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From the Treaty of Versailles to Jean Monnet: Is John Foster Dulles a father of Europe?

Abstract

thirty years old John Foster Dulles participates in the Versailles Treaty and negotiates German repair clauses for the US side. It was at the origin of Article No 231 establishing Germany’s ‘responsibility’ for the outbreak of war. Similarly, it imposes the Commission’s idea of repairs, with the aim of lowering the final invoice for German repairs. This first diplomatic experience launches the reflection of a life devoted to Europe, seeking the best method of stabilising it. In the 1930s, in Wall Street, his friendship for Jean Monnet encouraged Dulles to think about the virtues of federalism, which, when applied to the old continent, could dissolve national sovereignty and abolish their moral rivalries. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Dulles played a leading role in finally lifting the United States out of isolationism and involving it in Europe’s political, moral and military transformation. He converted into internationalism the Republican Chief of the Senate, Arthur Vandenberg, and worked with him on the legal framework that would allow America to become permanently involved in regional alliances (1944-1948). In 1949, Dulles defended the ratification of the North Atlantic Treaty before the Senate, albeit with many reservations. Dulles’ main objective remains the unification of Europe, so that it lives in security and peace, without remaining dependent on the United States. Very curiously, he saw the European Defence Community as a catalyst for European integration. In its spirit, this fully integrated federal army will reverse Franco-German antagonism by merging national land divisions into European Army Corps, under the command of NATO Commander-in-Chief — still a US General. Dulles’ proactive policy does not prevent French people from understanding that the European army would abolish the French army in metropolitan France while allowing the de facto renaissance of an autonomous German army. After the rejection of the CED in August 1954, Dulles realised that his European policy should be more discreet and avoid being seen as too obvious interference by the United States in European affairs. He then clearly distanced himself from Jean Monnet.

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