"Winners" and "losers": France, the United States, and the end of the cold war

Diplomatic History

Volumn 33, Issue 5, 2009, Pages 927-956

  Bozo, Frédéric ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 70350721970     PISSN: 01452096     EISSN: 14677709     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7709.2009.00818.x     Document Type: Article

References (136)

1. "Zbigniew Brzezinski au Figaro: L'URSS et la France, les grands vaincus," Le Figaro, July 18, 1990
2. Védrine to Brzezinski, July 31, 1990, 5AG4, box 7010, Archives Nationales (hereafter AN), Paris, France.
3. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Second Choice: Three Presidents and the Crisis of U.S. Superpower (New York, 2007),17-18, 35-36, 23, 53, 58.
4. The "dominant narrative" of the end of the Cold War, at least as it exists in the United States, is perhaps best illustrated by the recent work of the American historian John L. Gaddis; see, in particular, The Cold War: A New History (New York, 2005
5. see also We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History (Oxford, 1997
6. Among the most influential scholarly books on the subject are Philip Zelikow and Condoleezza Rice, Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft (Cambridge, MA, 1995
7. Robert L. Hutchings, American Diplomacy and the End of the Cold War: An Insider's Account of U.S. Policy in Europe, 1989-1992 (Washington, DC, 1997
8. Books by American journalists have also had a considerable impact
9. Elizabeth Pond, Beyond the Wall: Germany's Road to Unification (Washington, DC, 1993
10. Don Oberdorfer, From the Cold War to a New Era: The United States and the Soviet Union 1983-1991 (Baltimore, 1998
11. On this notion, see Beth A. Fischer, "Visions of Ending the Cold War: Triumphalism and U.S. Soviet Policy in the 1980s," paper presented at the international conference "Overcoming the Iron Curtain: Visions of the End of the Cold War in Europe," Paris, June 2008; and Triumph? The Reagan Legacy and U.S. Foreign Policy Today (forthcoming).
12. For a recent attempt at bringing to the fore neglected actors or processes - in this instance, European ones - and thereby to challenge the dominant U.S.-centered narrative of the end of the Cold War and its interpretation in terms of a U.S. "victory,"
13. Frédéric Bozo, Marie-Pierre Rey, N. Piers Ludlow, and Leopoldo Nuti, eds., Europe and the End of the Cold War: A Reappraisal (Oxford, 2008), in particular Michael Cox's essay in that book, "Who Won the Cold War in Europe? A Historiographical Overview." U.S. historians are also becoming more sensitive to the need to revise the exceedingly U.S.-centered narrative; see Mary Elise Sarotte, 1989: The Struggle to Create the Post-Cold War World (Princeton, NJ, forthcoming 2009). (I wish to thank Professor Sarotte for sharing with me some of the findings of her forthcoming book).
14. For an overview of Franco-American relations in past decades, see Frank Costigliola, France and the United States: The Cold Alliance since World War II (New York, 1992
15. Charles G. Cogan, Oldest Allies, Guarded Friends: The United States and France since 1940 (Wesport, CT, 1994
16. Pierre Melandri, "The Troubled Friendship: France and the United States, 1945-1989
17. " in No End to Alliance: The United States and Western Europe, Past, Present and Future, ed. Geir Lundestad (New York, 1998
18. For a study of the early Cold War period reevaluating (very much like the present article for the later period) the significance of the French-U.S. relationship and its impact on the overall evolution of the European and international system,
19. Michael Creswell, A Question of Balance: How France and the United States Created Cold War Europe (Cambridge, MA, 2006
20. For a study of de Gaulle's policies towards the United States and in the wider context of East-West relations
21. Frédéric Bozo, Two Strategies for Europe: De Gaulle, the United States, and the Atlantic Alliance (Lanham, MD, 2001); and "France, 'Gaullism', and the Cold War," in Cambridge History of the Cold War, vol. 2, "Crisis and Détente," ed. Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad (Cambridge, forthcoming).
