U.S. Gloomy & Frustrated

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30044, 31 January 1963, Page 11

U.S. Gloomy & Frustrated

(NX Press Association— CopyrigM) WASHINGTON, January 30.

Washington was gloomy and frustrated today as officii*’s assessed the probable effects of Britain’s failure to gain entrance to the European Common Market.

The “New York Times” news service said two distinct lines of thought were evident in the American capital.

One attitude, which the United States Administration described freely to reporters, was that President de Gaulle’s veto of British membership had merely postponed the inevitable, that history wns on the side of ■ allied unity and that the United States Government intended to press ahead with policies to promote such unity. But there were discernible alao an attitude of great disappointment and frustration and a foreboding of serious trouble for the Western alliance, the news service said Privately, officiate wondered about General de Gaulle's “real” objectives and suspected a French drive to reduce American influence

in Europe. They feared open economic and political competition within *e alliance and acknowledge some suspicions of secret French-German agreements and of eventual independent French diplomatic approaches to the Soviet Union. In Congress, reactions were bitter and sad. Legislators condemned General de Gaullle’s position and urged

the Administration to find w#y> of isolating him within the alliance. At the White House and State Department, however, officials saw little opportunity at this stage tor United States action that could overturn the French decision. Instead they cautioned against hasty conclusions and chose to await the judgments of Britain and of France's five Common Market partners.

The United States Administration continued to remind the alliance of the Communist danger and argued, as President Kennedy did last week, that Western unity was the only reliable defence. Hardly anyone in Washington, however, expects the Russians to help Ute cause of Allied cohesion, as so often in the past, with a new menacing move in Europe. On the contrary, officials believe that Western discord will be dramatised by the relative East-West calm resulting from the Soviet Union’s preoccupation with its own domestic and Communist Bloc difficulties.

When questioned on what the United States intended to do now, officiate listed the following:

Await the reaction of Britain, West Germany. Italy. Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg and see whether they wish help in restricting further French moves.

Stress the tact that Western Europe cannot defend itself alone again* Communist power and thus undermine French arguments that Europe must not or cannot rely upon American defence commitments.

Organise as rapidly as possible an allied multilateral nuclear force to prove, especially to West Germany, that the rose to greeter diplomatic and military influence runs through Washington and not Paris. Press the Common Market nations for reductions in their common external tariffs to prevent the splintering of the alliance into competing trade blocs.