry and armed power, created an extraordinary imbalance of armed power in Europe. The United States, which had been forced into the War after more than two years from its onset, and whose territory had remained immune to attack, emerged with greater armed power and economic resources than ever, although precipitate demobilisation speedily reduced the former. The proposals for a “multilateral” or “ multi-national nuclear deterrent “ were by no means designed to produce a truly European means of nuclear defence, or equality between Europe and the U.S.A.