22. See typically Robert Gates, From the Shadows: The Ultimate Inside Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War (New York, 1996)
23. For a critical discussion of what has been aptly named the "Reagan victory school,"see Beth A. Fischer, "The United States and the Transformation of the Cold War," in The Last Decade of the Cold War: From Conflict Escalation to Conflict Transformation, ed. Olav Njølstad (London, 2004
24. Beth A. Fischer, "U.S. Foreign Policy from Reagan to Bush," in Cambridge History of the Cold War, vol. 3, ed. Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad (Cambridge, forthcoming)
25. James Graham Wilson, "How Grand Was Reagan's Strategy, 1976-1984?," Diplomacy and Statecraft 18 (2007): 773-803
26. Alan P. Dobson, "The Reagan Administration, Economic Warfare, and Starting to Close Down the Cold War," Diplomatic History 29, no. 3 (June 2005): 531-556
27. for a recent and outstanding work by a prominent U.S. Cold War historian who clearly distinguishes himself from the "victory school" and gives considerable credit to the Gorbachev factor in ending the Cold War (though sticking to an essentially U.S.-Soviet narrative pattern, thereby leaving little roomfor specifically European actors or factors)
28. Melvyn P. Leffler, For the Soul of Mankind:The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War (New York, 2007
29. The standard account of the years 1989-1991 may be found in Zelikow and Rice, Germany Unified, and Hutchings, American Diplomacy; for a less U.S.-centered narrative and a more balanced interpretation of the end of the Cold War, see Sarotte, 1989.
30. This generally unfavorable description of France's role at the end of the Cold War is perhaps best encapsulated in the contention, made by one prominent author, that France then tried (no less) to "retard history's course": see Hutchings, American Diplomacy, 17. Another author typically writes that "for four decades the division of Europe had been good to France," thereby explaining why Paris allegedly tried to oppose "the winds of change": see Pond, Beyond the Wall,158. For a critical discussion of this standard narrative, see Frédéric Bozo, "Mitterrand's France, the End of the Cold War, and German Unification: A Reappraisal," Cold War History 7, 4 (November 2007): 455-78
31. for an archive-based account of France's East-West policies in that period, see Frédéric Bozo, "Before the Wall: French Diplomacy and the last Decade of the Cold War, 1979-1989," in The Last Decade, ed. Njølstad; Frédéric Bozo, Mitterrand, la fin de la guerre froide et l'unification allemande. De Yalta à Maastricht (Paris, 2005, forthcoming in English, 2009
32. Teletyped message from Reagan to Mitterrand, January 26, 1983, 5AG4, box 6523, AN.
33. For an analysis of the French stance, see Frédéric Bozo, "La France, fille aînée de l'Alliance? La politique atlantique de François Mitterrand, 1981-1984
34. " in François Mitterrand. Les Années du changement 1981-1984, ed. Serge Berstein, Pierre Milza, and Jean-Louis Bianco (Paris, 2001
35. Fischer, "U.S. Foreign Policy," and Dobson, "The Reagan Administration."
36. Reagan's commencement address at Notre Dame, May 17, 1981, quoted in Fischer, "U.S. Foreign Policy."
37. New Year's address, December 31, 1981, Politique étrangère de la France, November-December 1981, 85
38. The bone of contention was U.S. trade sanctions against the USSR and its satellites and the Euro-Siberian pipeline affair; on this see Frédéric Bozo, "La France, fille aînée de l'Alliance?"; Dobson, "The Reagan Administration."
39. Note by the Quai d'Orsay political director, "Relations Est-Ouest," May 26, 1983, 5AG4, box 4329, AN.
40. Meeting between Mitterrand and Thatcher, London, October 20, 1983, private papers. ("Private papers" refers to a collection of photocopies of archival documents kept informally by former Mitterrand aides and made available to the author. Although this material is often redundant with the "official" series kept in the national archives (AN) and the diplomatic archives (AD), it sometimes provides a useful complement to these series.)
