Word: mends
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Mendès himself has never expressed any strong opinion either for or against EDC. Recently he joked to a friend: "When I listen to its adversaries, I am rather for it. When I listen to its friends, I am rather against it." To his own divided Cabinet (15 against, 13 for) he said: "To partisans of EDC, I say that if you insist on the treaty as it stands, it will be defeated. To enemies of EDC, I say that if you insist on defeating the treaty you endanger France's alliances. Please study my plan in that...
...French Assembly falls roughly into two groups: 1) opponents of West German rearmament in any form (this includes the Communists); 2) Frenchmen who accept the need for German arms but dislike the treaty's constraints on French sovereignty (in order to put similar supranational restraints on Germany). Mendès hoped to win enough Assembly votes from this second group by adding these key revisions or "protocols...
After a bitter fight Mendès won Cabinet approval of his plan, but the fight cost him the resignations of three of his six Gaullist ministers...
...same white-striped blue tie for several days on end. This week, however, the tired man goes to Brussels, where he will try to persuade the five other EDC signatories* to accept his modifications. Brussels may well be the highest hurdle. For the other signatories are well aware that Mendès' protocols all but transform EDC from a supranational community (an idea with great appeal to Pan-Europeans) into an old-fashioned military coalition, with discriminations against West Germany...
Seductive but Fragile. In sum, Mendès' plan was a complicated and subtle maneuver, offering to all parties concerned (including the U.S.) half a loaf as preferable to no bread. He was in fact keeping his promise to the U.S. to bring the matter to a vote before the summer is over; but there was an important qualification to his deadline. He was promising only an Assembly decision next week; the Senate would not get to the debate until the summer recess ends in October or November-and during this additional period, Mendès reassured the left...