Word: bidault
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Most opposed to this was the French view. Georges Bidault argued that thee was no chance of getting the French Assembly to ratify EDC as long as many French leaders see a possibility of a general agreement with Russia, especially an agreement on Germany, which will avoid the necessity of letting Germans rearm as members of EDC. Bidault argued that if the Russians refused the conference, or if the conference broke down, it would be easier to get EDC through the French Assembly...
Somewhat surprisingly, John Foster Dulles agreed more with Bidault and Adenauer than with Salisbury. The Briton continued to argue in favor of what was expected to be the U.S. line, that it is useless and dangerous to enter into talks with the Russians on Europe until a strong Western position has been built around EDC. Finding himself alone, Salisbury reported the situation to the British cabinet, which authorized him to accept the U.S. and French view with one condition: that the French agree to go ahead with EDC regardless of the outcome of the proposed conference...
Formally, Bidault accepted this proposal, but he told the conference that in the unlikely event of the West and Russia agreeing on Germany, EDC would become unnecessary...
...conference adds up thus: Salisbury had the clearest long-range line. Dulles seemed to have few positive ideas of what the conference should do. Bidault had a narrow, short-range view, looking more toward the appeasement of the French neutralists than toward the construction of an anti-Communist Western Europe...
Inevitably, Salisbury and Bidault raised the Big Four question. Salisbury, who disapproves of the idea himself but has to go along with Churchill's view, took a middle way by suggesting that the question be put aside until after the West German elections in September. Bidault urged a Big Four conference soon. His countrymen, he said, would never ratify the European Defense Community until everything else had been tried. There is. of course, no guarantee that the French will ratify EDC even if a Big Four meeting is held and fails to reach agreement, but Bidault, who hopes...