41. Hubert Védrine, Les Mondes de François Mitterrand. A l'Elysée 1981-1995 (Paris, 1996)
42. Védrine's book is an important memoir on the Mitterrand presidency.)
43. Note de Hubert Védrine pour le président de la République, "Perspectives des relations East-Ouest en 1984, après le commencement du déploiement. Rôle de la France," December 1, 1983, 5AG4, box 4066, AN.
44. Minutes of the Reagan-Mitterrand meetings, Washington, March 22-23, 1984, private papers.
45. Meeting between Mitterrand and Kissinger, June 28, 1984, private papers.
46. Douglas Brinkley, ed., The Reagan Diaries (New York, 2007), 250
47. The new approach did not immediately yield tangible results for a variety of reasons, not least the succession of ailing Soviet leaders after Leonid Brejnev's death in 1982, which precluded a major change of atmosphere
48. Fischer, "The United States and the Transformation of the Cold War"; Fischer, "U.S. Foreign Policy."
49. Note de Elisabeth Guigou et Hubert Védrine pour le président de la République, a.s: Visite en France de M. Gorbatchev, October 2, 1985, private papers.
50. Mitterrand to Reagan, October 12, 1985, private papers.
51. See Védrine, Les Mondes, 381
52. Anatoly S. Chernyaev, My Six Years With Gorbachev (University Park, PA, 2000), 76
53. Minutes of Mitterrand's conversation with Gromyko, July 8, 1986, Ministère des affaires étrangères (hereafter MAE), Europe 1986-1990, URSS, box 6676, Archives diplomatiques (hereafter AD), Paris, France.
54. Beth A. Fischer, The Reagan Reversal: Foreign Policy and the End of the Cold War (Columbia MO, 1997
55. On this, see Michael R. Beschloss and Strobe Talbott, At the Highest Levels: The Inside Story of the End of the Cold War (Boston, 1994
56. Védrine, Les Mondes, 482-83
57. George Bush and Brent Scowcroft, A World Transformed (New York, 1999), 130-32
58. Ibid., 78
59. Transcript of the December 2-3, 1989, Malta summit in Cold War International History Project Bulletin 12/13 (Fall/Winter 2001): 229
60. Minutes of the meeting between Mitterrand and Italian Premier Ciriaco De Mita, June 3, 1988, private papers.
61. Minutes of the meeting between Mitterrand and General Vojtech Jaruzelski, June 14, 1989, private papers.
62. Hutchings, American Diplomacy, 54-55
63. Fischer, "U.S. Foreign Policy."
64. Kristina Spohr Readman, "Between Political Rhetoric and Realpolitik Calculations: Western Diplomacy and the Baltic Independence Struggle in the Cold War Endgame," Cold War History 6, no. 1 (2006): 1-42
65. Minutes of the meeting between Mitterrand and Bush, Rambouillet, July 14, 1991, private papers.
66. Minutes of the meeting between Mitterrand and Soviet foreign minister Boris Pankin, October 25, 1991, private papers.
67. Memorandum of Conversation between Bush and Kohl, Rome, November 7, 1991, Bush Presidential Records, WHORM Subject Files, George Bush Presidential Library (hereafter GBPL), College Station, Texas.
68. Minutes of the meeting between Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl, January 4, 1990, private papers; see also Hanns Jürgen Küsters and Daniel Hofmann, eds., Deutsche Einheit. Sonderedition aus den Akten des Bundeskanzleramtes 1989/90 (Munich, 1998), 682-90.
69. The standard account remains Zelikow and Rice, Germany Unified; see also Hutchings, American Diplomacy.
70. See typically Hutchings, American Diplomacy, 90, 93, 96-8, 105-06, 112, 116.
71. Pond, Beyond the Wall, 153
72. Zelikow and Rice, Germany Unified, 365 367
73. For a reappraisal of France's policies based on archival material, see Bozo, Mitterrand; Bozo, "Mitterrand, the End of the Cold War and German Unification."
