Word: westernism
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Under the Fifth Republic, French foreign policy--except in the colonial field--has been more concerned with form than with content. Charlemagne, having decided that loose talk of France as a second-rate power had gone far enough, served notice that henceforth France would be heard from in Western councils. France has been heard from, sure enough, but it has had distressingly little...
...France is a second-rate power--militarily, strategically, and economically--and most of the politicians of the Fourth Republic were ready to admit it, if only in unguarded moments. The French remain part of the "Big" four only through archaic convention, and through the conviction of some Western leaders that being on the right side in World War II is more important than physical power in computing diplomatic "size...
...France's Western allies have been puzzled by these antics also and by de Gaulle's slow-down tactics on the summit conference. The French nuclear test in the Sahara is going to be embarrassing at a time when serious consideration is being given to disarmament. The moving of air bases from France to West Germany was strategically inconvenient...
...other Western powers--particularly the British--are quite sincerely committed to the prospect of an early summit conference. The British tabloid press has reacted to de Gaulle's actions with a vitriolic fury that prompted the French weekly L'Express (not exactly part of the regime's cheering section) to point out that Anglo-French amity is far from traditional and that perhaps the two nations really are natural enemies...
...tact and tolerance that it would not have shown in the days of Dulles' "agonizing reappraisal." How long this restraint will last is difficult to say. De Gaulle can be allowed to have his way on the dates and places of conferences; but if grandeur starts interfering with serious Western policy, obviously the United States must, however reluctantly, put the French in their place...