ABSTRACT
Americans in particular had been enthusiastic about European unity in the 1950s and 1960s—often more so than many Europeans—because they had a vision of a United States of Western Europe, symbolized by the name of Jean Mon net. The task undertaken by the Commission of the European Community is both gigantic and intensely technical. The ultimate beneficiaries of all the measures are likely to be both the producers and the consumers. The abrupt American decision to scuttle the postwar system of fixed exchange rates and to replace it with floating rates had worried the Europeans, who were afraid of the effects of monetary instability on their trade and balance of payments. The first European experiment was a reaction to what academics sometimes call "high politics"— considerations of national security and power. The issues that excite Americans most are those of the external economic orientation of the enterprise.