74. Bush and Scowcroft, A World Transformed, 188. Interestingly, Bush and Scowcroft's recollection appears to be somewhat more modest about the U.S. role and foresight at the time than the standard account.
75. Joint press conference by Mitterrand and Mikhail Gorbachev, July 5, 1989, in Politique étrangère de la France, July-August 1989, 21-23.
76. Mitterrand interview with five European newspapers, July 27, 1989, in Politique étrangère de la France, July-August 1989, 78-82
77. Quoted in Zelikow and Rice, Germany Unified, 81
78. Joint press conference by Mitterrand and Kohl, November 3, 1989, in Politique étrangère de la France, November-December 1989, 4-6
79. Quoted in Tilo Schabert, Wie Weltgeschichte gemacht wird. Frankreich und die deutsche Einheit (Stuttgart, 2002) 393
80. Quoted in Beschloss and Talbott, At the Highest Levels, 135
81. Bush to Kohl, February 9, 1990, in Küsters and Hofmann, eds., Deutsche Einheit, 784
82. Schabert, Wie Weltgeschichte gemacht wird, 11, for a deconstruction of the myth of French opposition to German unification. See also Bozo, "Mitterrand, the end of the Cold War, and German Unification."
83. Summary of the meeting in TD Diplomatie, 25193-25194
84. Europe 1986-1990, RFA, box 6800, AD
85. Bozo, Mitterrand, es129ff; Bozo, "Mitterrand's France."
86. Meeting between Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl, January 4, 1990, in Küsters and Hofmann, Deutsche Einheit, 682-90
87. Meeting between Mitterrand and Thatcher, January 20, 1990, private papers.
88. On this, see Fischer, "The United States"; Fischer, "U.S. Foreign Policy."
89. Memorandum of Conversation between Bush and Kohl, Brussels, December 3, 1989, Bush Presidential Records, WHORM Subject Files, GBPL.
90. Zelikow and Rice, Germany Unified 141
91. Védrine, Les Mondes, 443
92. Washington telegram 1172, December 18, 1989, Europe 1986-1990, Communisme et Eurocommunisme, box 6097, AD.
93. Zelikow and Rice, Germany Unified, 236-37
94. The Economist, January 17, 1990. On French public opinion and German unification, see Marie-Noëlle Brand Crémieux, Les Français face à la réunification allemande (Paris, 2004), 33-49.
95. Brand Crémieux, Les Français, 33ff. See also Note de Marie-Ange Theobald pour Jean-Louis Bianco, Sondages relatifs à la réunification allemande, February 6, 1990, 5AG4, box 7010, AN.
96. Zelikow and Rice, Germany Unified, 211ff. See also the minutes of the Bush-Kohl conversations in Küsters and Hofmann, eds. Deutsche Einheit, 860-77
97. Gespräch des Bundeskanzlers Kohl mit Staatspräsident Mitterrand, Paris, February 15, 1990, in Küsters and Hofmann, Deutsche Einheit, 851; French account, private papers.
98. Quoted in Bozo, Mitterrand, 246. Of course, a first step towards the clarification of Germany's future European orientations had been made at the Strasbourg European Community (EC) summit on December 8-9, when Kohl had given his definitive endorsement of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU); on all this, see Frédéric Bozo, "France, German Uunification, and European Integration," in Europe and the End of the Cold War, ed. Bozo, Rey, Ludlow, and Nuti.
99. Joachim Bitterlich, "Frankreichs (und Europas) Weg nach Maastricht im Jahr der deutschen Einheit," in Werner Rouget, Schwierige Nachbarschaft am Rhein: Frankreich-Deutschland (Bonn, 1998
100. Kohl to Bush, July 19, 1990, Bush Presidential Records, WHORM Subject Files, GBPL. On the foregoing, see in particular Zelikow and Rice, Germany Unified, 149ff.
101. Zelikow and Rice, Germany Unified, 367
102. MAE, European directorate, memorandum by Jacques Blot, Réflexions sur la question allemande, October 30, 1989, Europe 1986-1990, Allemagne, box 6119, AD.
103. Mitterrand's press conference in East Berlin, December 22, 1989, Politique étrangère de la France, November-December 1989 215
104. Memorandum from Védrine to Mitterrand, February 8, 1990, 5AG4, box 7010, AN.
105. Zelikow and Rice, Germany Unified, 237
106. On this, see Bozo, Mitterrand, 212-41
107. On this, see Patrick Salmon, "The U.K. and German Unification," in Bozo, Rey, Ludlow, and Nuti, Europe and the End of the Cold War.
108. This was confirmed to the author by Gorbachev's adviser Anatoly Chernyaev; see also the recollection of Mikhail Gorbachev, Wie es war. Die deutsche Wiedervereinigung (Berlin, 1997) 131ff; on previous controversies on this precise event, see Bozo, "Mitterrand's France."
109. Meeting between Mitterrand and Kohl, April 25, 1990, private papers.
110. On this, see Bozo, "France, German Unification, and European Integration."
111. Quoted in Zelikow and Rice, Germany Unified, 233
112. Bush and Scowcroft, A World Transformed, 230-31
113. NATO Rome Summit 1991, Briefing Book, Meeting with French President Francois Mitterrand, Points to be made [n.d., ca. November 1991], Bush Presidential Records, Barry Lowenkron Files, GBPL.
114. Hutchings, American Diplomacy, 291
115. NATO Rome Summit 1991, Briefing Book, Meeting with French President Francois Mitterrand, Points to Be Made (see fn. 90 above).
116. Quoted in Hutchings, American Diplomacy, 281
117. On this, see Jolyon Howorth, "The EU, NATO and the Origins of CFSP & ESDP: Old Thinking, False Starts and New Imperatives," in Europe and the End of the Cold War, ed. Bozo, Rey, Ludlow, and Nuti.
118. On this, see Vojtech Mastny, "Eastern Europe and the Early Prospects for EC/EU and NATO Membership," in Europe and the End of the Cold War, ed. Bozo, Ludlow, and Nuti.
119. Bush and Scowcroft, A World Transformed, 266
120. Note from Admiral Lanxade for President Mitterrand, April 9, 1990, Sécurité en Europe: position américaine, private papers.
121. Note from Hubert Védrine for President Mitterrand, Que va devenir l'OTAN? March 23, 1990, private papers.
122. Meeting between Mitterrand and Portuguese Prime Minister Cavalco Silva, March 23, 1990, private papers.
123. On all this, see Frédéric Bozo, "The Failure of a Grand Design: Mitterrand'sEuropean Confederation (1989-1991)," Contemporary European History 17, no. 3 (2008): 391-412
124. See Mastny, "Eastern Europe."
125. Kori Schake, "NATO after the Cold War 1991-1995: Institutional Competition and the Collapse of the French Alternative," Contemporary European History 7, no. 3 (1998), 379-407
126. Zelikow and Rice, Germany Unified, 365
127. Kohl to Mitterrand, December 15, 1991, private papers.
128. Mitterrand interview on French TV Channel TF1, December 15, 1991, Politique étrangère de la France, November-December. 1991, 151-58.
129. Note from Hubert Védrine and Admiral Lanxade for the President, March 11, 1991, private papers.
130. Mitterrand meeting with Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitsky, December 3, 1991, private papers.
131. Bush-Mitterrand meeting in Martinique, March 14, 1991, private papers.
132. Bush-Mitterrand meeting in Rome, November 7, 1991, private papers.
133. Bozo, "The Failure."
134. On the foregoing, see Frédéric Bozo, "The Transatlantic Relationship: Continuity or Change? A European Critique," in NATO after Fifty Years, ed. Victor S. Papascosma (Wilmington, DE, 2001
135. These developments are reviewed in Frédéric Bozo, "The U.S. Changing Role and Europe's Transatlantic Dilemmas," in The United States and Europe: Past, Present and Future, ed. Geir Lundestad.
136. See Védrine to Brzezinski, July 31, 1990.